Our newish Vaillant EcoMax Boiler which we had fitted at the end of 2007 blew up the night before good Friday. Flames, fire brigade, emergency gas shut off = no hot water, burnt side of house and us very thankful as things could be much worse.

Now everyone is back to work I have to get someone to admit fault, it's a whodunnit.

Was it Vaillant for having a boiler that was known to have dodgy seals from new and didn't tell us that they needed replacing. Or the plumber for moving the boiler and not checking the seals? Or did he and find they were fine? In which case what cased the fire?

I'll be on the phone again for quite a while, I may be gone some time.

Update: So far I've spoke to many people and I havecome to the conclusion that the EcoMax had a fault that would have caused the fire even if there had been a service. For some reason the Safety cutoff valves and other computer fail safes did not kick in.

I found the Vaillant page were they Strongly recommend replacing the Seals, why was this not made puplic and who is to blame for not telling it's customers about this serious flaw?: http://www.vaillant.co.uk/installers/Service/service-reminder/ . Even if the seal had been changed, it looks likely that the fail saves did not work. What I need is a Vaillant expert to have a look.

The whole point of this post is this, if you have this EcoMax or EcoTec boiler pre April 2006, and you have not had it serviced, it's time you did, before it's too late. While they are doing it ask them to check the electrics.

I will know more soon, lets hope that Vaillant are true to their word and remove and replace the boiler without me having to fork out for it. Only time will tell, and I will tell you.