And to Finish this Month of Nicely.......

Blimey!

If the manufacturer has taken full responsibility, then I assume it's just a paper work exercise to keep everyone happy? You wouldn't expect boilers in this day and age to explode like that 

You really were lucky/unlucky, but could have been so much worse!

It would have been worse had I not been there as the blame would have automatically been dumped on the installer. Had something similar 30 odd year ago, serviced a backboiler on a Friday and customer dies on the Monday... Had the Local authority, Corgi and the HSE crawling all over the place. Relatives all claiming he died from carbon monoxide poisoning and blaming me, what the relatives didn't know was, that when I was there and speaking to the customer he told me about how previously the medical profession had prescribed wrong pills for him, which made his heart 4 times larger than what it should have been... It was this that he had actually died from, me being there was just a coincidence....

The recent incident was for a letting agent in Central London, I told them as soon as it happened, had I not been there and it had happened to the tenant there would have been claims flying left right and center over this. I would have certainly lost the contract with them, in fact work wise I don't need any other client as this agency generates more than enough income.

I have a meeting with the manufacturer this Thursday who are going to collect the boiler, from the discussions I have had with them it should have been impossible for it to happen as there are too many sensing devices on modern day boilers, they have the photographs and have seen the damage it has done.... Depending on this meeting will depend on how much further I take it........

Good luck with it all .. I suppose you have installed at least 1 other boiler in your life so it's highly unlikely it is something you did wrong

oh my word barney, are you all right now?

Imagine if kids had been near it. Making me worry about my boiler now, never heard of them exploding before.

Well have now had the meeting with the manufacturers 'technical quality manager' at present I haven't done anything legally but after this mornings conversation I think that might now change. I'm not really into this so called claims culture but something seriously went wrong with this boiler. From looking at the boiler the tech manager concluded that no gas explosion had taken place which kind of makes sense to me as I never saw any flame at the time, none of the 24v wiring loom, polystyrene thermal insulation and no scorch marks were present on the boiler. From a safety standards point, the boilers are tested so that should there be an internal gas leak the boiler casing remains intact and doesn't as in this case shoot off and whack you in the face, so under no circumstances should it have been possible for what happened to have taken place. Apparently head office in Germany are now aware of what has happened and the boiler is now on it's way to France for independent testing. At the moment the conclusion is, is that a volume of air drawn in from the air intake of the flue acted like a sonic boom, so when the gas did ignite the air within the boiler blew outwards causing the casing to collapse........We'll see...

Sounds like a serious design fault then? Can hear the cash register ringing from here 

Nice pay out and (not so early) retirement.

Hi Barney

Just read your post mate, and I've suspended it for no other reason than I know you are letting off steam, it's very personal, and I don't want it to impact your business by having it public in case you regretted it. Like wise I can make it public again, or delete it, just let me know.

You said you are ignoring emails and phone-calls, so I'm hoping you are using the forum as an outlet and you read this.

You have had a string of bad luck that would be unbelievable in a Hollywood film, so it's no wonder you feel at rock bottom. Knowing nothing about your industry, I can only imagine the shock and trauma it must have caused, and an understandable loss of confidence.

You may remember a few years ago I mentioned to someone else when I hit the bottom and disappeared into a bottle. At the time I became insular, lost interest in everything apart from booze. My situation was grief, but I imagine the emotions aren't that dissimilar. Like you I had well meaning suggestions of help, and I suspect like you, ex Squaddie pride kept me from talking to a "tree hugger or do gooder" types. But it's a blinkered approach, and counselling can and does help countless people. You never know, give it a try, I didn't, but think I should have.

My fix was to jack in work and disappear for a few months down under. It worked for me, managed to get an emotional reboot and a fresh perspective on the world, something that seemed impossible only months before.

Yours may be to take a break, talk with someone, go and work with a cat sanctuary for a bit, or perform your own technical post mortem on what happened and comprehend exactly what happened, without any other day to day business pressures. But do something.

It's a shit cliche, but true, take one day at a time, and don't make any rash decisions. Feel free to rant, rah or sound off, either publicly or send me an email. But don't forget to feed the cats!

Really feel for you Barney, but hang in there and look at other options to improve your current state.  Totally agree with Steve on this one.

I agree too, we're all behind you here Barney. Take care xxx

I hope you are all right Barney x