Friday 30 April 2010

Bye Bye Boiler



Did you hear me scream?

We had a haunted boiler. It had been giving us trouble on and off for years: every so often it would stop firing up the gas and we'd have no hot water or central heating. Then, three days or so later (almost inevitably just as the repair guy was due to arrive at last), it would start working again. Boiler technicians could not work out what was wrong with it. The fail almost always happened overnight, so the first we'd know was a freezing cold shower in the morning. We spent the whole of one month with the heating running night and day, for fear that the fail was triggered when it got too cold. Then we had the ignition feedback replaced - that seemed to work for about a month. Then we had the circuit board replaced (£250 just for the part). That lasted LESS THAN 24 HOURS.
 
At that point I gave up, kissed goodbye to £1600 and ordered a new boiler. I am never buying another Worcester Bosch so long as I live, I tell you. After taking the picture above of the dead carcass thrown out on the lawn, I gave it a good kick and danced around it laughing like a crazy woman.

So we got this brand spanking new 35Kw Ideal Logic Plus boiler put in, and I thought I need no longer trawl round my friends using their bathrooms to keep clean. I got up the next morning and headed for the shower, eager to wash my hair.

No hot water.

I think they probably heard my howl of rage in the Ukraine.

(The plumber turned up within an hour and was very embarrassed - after testing they'd forgotten to switch the gas back on ...)

9 comments:

Jo said...

Lol. I wish you continued warmth and steaminess :)

Janine Ashbless said...

Aw feck - the bill's just arrived and it's £1900. Bloody boilers.

Jo said...

Yeah. I'm scared to even go there.

Ours breaks down at Christmas...

Janine Ashbless said...

See? They are goblin-haunted, malign things!

Fulani said...

I once had a car like that. It worked fine, except when I needed to get somewhere important by some particular time.
No doubt you'll be able to enjoy hot and steamy times in the future!

Craig Sorensen said...

I feel your pain. I need a new furnace. Somehow, we limped the old one through the winter, but it won't make another year. $2800.

Janine Ashbless said...

Hah - I may be an atheist Fulani, but that doesn't stop me believing that a piece of machinery has animating consciousness and is out to get me. lol.

Ow! My sympathies, Craig. But I do prefer the term "furnace" to "boiler". It sounds so much more exciting and mean!

Anonymous said...

Roflmao...do what we do - leave a baby gartner snake wrapped around the pilot light, and the boiler man makes *DAMN* sure it's working just so he doesnt have to come back to the house again.....

Janine Ashbless said...

!!!

Love it!
:-)