WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Bodger]

Thought this might be of interest to anybody thinking of buying a new car, there are a lot of options especially for lady drivers !
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1908_Motor ... ew_%283%29

[PanBiker]

BG engineer number 4 came today (Mon) along with the replacement seals and gas valve that has been diagnosed as faulty twice so far. Close of play on Friday left my boiler drained and disabled with an "at risk" label attached. Today's guy replaced the seals and then refilled the boiler and then switched on to pressurise and test. At switch on the main trip on my consumer unit opened which took out all the power in the house. I reset the RCD and on investigation the electrical connector into the gas valve was found to be wet. The engineer suspected a short here so went on to test, but could not find anything wrong. He powered up again with the gas valve disconnected and the trip blew again. Further inspection showed that there was some moisture apparent in the fan assembly as well so this was disassembled and inspected. There was evidence of water staining on the enclosure to the fan but nothing apparent on its control board so it was reassembled and reconnected. RCD reset and another power up tried, large flash, puff of smoke from the fan circuitry and trip blown for a third time.

Top and bottom is this was now day 7 without boiler and it now needs a replacement fan which of course is not carried as a spare. He will be back tomorrow at 4pm with replacement parts. The unfitted gas valve which was deemed to be the original fault nearly a week ago is waiting it's turn on the island in my kitchen. I have to add that when the first engineer tipped up nearly a week ago now and diagnosed the gas valve there was no apparent leakage within the boiler. I had two engineers that day as the second arrived with the replacement flue parts and fitted them himself. Both made a thorough inspection of the boiler and did not report any leakage. The unit actually worked for a short time until failing the next day.

Maybe, just maybe, day 8 in this saga might stand a chance of a repair to my boiler. There is something to said for the merits of first fix service which was the expectation and the main result when I was a field service engineer. Only achievable if you carry the spares though.

Flue, Gas Valve, internal seals and now Variable Speed Fan. Not much else left unless they manage to trash the control board. Bet they don't carry them either!

[Stanley]

Ian, you are repeating the ten day Saga I had with my old boiler. The good news is that once they have got down through the chain of faults to the last one there is no reason why it shouldn't do another five years. But it's annoying isn't it while it's going on....
I got a provisional date for my first cataract operation, 9th October. This will be confirmed by letter. Funny thing is they were quite surprised that I was still waiting.... Ah well.

[Big Kev]

Ian, you are repeating the ten day Saga I had with my old boiler. The good news is that once they have got down through the chain of faults to the last one there is no reason why it shouldn't do another five years. But it's annoying isn't it while it's going on....
I got a provisional date for my first cataract operation, 9th October. This will be confirmed by letter. Funny thing is they were quite surprised that I was still waiting.... Ah well.

Good luck with the cataract op...

I'm still waiting for Yorkshire Water. They've had their money and I've confirmed that I have carried out the works, on my side of the boundary, to their specifications. I now need to liaise with their contractor to arrange for a hole in the ground, this will include "traffic management" as the bin wagon uses the back street on a Tuesday.

[Pluggy]

Note to self - keep the 14 year old dinosaur non condensor thats hanging in there......

[PanBiker]

My previous non condensing boiler which is always sited as being one of the lesser quality build jobs, (it was Italian) made it to just short of 15 years old. This state of the art super efficient Worcester Bosch is 5 years old! Having said that, this is the first real fault it has had excluding the major design flaw of all condensing boilers which is the condensate run off regime which is not really suitable for Northern Europe winters. I noticed during my Googling for replacement parts exercise that the brand now has a 7 year parts guarantee.
The fatally flawed flue installation from day one though won't have helped!

[hartley353]

There was a time when an engineer could do a simple test to a piece of electrical equipment before powering up to make sure the appliance was safe, modern electronics mean the test is almost redundant. there are still ways of doing this using a variable transformer and observing the input current, but this practice rarely leaves the test bench. i may have left a misconception with a previous post, when I said a friend had attended my boiler many times very few were for failures, I had arranged for my Boiler, cooker and fire to be regularly serviced by him yearly.

[Tizer]

Our non-condensing boiler likewise is about 15 years old and going well, serviced every year. Every plumber who has seen it tells us to keep it and don't be wooed into buying a condensing boiler.

[Tardis]

Faith and Feminism by Sabbiyah Pervez for Channel 4:

http://faithinfeminism.com/channel-4s-sabbiyah-pervez/

[Tardis]

Interested in how disabled people can help your business?

[Thomo]

And here's me thinking that Bradford was not only British, but Yorkshire as well!! If the Islamic Community that dominate some of our Towns and Cities want the rest of us to see them as British, they need to try a bit harder. Integration goes beyond Takeaways and taxi drivers, arranged marriages for convenience and domination by sheer weight of numbers, it requires compliance in all respects, just as we have to do.

[Pluggy]

My previous non condensing boiler which is always sited as being one of the lesser quality build jobs, (it was Italian) made it to just short of 15 years old. This state of the art super efficient Worcester Bosch is 5 years old! Having said that, this is the first real fault it has had excluding the major design flaw of all condensing boilers which is the condensate run off regime which is not really suitable for Northern Europe winters. I noticed during my Googling for replacement parts exercise that the brand now has a 7 year parts guarantee.
The fatally flawed flue installation from day one though won't have helped!

