we have been without heating now since Monday 30th April repeated phone calls bring promises but no action, no heat, no hot water, the brick wall on the other end of the phone, listens, and does nothing, I do believe British Gas is an accident looking for somewhere to happen, maybe paying my Gas bill direct debit was a mistake cos if I owed them, they would be down like a ton of bricks, so all British Gas customers via Sainsbury energy beware.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Do you mean 30th March? That is outrageous. I hope you have some sort of heating in the meantime

I rang BG to ask for a quote for a new boiler and wasn't happy with their attitude so cancelled their visit. They are dreadful

British Gas are one of the most expensive in the market.

I suspect Jim you do not have one of their annual immediate call products which is why you are at the back of the Que.

Look on their delay as nothing more than a cynical attempt to get you to switch contracts to screw more money out of you.

On the plus side they will be along next week a day or two after the weather has warmed up.

Got a local guy coming tomorrow the big but is, if a spare is required, and he has not got it then he will get and fit it on Monday, so how bad's that ? in the meanwhile we have bought a fan heater but its a one room at a time job, but never mind the end is in sight.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

I don't think are the most expensive TBH.

I regularly use the comparison sites to check and BG always come out as one of the cheapest for me. Direct Debit dual fuel.

The one thing I won't be doing again is having any of their engineers anywhere near my boiler though. BG hate warm air systems and have a vendetta against them. Since the Kyoto protocol of 2000 they always turned my gas off after each visit stating unsatisfactory ventilation. After this happened for the third time I complained straight to the top and they sent a specialist engineer round (letters after his name) and he declared my system safe, ventilation OK, could not understand why the engineers were turning the gas off, and gave me a safety passed letter as proof.

Decided to ditch them anyway and now using a manufacturers recommended warm air specialist firm from Ruislip who fixed 2 small problems that had baffled BG engineers for years.

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Lets be careful out there !

I used British Gas for my gas supplier for years and have only recently changed because of the price hikes. I never had a complaint about the supply, billing or customer services for supply

I just didn't like their attitude when it came to quoting for a new boiler - they wanted to do a survey on the house when all I wanted was a new boiler. I wasn't having their rep examining my radiators, windows, doors, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation when all I wanted was a new boiler.

They said they couldn't quote without doing the survey so I told them where to go (quite rudely I'm afraid)

I hope you get your heating sorted out soon Jim and if you want to borrow a couple of electric radiators let me know and I'll bring them over for you.



PS I still need a new boiler so if you can recommend a good company please let me know

true to his word he came examined system it is a diverter valve that directs the hot water to heating or storage for hot water use, at the moment it just heats water for washing etc, but not going into heating system a diverter valve is required that he had not got on his van, and promises quick return as soon as he has one, so fingers crossed.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.

Sunshine give Sargeant and sons a call (Kingshill Avenue) and get a quote, they are a good company and good prices.

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I do not suffer fools !!!!!

Is it a combi system Jim? On demand hot water means that if you want hot water when the system is off it fires the boiler up and delivers it.

The valve is usually a motorised one and diverts the heated water either to the taps and or rads when heating is required.

One of these..

http://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/motorised-valves/cat831028

Little tip for next time and a bit of fault finding if it ever happens again. Feel behind the valve and you will feel a lever you can see it in the photo below..



If the motor fails (which is usually the case) the valve can still be operated by hand. Flick the lever and it will divert the hot water to the Rads. Little tip save you sitting in the cold next time.

Being an old sweat truck driver I would have thought you could have changed this yourself. Simple enough job requiring a couple of spanners a terminal screwdriver and some ptfe tape.
Drain down the system, make sure it cannot refill by either isolating the water supply or tyeing up the ballcock, isolate the power, take a picture of the wiring then unwire the old one, remove the old valve, fit the new valve, rewire as per your photo, Refill system including some inhibitor, test and get warm. Jobs a good one no more than an hours work once you have the valve.

Another tip when draining down close both valves on all the rads so it keeps the existing (treated) water in them, less too drain off then.

Done a few of these myself and the fact the boiler was providing hot water for the sink (but not the rads) would have pointed the finger straight at the motorised valve.

Any work on boilers of course I get the professionals in.

If you had detailed the symptoms earlier we could have got you warm days ago.........

this system came off the ark! a back boiler on the open fire where the heated water goes to a hot water tank in the airing cupboard, and is drawn off for bath washing, radiators, or both, at the moment the hot water goes to faucets only, washing but not heating, so much for help the old in the cold weather, but then maybe we are better equipped to deal and survive than the younger generations, if nothing else WW2 was a good education, and survival is the name of the game.

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Its not always the biggest and the bestest, its them that make the least mistakes.