When is gas boiler service not a service?

maple41 · 23 September 2010 at 2:33PM

Answer - when its a Homeserve Annual Service included in their gas boiler breakdown cover!

It is only a visual inspection, took the engineer today less than 10 minutes including filling in his paperwork.
Phoned Homeserve, they only do visual inspections despite the need to replace the burner door seal which according to Vaillant should be replaced at the annual service - Homserve will wait for the seal to fail, with cosequent risk of damage to the boiler( again according to Vailllant) before they will do anything.
So beware if you take out a Homeserve policy expecting to get an Annual Service included as per their policy paperwork.:mad:

Cardew · 23 September 2010 at 6:54PM

If that is the case, report them to Trading Standards.

However get that in writing from Vaillant or look up the Vaillant Servicing Schedule on line.

Perhaps some of the Gas Safe fitters on here(like Canucklehead) can comment - seems strange to me that a faulty burner door seal would cause damage as opposed to loss of efficiency.

gas4you · 23 September 2010 at 7:32PM

It depends how old your Vaillant is and which one it is.

The recall on the combustion chamber seals was for the Ecotec Plus boilers only, according to Vaillant, yet the same seal was used on the Ecomax and the Glow Worms as well!

If your boiler is 2 years old or less, then it should have been supplied with the new graphite seal fitted as standard. Vaillant would tell you from the serial number.

If it has a graphite seal, which the engineer would be able to tell, then Vaillant say that if the flame picture and the FGA readings are ok, then this seal will last for 5 years. If the combustion chamber is opened, then the seal must be replaced.

The older silicone rubber seals had to be changed every year at the boiler service. A lot weren't by the less scrupulous engineers and made the fault a lot worse.

He should have at least tested the boiler with a FGA as these gas valves tend to creep up and out of adjustment over the 12 month period.

I do not trust the 5 year time frame and also do not like the idea of the heat exchanger not being inspected or cleaned for 5 years, regardless of what Vaillant say, so I always open it up every 3 years and replace the seal, unless something tells me there could be a problem inside.

He should also have emptied and cleaned the condensate trap whilst there.

Nebacaneza · 23 September 2010 at 9:17PM

gas4you wrote: »

It depends how old your Vaillant is and which one it is.

The recall on the combustion chamber seals was for the Ecotec Plus boilers only, according to Vaillant, yet the same seal was used on the Ecomax and the Glow Worms as well!

If your boiler is 2 years old or less, then it should have been supplied with the new graphite seal fitted as standard. Vaillant would tell you from the serial number.

If it has a graphite seal, which the engineer would be able to tell, then Vaillant say that if the flame picture and the FGA readings are ok, then this seal will last for 5 years. If the combustion chamber is opened, then the seal must be replaced.

The older silicone rubber seals had to be changed every year at the boiler service. A lot weren't by the less scrupulous engineers and made the fault a lot worse.

He should have at least tested the boiler with a FGA as these gas valves tend to creep up and out of adjustment over the 12 month period.

I do not trust the 5 year time frame and also do not like the idea of the heat exchanger not being inspected or cleaned for 5 years, regardless of what Vaillant say, so I always open it up every 3 years and replace the seal, unless something tells me there could be a problem inside.

He should also have emptied and cleaned the condensate trap whilst there.

ill second that

ollski · 26 September 2010 at 11:54PM

Cardew wrote: »

seems strange to me that a faulty burner door seal would cause damage as opposed to loss of efficiency.

I have had one of these burner door seals fail with the heat escaping into the chamber and melting a hole in the plastic flue. This caused water to drip into the chamber and rotted it through rendering the boiler scrap. Its needs a quick check.

Pincher · 27 September 2010 at 12:09AM

Burner door seal fails = escaping CO = death.

maple41 · 28 September 2010 at 9:04AM

Update
Thanks for all your responses. I have spoken to Vaillant who confirm that the boiler should have "proper" service and that they are aware that Homeserve have a 12 point service schedule to follow and that this should take 30 - 45 mins to do the job properly.
Further call to Homeserve - as a complaint - and they agree that a full service is included in the boiler breakdown plan and they would send another engineer (unfortunately from the same subcontracted company as they don't have anyone else in the Peterborough area).
Promised a call to agree a suitable date and time, not received!
Moral of this, moneysaving isn't always the best option. Saved £12 on the cost of bolier breakdown cover with Homeserve compared with direct with Vaillant. Vaillant engineer was very good on previous service.

maple41 · 1 November 2010 at 2:32PM

Update
Finally resolved after Homeserve agreed "service" should have been done in accordance with manufacturers recommendations. When another engineer arrived at the agreed time he "didn't know what make of boiler he had come to service so hadn't brought a graphite seal with him".
Three failed appointements later when they simply failed to turn up, despite assurances that an engineer was coming, first engineer then turned up again with correct parts. He had to be shown what to do from the Vaillant service book "in order to do the service the old fashioned way".
Compensation has been promised by Homeserve and a full inquiry after a formal complaint raised, but I am not holding my breath - moral of this experience, will never ever use Homeserve again. (Their subcontracted gas engineers are expected to work till 11pm at night, no wonder they don't turn up!)

macman · 1 November 2010 at 4:05PM

The moral is, don't take annual boiler/CH servicing contracts at all. Just find yourself a local independent RGI who knows your make and model, and get them to do an annual service.

rassy · 5 October 2012 at 1:23PM

Hi, we had a problem with our halstead boiler the beginning of this year and from all our research it seems the seal failed although our service engineer said he had never seen this problem before!
Our co alarm was activated in our little girls room and if it had not been for our alarm we would not have known co was escaping from our boiler whilst our daughter slept!
We called transco who said we could not use the boiler until we had a service engineer look at it. We called our usual engineer out and he told us the boiler had to be completely replaced.
We later found out that dimplex who merged with halstead had collabarated with gas safe to issue a bulletin to companies that service boilers saying they strongly advised the replacement of the silicone seal to graphite in certain model, ours being one! We had never been told this by our service engineer and they had never replace our seal so we are trying to find out when this bulletin and concern was raised originally and if our service engineer should have replace the seal?? any help would be greatly appreciated!

justin277 · 3 January 2014 at 5:36PM

to update this thread for 2014. I've just had the nPower Homeserve engineer over this morning for the first annual service.

Visual inspection of the boiler only. Said he couldnt reach the gasket as the cupboard was too small, but given the age likely to need a gasket replacement. Will be £29.99. Inspection took 10min, plus a further 10mins on his mobile phone to call his office to arrange spares and arrange a repeat visit for fitting.

Have called nPower this afternoon and cancelled my contract.

When is gas boiler service not a service?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free