Millsy 82. Yep, it would have been infinitely better to spend 3 hours fixing the bleedin' thing. Unfortunately I'm just an ordinary punter, not a heating engineer.
Originally the idea was just to have the boiler serviced.
"I know", I thought, "I will use this new fangled interweb thing and find an engineer of repute and good standing. I will ply him with tea, biscuits and the odd florin from my hoard and I will be warm for another year."
The engineer duly arrived, drank my tea, ate my biscuits, took my florin and left me a boiler that locked out every couple of days. He came back couple of days later and repeated the process. Strangely he then stopped taking my calls.
"This is dashed unfortunate" thought I. "Let us find another engineer". So I did, and the story repeated.
In desperation I resolved to voyage - virtually - to the place where the soothsayers, shamans and gurus of boilers dwell - ukplumbersforum. There I will request audience and they shall advise me well.
And so they did. "'It's setup, over aired, its a thermecon, get a good engineer" they said.
And so I did, and so the story repeated.
By this time I was bloody cold, down £200 and 6 half days off work, had three engineers who wouldn't talk to me and was remembering Churchills maxim that stupidity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome.
At this point a thought crossed my mind - not a long journey I confess. Why not build an auto-reset device and wait 'till the thing really does break. Surely then someone can fix it.
So since I used to design and build medical robotic instruments for a living thats what I did. It cost less than a 4th engineer, took less time and kept me going for a year.
(BTW if you are ever diagnosed by an "amerlite" machine ask for a second opinion - I helped design it).
OZ Plumber - When I was a spotty pubescent oik I decided that a mullet would turn me into a babe magnet. Unfortunately my sister decided it made me look more like oddbod from Carry on Screaming and it kinda stuck. In hindsight she was probably right. Me and my mullet did pull the odd babe, but probably more out of sympathy or morbid curiosity on their part.
Oilboy, thanks, but personally I admire you guys - and indeed all engineers of whatever ilk who keep odd bits of junk running year after year.
