Plumber messed up by fitting wrong Boiler (wrong size Gas supply pipe). Advice?

LUHG1878

I agree with the last two posts, £1000 for a 'top of the line' boiler including install is way too cheap!

We had our new boiler fitted two years ago, we went for a Baxi Platinum with 10 year warranty, the boiler alone was £1100 or £1200 cost price.

I think we ended up paying £2300 for the boiler plus install, which included having our gas supply pipe upgraded. (>10m run of pipe). Our's was easy because there is good access to the crawl space underneath the house.

Is that an option for you? If there's good access to your crawl space then this needn't be a costly, unsightly, or time consuming fix.

I would simply call the plumber and explain to him what you'd like done, and set him a date by which it must be remedied.

If he doesn't do it by then i'd just tell him i'm getting someone else to install a new boiler, that you'll be keeping the £1000 you owe in lieu of a refund for this job, and that his Potterton boiler can be collected once your new contractor un-installs it to fit the new one.

fezster

The gas inlet on the boiler is probably 15mm (they are on my vaillant 438, which is a 38KW boiler). This means that the pipe will have to reduce to 15mm, but preferably less than 0.5m out from the boiler. You really need to get your gas guy to do some calcs to see what size supply pipe you need, how much of it needs to be 28mm, 22mm and finally 15mm. You may find you can get away with a slightly longer run of 15mm, which may or may not help you with your predicament.

The other option is to range rate the boiler down (eg. 30KW), which may again help you. However, it's pointless installing such a large boiler in the first place then, and you'll almost certainly find your HW performance will suffer. Around 20 - 24KW is usually enough for *heating* for a 3 bedroom terraced, its the HW requirement which necessitates the larger boiler when using a combi.

Aubrey_Thicket

Just thought I would come back and close this thread and thank everybody who contributed...


So, I withheld the £1,000 I owed the Gas Man and got him back to my House. He fitted a new large gas pipe (28mm) around the side of my house (which I wasn't happy with but I guess I had no choice). Once the pipe was installed he left and the next day...Loud banging from the Boiler. So, we rang Potterton/Baxi and yesterday they came out and inspected the new pipe and said "The fitter has just about snook in with this pipe. It's just at the minimum (28mm) and the boiler will work now after I have altered the gas flow valve inside the Boiler". He tinkered inside the boiler and then left. I am happy to say that the issue has now been resolved and the Boiler is as quiet as a new boiler should be.


Thank you to everybody who gave advice/tips.