So what does everyone do for a living?

Company I work for makes steel moulds for precast concrete. 30 years, family ran business.
I look after sales, and production of our Laser machine. So if anyone wants any metal profiling, give me a shout.
I've been selling VW firepits on facebook for a while now. Message me. :)
 
Jay said:
worcester bosch service engineer, former baxi senior service engineer.
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Awesome. @Jay, what would be your preference between a Worcester 2000 30Kw combi, or a Glow Worm Energy 30Kw combi? Glow Worms are on a deal with filter, inhibitor etc and apparently a ten year warranty, Worcester and flue kit is £40 more than the Glow Worm. I'm buying a few so not fussed about the price difference. My fitter is indifferent. Just looking for long term reliability. These replacing the last batch of Biasi combis that amazingly have done over 15 years with very few issues, but are now eating diverters one by one, and beginning to have lockouts.....

Sorry, a bit off topic.....
 
catfood12 said:
Awesome. @Jay, what would be your preference between a Worcester 2000 30Kw combi, or a Glow Worm Energy 30Kw combi? Glow Worms are on a deal with filter, inhibitor etc and apparently a ten year warranty, Worcester and flue kit is £40 more than the Glow Worm. I'm buying a few so not fussed about the price difference. My fitter is indifferent. Just looking for long term reliability. These replacing the last batch of Biasi combis that amazingly have done over 15 years with very few issues, but are now eating diverters one by one, and beginning to have lockouts.....

Sorry, a bit off topic.....
Click to expand...

I can give you a bit of knowledge on the above from a landlord point of view.

We've got around 50 Baxi Neta-tec combi's and it's a real bag of shite, the 'service' from Baxi is even worse so I'd avoid like the plague.

We've got around 500 GlowWorm Flexi/Ultra (not Betacom - avoid that model) and approaching 200 GlowWorm Energy's.

The great thing about GlowWorm in Dorset is that they have an amazing service, if I call today for a warranty issue then they will be there within 36 hours, often it's sooner than that.
They have a great first rate fix record too, they don't seem to care about servicing either, we never service our boilers unless they need it (annual gas cert is a given obviously). If they pass the gas cert then we don't touch them. I buy the boilers and spares from Ross and Steve at Gasbits in Wimborne Road, parts are plentiful too so you rarely get a dead boiler waiting for parts to turn up.

If you're putting the boilers in rentals then you have a legal obligation to provide heating and hot water within X amount of hours/days, so for instance with Baxi we ended up having to repair them ourselves because warranty repairs were so slow it risked us getting prosecuted by our friends at the local authority.

Generally the stuff like Worcester is more reliable, they use lots of metal bits inside and not plastic but it's not a brand we've used as a landlord.
 
I fitted my own Baxi 15yrs ago to replace the existing Ariston that was defunct. It ran faultlessly until wifey overpressurised the system and blew the seals of the expansion vessel. (We had a small air leak on a rad and would lose system pressure so a top up now and again was required). Replaced it with newer model and found the pin hole rad leak and replaced that (only took me 15yrs). This time got someone else to fit it. Yes, you are allowed to fit your own boiler but I always get someone else to certify the gas connection. Altho rules may have changed since. Fit an air n dirt seperator. I always specify Spirotech combi. They do a nice inline version. I get mine free (sample).
 
As an ex baxi engineer (senior engineer for 17 years) I personally would fit a baxi 800 as it has a 10 year warranty and filter in the box. The problem with Worcester is the really want their accredited installers fitting them and so the get the benefits of even longer warranties. Even as a Worcester engineer I'm not able to get them.

@Insert Coin yes the netatec was easily the worst boiler ever made by baxi, or by any other manufacturer. Unfortunaly they relied on one company for supplying the gas valve and the reliability was terrible. My mum had a field trial one which broke down 8 times in 18 months and was ripped out and replaced one Christmas eve evening.

So for me. When fitting boilers, if the long warranty is important then its the baxi 800, if its not then the Worcester cdi compact is also a great boiler with 8 years out of the box. I would also say, Worcester reliability is way better than baxi, ideal, glowworm and valiant, but not servicing will have an impact on this.
 
Insert Coin said:
I can give you a bit of knowledge on the above from a landlord point of view.

We've got around 50 Baxi Neta-tec combi's and it's a real bag of shite, the 'service' from Baxi is even worse so I'd avoid like the plague.

We've got around 500 GlowWorm Flexi/Ultra (not Betacom - avoid that model) and approaching 200 GlowWorm Energy's.

The great thing about GlowWorm in Dorset is that they have an amazing service, if I call today for a warranty issue then they will be there within 36 hours, often it's sooner than that.
They have a great first rate fix record too, they don't seem to care about servicing either, we never service our boilers unless they need it (annual gas cert is a given obviously). If they pass the gas cert then we don't touch them. I buy the boilers and spares from Ross and Steve at Gasbits in Wimborne Road, parts are plentiful too so you rarely get a dead boiler waiting for parts to turn up.

If you're putting the boilers in rentals then you have a legal obligation to provide heating and hot water within X amount of hours/days, so for instance with Baxi we ended up having to repair them ourselves because warranty repairs were so slow it risked us getting prosecuted by our friends at the local authority.

Generally the stuff like Worcester is more reliable, they use lots of metal bits inside and not plastic but it's not a brand we've used as a landlord.
Click to expand...


Cheers, these are for rentals. I get all my stuff at J&Bs, and they must have done a deal on the Glow Worms, as they have piles of them. Probably since they became part of the Nicholls Group, they seem to have lots of this sort of deal.

