British Gas PowerFlush Required or a Con?

manorpurl

Hi, There has been a problem with our heating system. We have had 3 boilers downstairs in our kitchen/family room that were not getting hot. We have had British Gas to come in to have a look at the problem as we have a homecare 400 with them. The engineer turned off the other radiators in the house and the radiators started heating up again and then once you turn the other radiators up again, the 3 radiators start cooling again.

The British Gas guy recommended to get a powerflush which would cost around 800 pounds. That is a lot of money for me. Then i looked around the internet for possible solutions and most of the people say the system needs rebalancing and thats what my mrs. told me as well. The BG guy is adamant and says that it requires powerflushing otherwise the problem could get worse. I do not understand if there was a sludge in the system, why turning off other radiators will warm the 3 radiators. Clearly if there was a block it should be consistent.

I am dying for people to advise me on this. Should i take BG's bait or should i get local corgi plumber to look at this issue?

Many Thanks

espresso

manorpurl wrote: »

I am dying for people to advise me on this. Should i take BG's bait or should i get local corgi plumber to look at this issue?

Many Thanks

At the very least get a second opinion from a competent local engineer. This HomeCare 400 always amuses me:

Our most comprehensive level of care, HomeCare 400 offers worry-free maintenance and repair for virtually every household system you rely on - prices from £26 a month*. So if anything should go wrong – from a leaking radiator to a broken fuse box – it will be promptly handled by our expert engineers.

* Prices available to new customers for the first year.

and they expect you to pay £800 for a flush, which may be completely unnecessary! How much commission does he get for selling you this power flush?

:rotfl:

mute_posting

espresso wrote: »

At the very least get a second opinion from a competent local engineer. This HomeCare 400 always amuses me:

and they expect you to pay £800 for a flush, which may be completely unnecessary! How much commission does he get for selling you this power flush?

:rotfl:

Totally agree - IMHO these kind of policies that everyone seems to be flogging are over-priced carp!

I bet they have targets for how many wonderflushes (or whatever they are) they should sell per week whilst not doing the work they are being paid to do.

...stewards

That said, I'm not saying that the system isn't sludged up - but I doubt a local plumber will charge £800 to flush it and refill with any inhibitors required.

MP

EDIT: on another thread a poster says her husband is a boiler engineer and his charges were about £300 for a flush and service on a 7 radiator system - which confirmed my suspicion, £800 is probably double the going rate.

earthmother

Be careful with the powerflushes - I don't know whether it's needed or not, but BG are very expensive for any work like this, and also, if your system is old or has any weaknesses, they are known to affect them.

I worked for BG for a while about 8 years ago, despatching engineers to callouts such as the OPs, and there were regularly callbacks to customers who had had powerflushes done who now had leaks and other problems in the system - it was a known side effect, and, depending on where the problems manifested, could take some time to fix.

Your best bet would be, as advised, to get a second opinion before agreeing to anything.

Canucklehead

mute_posting wrote: »

Totally agree - IMHO these kind of policies that everyone seems to be flogging are over-priced carp!

I bet they have targets for how many wonderflushes (or whatever they are) they should sell per week whilst not doing the work they are being paid to do.

...stewards

That said, I'm not saying that the system isn't sludged up - but I doubt a local plumber will charge £800 to flush it and refill with any inhibitors required.

MP

EDIT: on another thread a poster says her husband is a boiler engineer and his charges were about £300 for a flush and service on a 7 radiator system - which confirmed my suspicion, £800 is probably double the going rate.

Good evening: That woman would be me;) http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=851809
To find a plumbing and heating engineer visit www.iphe.org.uk or www.trustcorgi.com

HTH

Canucklehead

jackieb

BG also recommended a powerflush for my system. I was surprised it wasn't included in the Homecare, or at the very least get a discount. I've also had a couple of letters in from BG recommending that I change my boiler. I get it serviced every year and it works fine. It is 13 years old though, and it's a Baxi back boiler (was here when I moved in). In the letter it says that back boilers cause more carbon monoxide deaths, and as it needs an airbrick, you need to turn the heating up higher to compensate. I really don't want to replace my boiler right now. I wouldn't have chosen a back boiler but that was here when I moved in. And as I said, it's serviced every year. I only got BG to do this in February, and got my second letter last week, yet they passed everything as satisfactory less than 2 months ago!

Are they trying it on. I mean I know a combi boiler would be more efficient, and I do have a carbon monoxide alarm, but they're scaring me.

deanos

Get a 2nd opinion, although i do know you do need air circulating in the room, my mum and dad have a back boiler and they have a vent in the window to allow permanent air flow in the living room

jackieb

deanos wrote: »

Get a 2nd opinion, although i do know you do need air circulating in the room, my mum and dad have a back boiler and they have a vent in the window to allow permanent air flow in the living room

I do have the vent in the wall, under the window. BG even put a bigger one in 2-3 years ago because of new legislations.

deanos

Ah right i think i misread your post, i would get a 2nd opinion just in case as BG just seem to want peoples cash, if you get it serviced regually and have a carbon monioxide detector then im sure there is no need to worry

withabix

BG just want your cash.

Bunch of conmen as a company and their service 'engineers' are just as bad.

Any price BG or their 'engineers' give you will be at least double the going rate.

snowcake

Hi, I recently took BG's landlord care service which covers central heating.(I'm in overseas.)
First inspection was done, gas cert was issued but there were 2 issues. One was replacing diverter valve and the other was airlock. After a couple of calls between customer service and admin department, powerflush was recommended. BG said I can either use them(their cost £800) or any other plumber. Replacing valve cost roughly £144 from BG so I opted for just valve but now they're saying after replacing valve, they will test water and find out if I really need powerflush or not. Has anyone had water test done by BG? Is this test reliable? My boiler is +10 years old and bleeding radiator before winter seemed to work so far...