Rant - plumbers

throbscottle said:

You're probably eligible for smart meters Nigel, so you can be moved right into C21.

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Only if I move suppliers, although I'm considering doing so.

JimB said:

Now let me guess, these guys mostly change tyres and exhaust pipes "Kwik" ...ly.

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Yes but not the Kwik.. you are thinking off, but a west country Easy...

They fit tires as you say and also do, mechanical work too. They vary from excellent to not so. You would think that fitting tyres would be problem-free for such a place but:

Someone slashed one of the front tires on our car (I think because I parked on a road that they thought was theirs) so after putting the spare on I headed straight to my favorite discount tyre place.

Luckily, they had the right tyre and at a reasonable price- no problems.

The next day I made a 240 mile round trip, and all was well except for front wheel vibration, which went away around 62 MPH. So I drove all the way there and back at 62 MPH.

The next day I was back at Easy... They were most apologetic and immediately re-balanced the wheel- it was slightly out, but not much. I took the car for a spin on the motorway- same vibration, so back to Easy...

To summarize the procedure that followed over the next year:
(1) the tire was changed
(2) the wheel was diagnosed as being bent- the wheel was changed
(3) The suspension was diagnosed as being faulty- the suspension was checked and found to be OK but there was one bush that was suspect
... and so on.

Then, in desperation, I went to another tyre shop. They found that the wheel was out of balance. They balanced it and from then on the car was perfect- no vibrations.

spec

The thing about all this is that most of the people on ETO have a pretty good idea about electricals, plumbing, and cars, and so on, but what about the average chap or even a women who have no idea what is going on.

I have heard some horrific stories where people have had a series of automobile modules changed at an exorbitant cost for no reason. And gas boilers changed when a simple clean would probably have fixed the problem: Oh yes madam we could fix your boiler, but it is over four years old and probably will not last much longer, besides if we fit a new boiler it will be so efficient that it will pay for itself in 2 years.

spec

I've experienced poor and dangerous practices from supposedly qualified gas plumbers over the years.
At one house the gas meter was in a cupboard under the stairs and if the cupboard was unopened for a prolonged period there was a noticeable smell of gas. Two call-outs and neither plumber located the leak. I eventually found it myself, using the trusty soapy water method: the pressure regulator had a slightly porous casting.. A third call-out was necessary then to get the pressure regulator replaced.
At another house the service engineer had difficulty relighting the pilot light of the boiler, so opened the pilot light gas flow control valve beyond its normal setting. He failed to readjust the valve after lighting the pilot. The following day I noticed the boiler was excessively noisy. The reason was that the over-large pilot flame had heated the main burner body to red heat and the main burner was behaving like a large single-flame blow-lamp instead of providing a set of small flames!

KeepItSimpleStupid said:

The plumber charged $900.00 to install it. He had nearly nothing to do for the install. Remove the old one and install. Connections were a couple of flex lines. 2 year warranty parts and labor from the plumbing company. Oh, they do wear fancy booties.

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If someone quoted me 900 bucks for changing a tap I´d kick his ass all the way to the main square. That is an outrageous amount of money for an hour tops work, coffee an snack included.

Another thing is rip-off boiler (or whatever) insurance cover. You pay £100's over the years. Our boiler was fitted in 2005 (or 6, I'm not sure) and has had to have an expansion chamber re-pressurised (£40, could have done it myself if I'd known) and some relatively cheap part replaced (around £80 including labour) in all that time. All the "boiler cover" I could have paid would have cost me as much as a replacement boiler by now, whilst this one's still going strong. As to "paying for itself in a few years" in terms of efficiency. This one I think is 98% efficient. I know the new ones are better, but I doubt the saving in gas would be enough before the amorphous "They" want me to replace it yet again. Meh.