New Prices From March 1st

I've finally finished working out the prices for 2010.

Regular customers know that we are renowned for value for money and I am delighted to announce that our new price list, which comes into effect on 1st March, continues to offer fantastic value. A copy of the list is below (click on the photo to enlarge it). You will see that increases on the Supreme Steam and water boilers are below 1% and our best selling 1500LCD has gone up by just £10 to £429 an increase of less than 2.4%.

But what about the CT & WM range you ask? Well these have increased by around 6% on average BUT, and its a very BIG but, we are offering improvements that are worth far more to the customer. When the new models are launched at Hotelympia next month we will be showing you how the boilers can be programmed to switch on and off at set times on a seven day timer, another Instanta innovation, and more evidence of our commitment to energy saving and to the environment.

What's more, these models' PCB circuits will incorporate a monitor which, if used in conjunction with Instanta scale reducing products, will flag up when the filter should be changed. In the past, customers have had to rely upon an external monitor which cost over £30. So, whilst there's no hiding from the fact that there is an increase, by giving you these great improvements we are continuing to offer wonderful value.

Orange? We were seeing red!

When the phone rings in the middle of the night it's usually a cause for panic. Has the burglar alarm at the factory been activated? Has a relative been involved in an accident? So when we were woken up at 1.30 this morning by my mobile beeping we were a a bit shaken. And when Marion's did the same a few seconds later we were really worried. Sitting up in bed with a jolt I grabbed the phones to find on both a message from Orange. It seems that they were updating our phones' software. Well thanks a lot Orange. Next time you choose to do so how about doing it at a time when your customers are awake?



I don't want to get at Orange too much as they are, of course, the sponsors of our favourite Orange Wednesday and dedicated to the film industry which is our passion. It's quite strange at the moment with a great choice of films on this week after weeks of our struggling to find something to see.This week there is Sherlock Holmes, The Road, Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll and we still haven't seem Avatar yet. I wish the film industry could get its act together and spread the good films out over the year but, of course, we are in the Oscar season now, hence the glut.



I like to think that I keep up with what's going on in the world and in touch with all the latest trends so when I first heard about Facebook a few years ago I enrolled straight away and managed to find no less than ten friends (about five more than I have in real life). It was a bit of fun and I enjoyed the news feeds and the wall messages but at Christmas I realised that I had about forty friends and didn't really know any of them. Was I really bothered that they burned the turkey or went to watch Spurs or were happy that they won ten quid on the lottery? Did I want to join in a pillow fight check my IQ against theirs,see how alike my favourite song choices were or send them a cow for their farm? No. So I am no longer a member of Facebook and find I have a few minutes more time in my life and that's something that I do want.



It's about time that we told you a bit more about our superb new boilers that we are going to be launching at Hotelympia. We like to keep our cards close to our chests until fairly close to the exhibition as we don't want the competition to steal our thunder and copy us but I don't think that they will have time to catch up now. Here is the new CT8000. It's a bigger version of the CT6000 so, you might think, nothing much new there. But! The new CT8000 along with all the CT range of boilers AND the WM range will now include programmable timers. This means that customers will be able to chose the time of day when the boiler switches on and switches off on a seven day timer. This will enable users to gain the maximum energy efficiency and optimise their power consumption.

But that's not all. In addition, the CT and WM boiler programs will now have the scale monitor that was an optional extra built in as standard. This will allow the installers to choose from a range of scale treatment to suit the site and program the boilers to warn when the filter needs to be changed.

There's more too but I will save this for another blog.

Yesterday I finished with a dog. Today I'll end with a topical cat.

Isn't She lovely

I'm not a dog lover. I'm not even an animal lover. But even I can appreciate what a lovely little creature office manager Jenny Buckley and husband Craig in sales department have in their new pet Poppy. Poppy, a cross bred King Charles and Springer spaniel was the Buckley's Christmas present to themselves and I'm sure that the little beauty couldn't have found a better home.



