My daughter's been at her house just over a year, she had a SMETS2 smart meter fitted today.
While there the fitter checked the boiler and gas fire, he did a spillage test on fire and it failed, then disconnected the fire, filled in a form and went.
My daughter said he turned on the fire, left it 2 mins at the very most, and done the test.
I've done some quick research online and think he should have done more checks before disconnecting, can anyone please confirm?
Thanks
Should be tested after around 5 mins and if it fails let it warm up for another 5 minutes and carry out another check, I can’t remember the last time I had a fire fail it’s spillage check.
Smart meter engineers haven’t got the qualifications to fully work on fires, I think they just have basic purge and relight tickets.
Another good reason to tell them to stick their smart meter.
We do quite a few follow up calls for this. The Smart meter fitters do not generally have the full range of qualifications or experience to deal with lots of appliances. They will be qualified to carry out the works required to exchange the meters and carry out the required purge, light and basic safety checks to appliances afterwards, as the gas fire in question sounds like an open flued appliance, this does require a spillage test, however, this test can take up to 15 minutes plus to carry out.
I suspect the smart meter engineer has done what many of them do and err on the side of safety, open flued appliances make many inexperienced engineers nervous and some aren’t confident to take the responsibility leave of leaving an open flued appliance connected and working
That said, if it did fail the spillage test the. It absolutely should be cut off and made safe until further servicing / testing can take place. Not many fail if the appliances are serviced and the test carried out properly.
Probably a perfect time to have the gas fire serviced and checked for safety if it hasn’t been done in the last 12 months.
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Thanks all, I do realise gas safety is paramount, but a 2 minute test doesn't seem to me sufficient.
I feel sure he should have (like has been said) retested after warming flue some more.
I also read the need to shut all doors and windows, but he left the lounge door open.
Yes, doors and windows closed, testing with any fans, extractors etc, it can be quite a process.
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