Central heating broken

If you were signed up with British Gas they would have organised a same day visit.

I was 10 in 1947, remember it well! It seems to be the season for things going wrong. The drain from the shower tray in my ensuite declines to discharge into the outside drain. Instead the water comes up through the middle of the floor! It’s had a whole bottle of drain clear, with no success, the plumber will “ try and get to me this week”. Oh well, at least I have another bathroom. At least I am warm. Hope everyone gets their problems sorted.

Silversurf
Is your boiler serviced on either a six or 12month basis as recommended by the manufacture.I have a company who carry out a regular service on my oil fired apps and they also give a guaranteed 365x 24 hour callout service.My experience of this was tested mid afternoon xmas eve two years ago when my central heating had refused to operate.Within four hours an engineer called, Got it going. Fortunately only an air blockage in the feed pipe. Not serious and would not need any new parts but these would have been available if necessary.Were it not for this service how long would I have been without heat does not bear thinking about.I believe there is insurance for these sort of things happening.We never know when we will need it.

Really hard to play with numb fingers wasn't it Lupin? An hour a night for 3 years and I still couldn't master it.

Silversurf
Ps Forgot to mention there was no charge even on a Xmas eve ? as it had only been serviced three months previous.

New pump installed and heating and water now working.
I’m happy, cat is happy. Result.
Thanks so much for all your support. I can concentrate on getting better now. Very happy bunny

I don't know whether oil boilers are more simple than gas boilers but having lived in country areas for the last 30 years I have had oil boilers and only one which was already 12 years old ever needed repairing. Does anyone else have an oil boiler? I have always had them serviced annually.

I am so sorry that you are suffering in the cold at the moment Silversurf. I hope the engineer sorts it today so you can get warm again.

Yes Whitewave.
I was born in 1945, so there was no mollycoddling for me either as I grew up.

My first experience of having the luxury of central heating was not until 1983.
Up until then, it was paraffin heaters, gas fires, etc.
Now I am older, I do feel the cold more and appreciate CH, but it can a bit stuffy at times.

Maybe we are getting soft these days - I too remember only one fire in the house (no heat in the bathroom) and getting dressed by the fire with my clothes warned on the fire guard! And I remember the lovely fern patterns on the inside of the bedroom windows when 'Jack Frost' had been!
But now I couldn't bear to be without CH and you have my sympathy silversurf.
Yes Daisyboots, we too have an oil boiler - we live in a village with no gas. Ours needs replacing now but we've had it for 20 years.

Just bought an electric throw - wonderful for when you don't want or can't have the central heating on and costs only pennies to run

Whitewater, I was 7 in the winter of 1947. I was at a neighbouring friend's birthday party and we were playing Murder -, remember that ? I was the victim lying prone on the floor and suddenly their full size grandfather clock was approaching me fast. I woke up on my Dad's knee in the Doc's having four stitches in my eyebrow and still have the scar. In the intervening time Mum had struggled through a snowdrift to the only neighbour with a phone to ring the Dr. Another neighbour had taken me and Dad on the precarious trip to the Surgery and back in his Classic, Open top car !! So Murder it nearly really was !!

My sympathies. Reminds me of coming home from working in Saudi, December 1990, air-rage incident and delays on the flight then arriving home to find gas boiler packed up. Try to get a replacement in the run-up to Christmas? 'Yer 'avin' a larf, missus, ain't yer?' No, actually not. I longed for a hot bath and a warm bed and got neither.

We had fireplaces in all 3 bedrooms, and at night time my father would bring a shovelful of blazing coals, and put a fire in each room.

Yes Whitewave...... Haven't we got soft , or is it just old? I remember the one coal fire in sitting room and paraffin heater ( on the landing) in our case...and all bedrooms doors left open to try and 'reap the benefits' as my dad used to say! There was three of us kids in the big front bedroom ( me and two bros).. we did have a I you 1 bar electric fire on the wall but woe betide anyone of us that turned it on, it made an enormous 'clunk' if you flicked the switch that could be heard all over the house hahaha?. I do remember 1963 winter I was 12 .... we had ice forming inside the window frames and the wind would howl around the bedrooms. Yes thank god for hot water bottles eg! I've got one at my back as I tap this message dos my old heat-pad packed up over last weekend. Hey-ho!

This is precisely why we have a wood burning stove in our kitchen-living room, so we are not entirely dependent on the municipal heating plant.

If your houses have chimneys in working order, you might want to consider a modern stove with particle filters etc. that lives up to EU standards before next winter.

If that is not an option, a good calor gas stove can heat quite a large area very well.

In the 1947 winter her sisters in law thought my mother wasteful - she would put on a one bar electric fire in a bedroom for a short while before bedtime - when no one was ill!!
This winter I've been getting into my dressing gown early and keeping throws handy for when I'm watching tv.

I want to say a big 'Hats Off' to British Gas. Yesterday while reading this I noticed it felt a bit chilly so checked the radiators - all cold, the light on the thermostat was on which meant the boiler was working - it wasn't. I have HomeCare 400 insurance with BG so rang them and after a bit of pleading and telling them my age (81) they agreed to send an engineer during the next four hours (instead of Thursday). It did stretch to six but he arrived at 8.40pm, found out what was wrong, replaced the broken part (he had one in the van) checked everything was working and left at 9.40pm, Thank you Rob and well done British Gas.