I don't have nearly as many as you, but boilers can be such a pain in the ass, and I've had some sh1t over the years, Saunier Duval crapola, some Baxi crap, leaking heat exchanger on a Trigger's broom Keston, but had an ace run with these Biasis up to now. I want a quiet life, and my tenants not to call with cold rads!
 
Jay said:
As an ex baxi engineer (senior engineer for 17 years) I personally would fit a baxi 800 as it has a 10 year warranty and filter in the box. The problem with Worcester is the really want their accredited installers fitting them and so the get the benefits of even longer warranties. Even as a Worcester engineer I'm not able to get them.

@Insert Coin yes the netatec was easily the worst boiler ever made by baxi, or by any other manufacturer. Unfortunaly they relied on one company for supplying the gas valve and the reliability was terrible. My mum had a field trial one which broke down 8 times in 18 months and was ripped out and replaced one Christmas eve evening.

So for me. When fitting boilers, if the long warranty is important then its the baxi 800, if its not then the Worcester cdi compact is also a great boiler with 8 years out of the box. I would also say, Worcester reliability is way better than baxi, ideal, glowworm and valiant, but not servicing will have an impact on this.
Click to expand...

I did replace a 20 odd year old Baxi Barcelona system boiler earlier in the year. That had done surprising well over the years.... Thanks for the info above. I think I'll go and buy a gross of Worcesters..... :thumbsup:

I have an ace local powerflush guy. I'll get him round to do the needful and hang the new on on the wall. As @bootsam did, I'll install the thing, and do the gas connection with my fitter, as am building a portfolio for myself to then go and do my CCN1.... in my copious spare time..................
 
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We’ve had all kinds of gas related shenanigans over the years, chavs that decided to nick a load of external copper pipe that was live on a Xmas eve, a guy that had a fight down the pub and he got followed home where his gas pipes were cut and they tried to blow him up, tenants fixing their own boilers, tenants bypassing gas meters, tenants fitting their own cookers and using jubilee clips on the hose, a guy using his gas oven to heat his bedsit who nearly died, a tenant that did actually die when he used his outdoor gas heater in his bedsit to keep warm etc etc.

And then this plonker, luckily we got word of this unauthorised conservatory before it was finished. He genuinely didn’t understand what the issue was :laugh:

BF22EF81-0BD4-49E0-B404-B0C2951DEC72.jpeg
 
Sh1*, as I was informed on a health and safety course many years ago there is no such thing as common sense. At least they had thought about how to heat it!
 
Insert Coin said:
We’ve had all kinds of gas related shenanigans over the years, chavs that decided to nick a load of external copper pipe that was live on a Xmas eve, a guy that had a fight down the pub and he got followed home where his gas pipes were cut and they tried to blow him up, tenants fixing their own boilers, tenants bypassing gas meters, tenants fitting their own cookers and using jubilee clips on the hose, a guy using his gas oven to heat his bedsit who nearly died, a tenant that did actually die when he used his outdoor gas heater in his bedsit to keep warm etc etc.

And then this plonker, luckily we got word of this unauthorised conservatory before it was finished. He genuinely didn’t understand what the issue was :laugh:

View attachment 88591
Click to expand...
That "conservatory" build!
Surely he / she should at least get a Darwin Award!
And these people are allowed to vote, drive and have offspring!
 
Insert Coin said:
We’ve had all kinds of gas related shenanigans over the years, chavs that decided to nick a load of external copper pipe that was live on a Xmas eve, a guy that had a fight down the pub and he got followed home where his gas pipes were cut and they tried to blow him up, tenants fixing their own boilers, tenants bypassing gas meters, tenants fitting their own cookers and using jubilee clips on the hose, a guy using his gas oven to heat his bedsit who nearly died, a tenant that did actually die when he used his outdoor gas heater in his bedsit to keep warm etc etc.

And then this plonker, luckily we got word of this unauthorised conservatory before it was finished. He genuinely didn’t understand what the issue was :laugh:

View attachment 88591
Click to expand...

I had a pint in The Cricketers at the weekend. I can't have been in there since about 1995, I'm sure that fella above was in there.... :rolleyes:
 
Insert Coin said:
We’ve had all kinds of gas related shenanigans over the years, chavs that decided to nick a load of external copper pipe that was live on a Xmas eve, a guy that had a fight down the pub and he got followed home where his gas pipes were cut and they tried to blow him up, tenants fixing their own boilers, tenants bypassing gas meters, tenants fitting their own cookers and using jubilee clips on the hose, a guy using his gas oven to heat his bedsit who nearly died, a tenant that did actually die when he used his outdoor gas heater in his bedsit to keep warm etc etc.

And then this plonker, luckily we got word of this unauthorised conservatory before it was finished. He genuinely didn’t understand what the issue was :laugh:

View attachment 88591
Click to expand...
Jesus christ....what a knob. What on earth was he going to do with that waste pipe???
 
My job sounds well humdrum compared with some of these.

I’m currently a shopfitting estimator/ surveyor.

I qualified as a bench joiner, usual 3 year apprenticeship. Where I worked we didn’t do traditional joinery, it was mostly commercial fit out stuff, TV and broadcasting furniture, government work and marine joinery for the likes of Sunseeker and Discovery yachts. We had a spare front door for some place off White Hall SW1A in a crate in the workshop too.

I then moved on to a shop fitting/ interiors firm who were part of a big international construction and Fm company. Got to see some interesting places and tendered for some weird projects. After 11 years there went on to a high street retail fit out company where I’ve been for the last 6 years, doing higher end brands and one off shops.
 
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