After working on the new prices for 1st March during the holiday period, I've been tweaking them a bit more today. We still haven't settled on the exact figures but we are getting close and will be issuing a newsletter next week together with copies of the new price list. Watch this space for advance notification.



The thaw is finally starting to set in. After days of sub zero temperatures we've actually seen positive figures on the thermometer today. I suppose that this is no news at all to you if you are reading this in the UK but it's good to wake up and see that the car windscreen does not need cleaning for once.



My mum's birthday went off well on Friday. The film "It's Complicated" was anything but complicated but it was a bit of fun and we enjoyed it. We took my mum on to Chiquitos where we were joined by my brother and sister in law for a bite to eat. At 84 mum is looking well and is still going very strong.

I'll close today with a dedication to Poppy.

A Chip Off The Old Block?

Like father like son they say don't they? But when I visited my son and his lovely fiancee Josephine on Tuesday and asked her to show me what Paul had bought her for Christmas I found that I had been outdone. All that I had bought for Marion was this pottery cat albeit a very nice vintage one made by the famous Wemyss pottery and decorated by the leading artist Joseph Nekola but, Josephine, after showing me the wonderful inlaid rosewood regency box that Paul had given her, went on to tell me about this dress.



Not only is it a beautiful vintage dress but it also happens to be one of those beautiful vintage dresses that once belonged to Audrey Hepburn that were auctioned to great publicity in London last month. And the dress is just the right size for Josephine (a huge Hepburn fan).My excuse? Marion is too tall, honest.



We were in London to, amongst other things, talk about how their wedding plans are going. It's only five or six weeks now. I'm sure that Paul won't outshine us on that front. We had a wonderful wedding at Rainham Town Hall and a fabulous reception in the local scout hut. The sausages on sticks were to die for. Beat that sunshine.



Meanwhile at Instanta, office assistant Lee Moore has been busily organising this year's Instanta golf tournament.It is usually played on a Monday when the shift pattern allows the lads in the factory to play but this year we've got three golfers in the office and we can't afford for all of them to be off on the same day so Lee has arranged a great event for a weekend. He's put a tremendous effort into doing it and I think that they are going to have a memorable time.



At the moment I am wishing that we were back in the days when we were using phones like this. Since we came back from the holidays we have been inundated with callers telling us that they can't get through by phone or fax on our main numbers which are operated by a hi tech VOIP switchboard. Our service providers are treating it as urgent but we don't like being told that our number is "not recognised". If you do have this problem please try our direct numbers on the website.

It's my mum's 84th birthday today. We are going to go to the pictures to see the New Meryl Streep movie "It's Complicated". The reviews are glowing so I'm sure that mum will love it. I know that those customers who remember her from her days at Instanta will join us in wishing her a very happy day.

Hans Kleiner Apolon Services Ltd 31st March 1940 - 23rd December 2009

One of the last things that I did before we closed for the Christmas break was phone around our service agents to enquire if they would be operating over the holiday period and asking them if I could put their details on the blog for emergency cover. Amongst those I phoned was our old favourite Hans Kleiner of Apolon Services of Coventry and Hans was pleased to confirm that yes, he would be available and was happy to go on the list.

Tragically this was to be my last ever conversation with him as Mrs Judith Kleiner telephoned Instanta upon our return to advise us that, less than twenty four hours after we chatted about our Christmas plans, poor Hans suffered a fatal stroke.

Hans was 69 but was still working and very active - retirement was something we never discussed. At well over six feet tall, he was a gentle giant of a man. We could always rely upon him to carry out service work for Instanta in a quick, courteous and efficient manner and there are very few engineers in the country with Hans' knowledge of Instanta boilers.

Hans' birth place was Reichenbach Falls, where Arthur Conan Doyle had decided to give Sherlock Holmes his final resting place in the adventure “The Final Problem” in 1891. Hans moved to Wales when he was just five and grew up there. At thirty he moved to Coventry and after a period working as an engineer for Hobart started Apolon Services. My brother Peter always spoke very highly of Mr Kleiner and when Peter retired and I had more contact with our service agents, I shared Peter's opinion. Hans was someone that we could ask a favour of and know that he would react positively. He always put Instanta first and would drop everything to carry out work for us. He was totally competent and we will find him very very hard to replace as agents like him are few and far between.

