Is my boiler safe to use?

[swampygirl]

My Baxi Solo, powered flue gas boiler is around 15 years old (the same age as the house)

I took over tenancy in May 2009.

The annual service was due November 2008 and the previous tenant moved out in February 2009. But although my landlord said he was on to it, wasn't actually serviced until June 2009 so I didn't use the boiler until then which was an inconvenience.

The service again was due June 2010 but wasn't serviced until 11th December 2010. It is now December 12th 2011 and is now again overdue. It's not up to me to remind my landlord and I fear it won't be serviced until after christmas, and, once I've reminded him again.

I've felt the boiler isn't up to speed and needs replacing with an efficient one and have told my landlord this.

Although he arranges for the annual services with the same corgi registered company and I receive a pink copy of the UK gas safety certificate, I don't trust my landlord. He is an electrician and has many contacts in the building world.

So, back to my boiler.... when I switch on the boiler at the control box, it can take anything up to 7 minutes to become active. And although the usual wirring sounds can be heard and the flame ignites, eventually, it doesn't always, and the only way of knowing is the smell of gas so I switch off again and wait an few minutes before starting the process again. Sometimes the boiler will spring into life at the next attempt or it can take 3-4 attempts. The flame can go out at any time and again not know until I smell gas. Therefore I can't set the boiler to come on at certain times in case the flame fails to ignite.

Also if I use the boiler for heating the water and central heating together, the flame, although blue looks weak and is half the height of the flame when used seperately which is also blue and about an inch tall. It takes up to an hour for the radiators to become warm. I'm sure I'm wasting a lot of money using this antiquated boiler.

Is there a standard size diameter of copper piping that circulates the water round the central heating system? Mine is about 8mm yet at my previous homes it's been around 15mm.

oh, one last thing..... When my boiler failed to work last year, I got my landlord to sort it out. When the engineer had left, my landlord said to me, if I don't keep my pre-payment gas meter topped up and the gas runs out, this will cause the bolier to malfunction and I will be charged for the call out next time. I'm sure that's a load of garbage so I spoke to a gas engineer out of curiosity and he confirmed that it is not the case and he's just trying to pass the call out and repair fee onto me.

I'd be grateful for any of you corgi registered qualified gas peeps would get back to me.

Thanks a lot.

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Hi, this is mainly a electrical forum with a few plumbers on-board. Corgi was abolished a few years ago and 'Gas safe' is the current organisation that oversees things. Something is not correct that if the flame was to go out for any reason the gas will shut off. It is a legal requirement for a landlord to have a yearly check done on gas appliances & it would be unusual for an bonafide engineer to issue a dodgy report

 

[Andy™]

not many gas safe people on here, but ill answer most of above:

landlord has a legal requirement to get the boiler serviced. the person servicing the boiler will probably do the service properly, if he doesnt and there is a problem, he dcan be reported to HSE iirc.

the boiler should shut down if flame failure. there is a device inside that should tell the boiler if the flame is lit or not

no standard size for heating pipes. main pipes from boiler are usually 22, but that can be reduced to 15 pretty much straight away. some houses are fully 15mm, others have 15 or 22 going to a manifold with 8 or 10 to the rads

you cannot have heating & hot water at the same time. as soon as there is demand for hot water, the heating is stopped. the flame will be higher for hot water because its got a much larger volume to heat up. once its back to heating, the amount of gas is reduced

there is no law to say the landlord must replace the boiler if the existing is working

if your still worried, you could arrange for your own gas safe engineer to check the boiler

if the gas meter runs out and switches the gas off, the boiler will fail to start. on some boilers, this may cause it to stop and need to be re-set. this would usually be a case of pressing a re-set buttong on boiler or switching it off and back on. but its unlikely to break anything or cause other problems

 

[Technician]

Not a gas engineer but a colleague has lent me a document.

From the HSE, Gas Safety and use Regs 1998.

Addresses landlords in particular and their duties.

SHALL;

" be checked within 12 months of first instalment date...."

" and at intervals of 12 months thereafter..."

" be checked prior to a lease coming into force..."

