What should I expect from a competent central heating engineer?

[JPE234]

I had an engineer out today to quote me for a boiler install. It got me thinking, what should they be doing so I that I can see they're competent? This thread is inspired by something I read on here earlier.

 

[Timmy D]

That’s a tough one really.

Someone with zero plumbing knowledge decides to change career and does a quick gas course. A month later they’re qualified and deemed as competent. A week later they set up on their own and go around slinging boilers on the wall.

However, the gas course doesn’t teach you about heating systems, design, heat calcs, domestic water systems and everything else that goes on.

The best chance of getting a decent engineer is by recommendation.

If they’re unrecommended, you can ask to see their gas card and ask questions. However, ask too many questions and they might feel like you’re gonna be a pain in the bum customer and decide it’s not worth it.

It is honestly a difficult one.

You need to ask the questions during the estimate visit.
What boiler? Why?
What output? How’d you calc?
Etc

I’m good at building rapport, simplifying terminology and have no problem explaining the options to a customer in as much or as little detail as they want.
Some of the best engineers aren’t. This doesn’t make them bad.

During an estimate, within a minute of walking in, I pretty much know what I’m gonna do/cost etc. The rest of the time is building rapport and dealing with customer concerns/expectations.

The biggest is expectations, if they don’t ask what you expect out of the job, it could miss the mark.

Your hot water cylinder on a pump could be full of scale and you’re hot water is running out too quickly.
You’ve heard about combi boilers and how they provide continuous hot water.
You think perfect and tell the engineer to remove your system boiler/hot water tank and to install a combi.

Engineer leaves, the next morning you use 2 showers at the same time and the flow/temp is worse than before.
A combi wasn’t suitable but the engineer didn’t pick up on it because they didn’t ask the correct questions.

You can probably get a better gauge of competency by the questions the engineer asks.

That was a bit of a rant, sorry