Boiler Shutdown

[Daren Koniuk]

Hi all,

I inspected a house 4 months ago and it had an old boiler heating system. During the inspection the boiler operated fine but had a few issues that were pointed out to be corrected.

I just got a call from the new owner who has some issues with it. They just signed a new service contract and the new company service person came for a "tune up". The owner tells me that the report stated something that the "shutdown is unsafe!!!!!", it needing new something about "compression", a new oil line and recommended to replace with a new boiler (of course leaving a catalog).

We both agreed that at the time of the inspection the boiler was operating properly. I also explained that my inspection is only limited in scope and is not as in depth as a service technician from a heating company I also explained that we do not test every control and swith on the boiler on a typical home inspection.

The twist is that the previous owner had a service guy in one month after me and found no real issues. So now this guy doesn't know who to believe.

I told him that I was not a heating service technician and could not offer him any further or better in depth knowledge, that an professional independant third party would be best.

Does this sound right. I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing overall.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Thomas H. Dietrich]

Ask who was the 'previous' service tech, and get them back. There might be a service agreement that had 'transferible' services.

tom

[Thomas Duchesneau]

If boiler shutdown through any of the safety controls was unsafe, the tech. should have left the boiler off and red tagged.
He could have noticed a leaky oil supply line that needed new tubing and compression fittings.
Sounds like he was trying to scare the customer into buying a new boiler.
An uninterested third party opinion would be wise.