Warm Front - Lets Make Them Accountable

Paul_Varjak

palman wrote: »

well i am well aware of the cold water in pipes you have to wait for it to go, but both my sinks ( kitchen and bathroom are both about 4ft away from boiler) plus when it gets hot it then goes cold before staying hot. I am also aware of the preheat option, sorta works until the chamber is empty

i was so used to instant hot water before from a cylinder

I was referring to the ability of some boilers (that don't store pre-heated water) to actually heat the water on demand but only release any water to the tap once the water is heated. It means a few seconds delay before any water comes out of the tap at all.

TonyC123_2

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

That is the exact make of boiler that Warmfront fitted in my home.

Hey, I want one of those, wanna swap?.

TonyC123_2

Seriously though warm front is an absolute disgrace. At the end of the day all we actually want is a boiler which actually works, i.e. it heats the home and provides the hot water for years to come.

A boiler is nothing more than a machine installed to do precisely that. No boiler no matter how well it's made will last for ever. It has a finite life span. However even the best boiler will brake down at some stage. The object of the exercise is to spend the least amount of money over the longest possible time period on both Maintenance and repairs.

The problem with warm front is that the grant is only £3500 and all the work has to be done for less than that. Their policy is "as cheaply as possible", and if that means the worst boiler on the market and pipe work on the walls then so be it. After all, no one from the Government, warm front or the installers has to live in your house once the work has been done.

The Government is only interested in Statistics, all they have to is claim that so many thousands have been installed and that's it. They are simply not interested as to whether the work was ok or if there were loads of complaints.

If your unlucky enough to have a warm boiler boiler fire up when your in ear shot of it it's like having a picnic on the landing approach to Heathrow, well ok that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I would seriously suggest having a good set of ear defends at hand, you will certainly need them.

The bottom line is if you can afford to have your work done privately then do so as you will avoid all the hassle.

I won't say who my installers actually were but they nicked some fuses from plugs and food from the fridge. So much for approved and vetted.

Paul_Varjak

Warmfront (just like any other Gas Boiler installer) can only fit condensing boilers. read below about the problem with such boilers...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/27/condensing-boilers-freeze-uk

screamer

Just a little update. Last week after calling them for the 5th time, and being on hold for 25 minutes, someone hung up on me before I even asked my question. I got as far as "I called recently...." before I heard the familiar "I've put the phone down on you" beeps. I called them back to be told I have now got an installer and I should already have heard from them by now. Obviously, I hadn't, so asked who my installer was only to be told again that I should know who it is by now. Apparently I was allocated an installer towards the end of February, the day after I emailed saying "What's taking you so long?" So, Fenhams are my installers but they cannot tell me even approximately when I'll be getting it done. If they said 6 months then that's fine, at least I know but I haven't even got that out of them. My life is currently on hold until they sort it. We need a new bathroom because the shower doesn't work and I can't have a bath when in the house alone but we can't sort that until we've got a decent boiler, one that will actually heat the water upstairs. We have to rip out the entire bathroom because the pipes to the shower are behind 2 layers of tiles, and the bathroom has been fitted on the tiles (ie, shower fitted, the whole room floor to ceiling has been tiled twice, and then the bathroom fitted over the tiles.)

I'll be here to update when it's done. I'll be in the house when they install it. I'll be watching their every move and if they leave a mess, I'll be directing them to their home page which states that the installers will make good any mess or damage and take away anything they take out. If I get any less than this I will be causing trouble.

hartcjhart

TonyC123 wrote: »

Seriously though warm front is an absolute disgrace. At the end of the day all we actually want is a boiler which actually works, i.e. it heats the home and provides the hot water for years to come.

A boiler is nothing more than a machine installed to do precisely that. No boiler no matter how well it's made will last for ever. It has a finite life span. However even the best boiler will brake down at some stage. The object of the exercise is to spend the least amount of money over the longest possible time period on both Maintenance and repairs.

The problem with warm front is that the grant is only £3500 and all the work has to be done for less than that. Their policy is "as cheaply as possible", and if that means the worst boiler on the market and pipe work on the walls then so be it. After all, no one from the Government, warm front or the installers has to live in your house once the work has been done.

The Government is only interested in Statistics, all they have to is claim that so many thousands have been installed and that's it. They are simply not interested as to whether the work was ok or if there were loads of complaints.

If your unlucky enough to have a warm boiler boiler fire up when your in ear shot of it it's like having a picnic on the landing approach to Heathrow, well ok that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I would seriously suggest having a good set of ear defends at hand, you will certainly need them.

The bottom line is if you can afford to have your work done privately then do so as you will avoid all the hassle.

I won't say who my installers actually were but they nicked some fuses from plugs and food from the fridge. So much for approved and vetted.

which are 'boxed' in so not a real problem


I can honestly say that when my fathers boilr 'fires' up there is hardly any noise and yes it is the combi24


I thought the whole idea with warmfront was that it was for people that could not afford private

hartcjhart

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

Warmfront (just like any other Gas Boiler installer) can only fit condensing boilers. read below about the problem with such boilers...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/27/condensing-boilers-freeze-uk

Interesting article, luckily again it seems,the pipe on my fathers is the larger size:T

TonyC123_2

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

Warmfront (just like any other Gas Boiler installer) can only fit condensing boilers. read below about the problem with such boilers...



So it's very interesting that this problem is well known about, the simple solution is just to lag the pipe, Should cost less than a fiver from your local DIY store. I know because I use it for all sorts of things. Why Warm front can't include this pipe lagging in the grant is anyone's guess. Penny pinching no doubt. It's also interesting that there's no mention of this in the boilers install/user manual.

I give up!.

purplegirluk1

I have the boiler you are all talking about and it is not noisy when firing up at all.

I too had a lot of hassle with eaga heat over the installation but it's been in for a year now and works well.

They did leave a huge amount of mess though, broken skirting tiles, very messy hole in the back of a cupboard, ruined some cornicing and patched up very messily. All pipes are exposed and they failed to box in some pipes in the bathroom.

Overall, I am happy that I no longer have to suffer the high bills and low heat of my old electric heaters but I am disappointed with the workmanship. I live in a rented property and if I am honest I would not be happy with it if it had been in a property that I owned. As it stands, my landlord is happy to have the system installed for free (and he's a bit of a bodger too so he probably thinks it looks great!)

JarQa

Catlover123 wrote: »

No, Lin, it is not a matter of luck albeit I would like to think it is.

I have clearly set out that Eagaheat are pocketing, or intending to pocket, £3,500 for providing work equivalent to not more than £500. Is that luck or fraud. Maybe in your parents' case, they have to do a few decent jobs to cover up their fraud.

.

Dont be so stupid woman, the boiler, dodgy or not, cost over 600 pound, and the wages for the engineers another 800 easily, so thats half of what theyve supposedly fraudulently swallowed gone, before you factor in the rest of the materials, diesel, insurance etc.