[Stuart]

Insurance (and specifically Corgi)

Back in December 2011, I had a new boiler (Valiant Ecotect Plus 831) installed and the rest of the system checked and power flushed. Until this year, apart from the odd pressure drop, it's been fairly reliable. It's insured with Corgi (on the original installer's recommendation) and has been serviced regularly.

Then, a few months ago, the pressure drops started occuring regularly, so I called Corgi. They sent three engineers in. All said how well the system was installed, two said nothing was wrong as the pressure drops were normal (they also told me to disregard the installer's warning about maximum pressure). The third cleaned the filter and said that should solve the pressure problem.

It didn't, so, having lost confidence in Corgi engineers, I attempted to contact the original installer. Every time I rang (or ring, even now), after several rings, the call would go to voicemail and he never got back to me. So, I found another engineer. He came highly recommended, so I got him in. He said how well the system had been installed, and cleaned the filter (again). He also asked if the installed had flushed a sealant through the system as a lot of the pipes are 20+ years old, so could be leaking. I said they hadn't (fairly certain I'd have been billed for it if they had), so he quoted me £200 for the service and putting the gel in the system. This was on a Saturday, so I didn't object too much and paid it. He also said that if the leaks came back or carried on, it was likely that the heat exchanger was leaking. He warned us this is not a cheap repair as the part itself is over £300, but should be covered by Corgi.

However, the Gel worked and for a few months, we had no problems. So, when the problems started again (this time accompanied by the hot water suddenly running cold), I called Corgi. The engineer came in, opened the boiler up, checked a couple of things, said that he thought the filter had been installed on the wrong pipe and left, saying he needed to check the Manufacturer's documentation to confirm this and would email me the next day with what he found and some advice on how to proceed.

Bearing in mind that 4 engineers (including 3 from Corgi) had looked at the system and said how well the installation was done, I found that a little suspicious, so I looked up Vaillant's installation manual, which appeared to say that the filter should be installed either on the pipe it was OR the one the last engineer had said depending on the type of heating in use. As I don't know what type of heating is in use beyond having a combi boiler attached to radiators, I can't say for certain whether the engineer was right or not. The manual is presumably meant for trained heating engineers, so is a little vague and makes no attempt to define the two types of heating.

The next day, after me hanging on the phone to Corgi for 45 minutes, I got through to someone who could help as the engineer had not made any attempt to contact me. He'd noted on my account that I would need, at my own expense, to get the filter installed on the correct pipe and to have the system flushed again.

So, I attempted (and failed) to get hold of the installer. When I failed to to this, I phone the last non-corgi engineer to have a look at it. He would not advise me one way or the other, but quoted me £500 to move the filter and power flush the system. I can get a new boiler for £800, and this one is only just over 3 years old.

So now, I am unsure what to do. Spend £500 with little or no real guarantee that either it will fix the problem (if the Corgi engineer was wrong, I don't think it will) or that Corgi will actually do anything if I do spend the money. What has made me unsure is that despite Corgi's assertion that it is difficult for an engineer to spot that the filter is on the wrong pipe, I find it hard to believe that four of them would miss it being installed on the wrong pipe, especially as they *all* checked the filter, and two of them opened it up and cleaned it.

In short ,the boiler is currently working, but needs to be powered off and on again regularly, and needs regular top ups, which it shouldn't.