We once wrote this feature in our newsletter highlighting some of our favourite engineers and Hans, of course was amongst them.

He is survived by sons Dieter and Aaron, daughters Kate and Joanne and two grandchildren Herbert and Mila. He will be sorely missed by them, by Judith and by all of us at Instanta. We hope that somewhere up there he finds one of those wonderful German bierfests that were his lasting passion.

If you do Hans, have a stein on us.

10:10 Our Commitment Starts Now

In an attempt to do our bit for global warming, Marion and I are now proud owners of a Toyota Prius. We've only had it for a few days and have only driven some short journeys but it looks like it's going to give us some good fuel consumption figures. One thing that is very noticeable is the engine noise (or lack of it). When driving on the battery the car is virtually silent. One thing that attracted me to the car was the automatic parking assist which allows the car to reverse park itself (if you've ever seen my attempts at reverse parking you will know what an asset this could be). Only problem is I can't work out how to use it yet. I'll have a practice in the car park here later and see if I can manage.



How things have changed. I remember Christmases past when the kids were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Father Christmas with all the latest gadgets whilst sad old mum and dad got something for the kitchen. This year the tables were completely turned with Sarah and Paul buying us a Nintendo Wii whilst we were giving them stuff for their kitchens. The Wii is good but you have to stand well clear of Marion or a black eye is a real possibility.



Shortly before we shut down for the Christmas break I reported that buyer Gavin had proposed to his partner Julie but illustrated the news with an inappropriate photo of Gav in shorts outside a beach bar. But now we've got something a bit more like it. Here are the happy couple in front of a romantic Caribbean sunset. What a glamorous pair they make.



Marion and I came into the office during the holidays. Marion tidied up the books whilst I wrote a newsletter that we're sending out very soon. It's all about prices for 2010. They come into effect on 1st March. We've managed to keep the increases to a minimum and any big price hikes will be matched by a corresponding improvement in features. From 1st March our CT and WM range will offer programme upgrades that will be in keeping with the 10:10 initiative. We'll tell you more soon.Here is a sneak preview of the prices. There are a few gaps, it's a work in progress.



It's freezing today. I hope the car park is not too icy to try the parking assist. And I hope the Prius holds the road better than this.

So Here It Is Merry Christmas

We would like to wish all our customers and suppliers the very happiest of Christmases and a very peaceful and prosperous 2010.



Here's proud dad sheet metalworker Gary Rodwell with his lovely daughter Ella. Gary popped into the office yesterday to let us see how little Ella is growing up. She's a beautiful baby with a lovely manner. It was a pity that Marion and I both have colds and had to keep her at arms length.

If you are very unlucky and have suffered a boiler breakdown during the holiday period please contact the nearest service agent on the following list. These are running a skeleton service on Tuesday 29th, Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st December and they will do their best to help you. Before contacting them please have your boiler serial number ready and a full description of the fault. Engineers will not be able to attend to problems with taps under guarantee other than on the WB2 supreme models and please remember that problems caused by limescale or misuse are excluded from the terms of the Instanta guarantee.

London and Home Counties tel City Servicing 01375380165

West Mildands tel Apolon Services 07860791720

South West tel Hawkins Vending Repairs 07860828363

Merseyside and North West England tel Catertech 01512601661

East Midlands and Yorkshire tel Catershield 01159 633681 or 07506867939

South East Coast tel North Brighton Catering 07967198266

Hampshire tel Ocean Catering 01202233496

Cambridgeshire and parts of East Anglia tel Bob Hopper 01223506001

Northern Ireland tel William Gardienr & Sons tel 02890797360 (closed Tuesday)

Lake District tel CEM 01539445939

South Wales tel ABM 02920497755

Scotland tel BACS 01316630674

North East England tel Service 2000 0191 420 2899