Can you work on a boiler if your not Gas Safe?

[Deleted member 25704]

I kind of disagree with your comment on ACS.

What in your opinion would be a reliable test of competence?

No problems with your well-made points Graham. But I can offer a better, more valid way of assessing competence, and its been used since we were hunter gatherers.

Its called clinical observation. If I wished to have an adequate understanding of your competence, I would not invite you to a training centre.

I would want to observe your performance in different work contexts. I could assess your 'know how', knowledge and performance without saying a word to you. It would take a couple of days at the most.

If I wished to accertain your understandings of abstract (written) knowledge, I could verbally question you, while you are working - but this knowledge often has limited use in work situations for most technicians.

I could offer more technical faults with competency and competence, with regard to what they mean and how they are defined, but I know one thing for sure - the current system does not test understanding, or knowledge or performance because they are tested in simulated environments - so they immediately contradict any sort of claim to 'competence' because this can only be tested in real situations - would we be happy with surgeon working on our families, that have only practised on dummies - I doubt it. Would we be happy flying with pilots that had only learned on simulators...probably not.


It has become a belief that we can be trained in these situations, but really we only start learning on the job...we all know this for sure. So apprenticeship is the most reliable system - all other routes are a short-cut to this, and hence questionable as to their reliability and validity.

This is a well documented area of discussion, and the Germans don't buy it - that is almost good enough for me!

 

[Robert Howes]

What about bleeding the pump in a combi boiler? Removing the brass plug and turning the rotor with a screwdriver then replacing the plug? Is that legal or do I need to be Gas Safe registered to do that?

 

[Reg Man]

As long as you don't break into the gas way. Its then not gas work. Question is? why do you mess about heating systems if your not proven competent to do so.

 

[Reg Man]

Question is? why are you messing around a boiler that you have not been proven competent in an assessment centre and are not legally registered to do so. Finer detail is if you have not broken into a gas way then that is not illegal.

 

[Robert Howes]

By training I am a car mechanic and I understand mechanical things like the mechanical parts of a boiler. Cars are arguably more dangerous than boilers. They have killed millions of people and you don't need to be certificated to work on them. If a pump sticks I free it up.

 

[Dotty]

Removing the case constitutes gas work as it invariably forms part of the combustion seal.

So, to put it bluntly, no you cannot. This is in accordance with section 26(9) with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations.

Irregardless of you being a mechanic and your trade kills more than ours.

If there's something wrong with your boiler I suggest you call in a gsr.