" copy of record of examination and test to be issued to

tenant within 28 days of the check..."

HTH.

Slipshod...did Corgi just lose the right to regulate the industry?

Thought they were still around, but not throwing their weight about.

 

[a1]

Swampygirl: Welcome to the forum - It's good to have you on-board.

Technician: I do believe Corgi were outbid by Gas Safe on the Tender, mate.

Could be wrong and I am sure that I will be corrected if that is the case.

 

[Doc Hudson]

Swampygirl: Welcome to the forum - It's good to have you on-board. Technician: I do believe Corgi were outbid by Gas Safe on the Tender, mate.

Could be wrong and I am sure that I will be corrected if that is the case.

I think you are quite correct Admin. What is Gas Safe Register? Welcome to the forum Swampygirl. Have you looked at the Gas Safe website? that has some information for Landlords and Tenants. Understand your landlord or HSE website? Landlords' responsibility for gas safety. HSE F.A.Q's may also have some help Gas safety - Tenants. 2nd question down regarding how to complain states:

By law landlords must carry out an annual gas safety check and provide tenants with a copy of the record of that check. New tenants should receive a copy before they move in and existing tenants should get a copy within 28 days of the annual check being done. If you don't have a current gas safety record you can reports to HSE via form LGSR1.

Doc H.

 

[Technician]

Admin and Doc...Thanks for that.

Hope the HSE post helped.

 

[ProDave]

So, back to my boiler.... when I switch on the boiler at the control box, it can take anything up to 7 minutes to become active. And although the usual wirring sounds can be heard and the flame ignites, eventually, it doesn't always, and the only way of knowing is the smell of gas so I switch off again and wait an few minutes before starting the process again. Sometimes the boiler will spring into life at the next attempt or it can take 3-4 attempts. The flame can go out at any time and again not know until I smell gas. Therefore I can't set the boiler to come on at certain times in case the flame fails to ignite.

IF you are smelling gas, then the flame failure device is not working.

Switch off the gas and call the landlord and tell him it's an EMERGENCY and the boiler is UNSAFE.

Make sure you are there when the engineer comes to fix it (preferably without the landlord) so you can have an honest chat with him about the boiler and it's condition.

Hopefully he will fix it and it will continue working and be safe.

You need to stress the fact it's unsafe and it's an emergency, and the landlord simply cannot wait until some convenient time in the future to sort it out.

 

[cam150811]

i am a gas safe eng smell of gas is an emergancy as prodave suggests nothing to add to that statement an emergancy is an emergancy dont get into ffd working or not its an emergancy

 

[PC Electrics]

If the gas safety check has not been carried out by the anniversary of the last one, then the Landlord IS BREAKING THE LAW. As he is a repeat offender (you have copies of previous reports to prove this), then simply tell him that if he doesn't sort it out pronto, you will report him to the Local Authority. They will come down on him like a ton of bricks.

You could get your own GS registered engineer to give it a check over and see what he has to say.

 

[mikep]

Gas Safe took over the regulation of the gas industry, You can be a member of Corgi but cannot work on gas unless you are Gas safe registered but being with Corgi just cost you more money for something you don't need, a Landlords inspection is to be carried out every year or change of tenancy, if someone rents the property for a month then it needs another Inspection to make sure it is safe for the next tenant, got a gas problem call the emergency number get them to cut you off then they will write a report of the fault which can only be rectified and repaired by a Gas Safe engineer.

Regards, Mike. Gas Safe Registered.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 21:00 ---------- Previous post was made at 20:55 ----------

Gas Safe took over the regulation of the gas industry, You can be a member of Corgi but cannot work on gas unless you are Gas safe registered but being with Corgi just cost you more money for something you don't need, a Landlords inspection is to be carried out every year or change of tenancy, if someone rents the property for a month then it needs another Inspection to make sure it is safe for the next tenant, got a gas problem call the emergency number get them to cut you off then they will write a report of the fault which can only be rectified and repaired by a Gas Safe engineer.

Regards, Mike. Gas Safe Registered.

 

[batty]

Mikey i am worried about you, you are playing pushey shovey with yourself.