Mines a cheepo italian job. The last time I had someone to it, he had the part in his Van (3 way microswitch thingy). Nothing to do with BG though. It was 9 years old before it coughed with its first problem.

[Stanley]

The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.

[PanBiker]

BG Engineer came back yesterday at 4.30pm, replaced fan which, with its associated components and ducts which represents about a third of the boiler. That stopped the mains tripping and was tested on all its variable speed cycles. Still no ignition so Gas Valve replaced next, this was the original diagnosed fault a week ago, tricky C02 and gas flow setting later and we finally have hot water. It was after 7.00pm when he finished and I couldn't quite believe that he asked to check the flue again! I was told last week when the elbow and first section was replaced that I could refit the panels boxing it in and the moulding to the top of the units that it runs above. I told him if he wanted to look at it he could get on with the job himself and make good the ingress when he had done. The flue was signed of last week by two other engineers so I was feeling a bit T'd off to say the least. Big do's and little do's he satisfied himself by borrowing a torch from me and looking through a gap in the moulding above the units. Total waste of time as no way could he see the full 3M length of the flue but hey ho if that allowed him to tick a box to cover his own back so be it. He left a 7.35pm and I finally have hot water.

Six visits including the annual service with 5 different engineers over a period exceeding 7 days. The actual fault was diagnosed on the first day but rectified on the last, all the stuff in the middle was self inflicted by British Gas. "Doing the right thing", not in this instance!

[Tardis]

Barnoldswick Market set for 14th September

[Big Kev]

BG Engineer came back yesterday at 4.30pm, replaced fan which, with its associated components and ducts which represents about a third of the boiler. That stopped the mains tripping and was tested on all its variable speed cycles. Still no ignition so Gas Valve replaced next, this was the original diagnosed fault a week ago, tricky C02 and gas flow setting later and we finally have hot water. It was after 7.00pm when he finished and I couldn't quite believe that he asked to check the flue again! I was told last week when the elbow and first section was replaced that I could refit the panels boxing it in and the moulding to the top of the units that it runs above. I told him if he wanted to look at it he could get on with the job himself and make good the ingress when he had done. The flue was signed of last week by two other engineers so I was feeling a bit T'd off to say the least. Big do's and little do's he satisfied himself by borrowing a torch from me and looking through a gap in the moulding above the units. Total waste of time as no way could he see the full 3M length of the flue but hey ho if that allowed him to tick a box to cover his own back so be it. He left a 7.35pm and I finally have hot water.

Six visits including the annual service with 5 different engineers over a period exceeding 7 days. The actual fault was diagnosed on the first day but rectified on the last, all the stuff in the middle was self inflicted by British Gas. "Doing the right thing", not in this instance!

A nightmare, Ian. I'm fed up with waiting for YW to come out and connect the water main. Fortunately I still have the branch from next door. Had National Grid out today to sort a gas leak. Powerflux, from moving the pipework, had dripped onto the flexi pipe (anaconda) and eaten its way through in 2 weeks. Corrosive stuff. The repair was free.

[PanBiker]

Acid based Kev so not surprised, glad they sorted it for free, I should think so as well.

[Stanley]

Can't quite believe that I won't be editing transcripts today. The light at the end of the tunnel is very bright!

[Tardis]

The good news about Oliver Rushton in the Craven Herald. I hope that his recovery is quick.

[Stanley]

I have a date for my first cataract operation and have my minder geared up ready for action..... Daughters can be wonderful!
09:15. Wet walk to butcher's and back but we're both rubbed down now and drying out. I saw the front page picture of Dianne Cardwell and Graham Cartwright announcing their engagement. Lovely and I wish them all the best. They have both had a rough deal from life and deserve all the happiness they can get.

[Tizer]

We placed an online order with M&S yesterday for about £130 of warm winter clothes. Received a confirmation of the order and saying the money will betaken from our credit card account...then received a duplicate confirmation of the order but with a different order number and again saying the money will be taken. We had a bit of worry that they'd taken £260 from our account but today there are more emails which now show that it's because they've split the order. If I were one of those people who are constantly running their finances close to the edge I might have been panicked by the apparent duplicate!

[Tardis]

Head of Network Rail (publically owned) gets a salary of £675,000 plus bonuses

[Stanley]

I wondered what was happening with the Costa Concordia, always been interested in marine salvage. If you have a look at the Titan Salvage website you'll see that they are almost ready to take the one shot they have at pulling it upright and floating it off the reef. If they miss they are in deep doo-doo! Twice the size of the Titanic.... amazing that the gamble has been taken.

[hartley353]

How thoughtful my partner Mary is, she has arranged to have her hair cut in the kitchen, prior to a christening tomorrow. Me I'm allowed to watch F1 practice in the living room so I don't get bored.

[hartley353]

About a month ago I received imformation ont the growth of arctic ice, this information now appears to have gone to press. The press figures are not exactly the same as the figures I have but close enough 920,000 sq miles of new ice in one year, and the dreaded scientists saying we may be on the threshold of a cooling period. It would appear that those who were conned by global warning have backed the wrong horse, as usual time will unearth the truth. How can so called educated people get it so wrong.