???

Suprima Board with upgrade wiring loom £199 +Vat
About 3/4 hr to fit & test so say 1 Hour, Why should you pay for the time taken to collect the part?

I would suggest that the £270 you have been quoted should be inclusive of labour (+15% Vat) = just over £300. any more and he is taking the P**s

Boiler repairman
August 2009

Some boards, potterton suprima etc are £ 270, and they are a pain to fit as well. jon

jon wells
August 2009

Worse of course is the general cost of all Printed Circuit Boards for Gas Boilers - they are very simple devices with very few components - just think of a moblie 'phone for cost and complexity. A boiler PCB probably cost no more then £20 to manufacture in volume and may be as little as £10 or even £5. For the parts channel to sell these things for sums in excess of £100 is a wicked scandal. It's sometimes possible to repair them yourself... See this link...

http://kaijaks.co.uk/blog/nick/2008/02/10/dodgy-old-boiler

to see just how easy it can be.

Peccavi
August 2009

Not until you part with the £270 - then you may have been conned...

A PCB might cost as much as £200 for some boilers but usually closer to £120 - it might take as much as 20 minutes to replace it.

The engineer making the diagnosis, driving to the parts depot, buying the part, driving back and fitting it and then testing the boiler for correct operation and any other safety checks he deems necessary or is required by regulation to conduct (or thinks he is or manages to convince you that he is) - could easily take a couple of hours to do this. Allow say, £30 an hour for his time and £150 for the part then you're up to £210 - VAT might bring this up to £240 or so.

Some boiler engineers, just like the rest of us, sometimes tend to guess the most probable cause - they are not usually too clued up on electronics and the control board is an easy fall back for them and very often they're right.

A key question to your engineer might be, "who pays if it isn't the control board?" Some naughty engineers will just replace parts at your expense until they stumble on the true cause - they will claim that several parts had all broken down at the same time which is most improbable.

You do not mention the make or model of your boiler or the failure symptom - you are perfectly entitled to buy and replace the PCB yourself unless you're a Landlord.

Do not let others try to scare you by quoting safety regs...

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998
can be found here...

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1998/19982451.htm

Of interest is the following from PART A GENERAL

(6) Nothing in these Regulations shall apply in relation to

(c) work in relation to a control device on a gas appliance if -

(i) the device is intended primarily for use by a consumer of gas; and

(ii) the work does not involve breaking into a gasway.

Good luck...

Peccavi
August 2009