boiler fault - incorrect installation

teeandrew

Bought house in 2005 from Barratt, catalogue of issues as you get with mass builds. Anyway, boiler has just gone, home emergency insurance in place so no worries.

Plumber discovers a 13amp fuse and insurance company have said we are not covered due to incorrect installation. Checked with neighbours they all also have 13amp fuses. Barratt are now saying that yes the boilers come with 13amp fuses and the engineer/plumber who services the boiler within the first year change it to a correct 3amp fuses. Sounds fishy to me.

I am now in the position of getting the repair done to the pcb out if my own pocket because of Barratts error.

Any suggestions/advice? Thanks!

C_Mababejive

IMHO the size of the cartridge fuse is almost an irrelevance since cartridge devices such as these have long been superceded by mcbs as fitted in your electric supply distribution board/consumer unit which provide a higher level of protection than the crude fuse and reacts for more quickly.

This just sounds like a good excuse for a cop out by the insurance company.

windup

ask them to explain to you their understanding of the fuses purpose, and how the size of fuse had any bearing on the pcb issue.

teeandrew

They have said that incorrect installation is a clause on the policy, the manual states a 3amp to be used.

heretohelp

The boiler wont have come with a 13amp fuse the boiler gets wired into a switched fused spur which would have come with a 13 amp fuse installed in it.
The plumber who installed it should have swapped it for a 3amp fuse.
Also check the fans in the kitchen and bathroom to see if they run of a fuse spur these also are supposed to run of a 3/5 amp fuse but have probably never been changed.

thescouselander

What exaclty is the nature of the fault? If the fault is unrelated to the fact the fuse is rated too high then the company has no grounds to decline the claim.

teeandrew

The first issue was wiring harness, then once they replaced that the pcb blew (?) then they checked the fuse and saw it was a 13amp fuse and it became a no claim.

SGM1

Wild guess but is it an Isar/Icos boiler? The PCB would be faulty regardless of having a 3amp fuse or not. Should also have been replaced by installer/service engineer.

Seronera

Whilst I think the insurance people are behaving very badly.... The simple fact is they are correct. One of the first things a gas engineer is supposed to check is that the fuse on the boiler spur is 3 amp as a13 amp can allow excessive current into delicate components in the event of a fault, and it can create conditions that are lethal for anybody touching the machine.

If the boiler has been regularly maintained the 13amp fuse should have been spotted and changed. In my previous employment if your work was inspected and a 13 amp fuse found you got a serious bollocking, so it is a serious matter as heating engineers are electrocuted every year because of such errors.

All the same I think the insurance company running away from the problem is pretty poor and underlines the weakness of all these policies compared with building a relationship with a decent local engineer who will either sort it out or give you proper advice.

If you don't know a local engineer then you may be able to get a fixed price repair from the boiler manufacturer. It will not be cheap, but they will fix everything and guarantee the work for a year.

It is very doubtful that this caused the PCB to fail however as this is a common occurrence due to cheap electronics in boilers...... Though they make you and me pay through the nose. That is another reason I think the insurance has misused a get out clause if the boiler has worked properly up to now.