Boiler Servicing – What is it for?

Cardew

This thread is an attempt to get some opinions on a subject that I suspect will have Corgi plumbers up in arms!

Firstly, we get excellent advice on this forum from some Corgi fitters, however on this subject they will obviously have a vested interest.

At the beginning, let me say I am not talking here about the annual servicing contract like BG Homecare. This is essentially an insurance cover against breakdown, with a service as part of the plan.

Several of these Corgi fitters, at various times, have stressed the importance of annual servicing. However I wonder if this is really is essential and what does it achieve?

Note: “I wonder”! meaning I remain to be convinced.

I have 2 gas boilers, a 20 year old Ideal Mexico and a 15 year old Worcester combi.

For years I had the BG cover and thus got a service.

Watching the various Corgi engineers service the boilers over the years, and reading the full servicing manuals, the servicing consists mainly of cleaning.

The only adjustments are for the pilot light and gas pressure(if required - and I believe it never has needed adjusting ) so it is difficult to see how that will have a great effect on efficiency.

So my question is why do we require an annual service?

Will efficiency reduce over the years? Presumably measured by analysis of the flue gas?

If so what is done to correct this? Certainly both my full servicing manuals do not mention any adjustment or test of efficiency.

I looked at a couple of other manuals on-line(isn’t the internet wonderful) and they were the same.

Are there safety implications for gas boilers? I am aware that rented properties require annual safety inspections, but not for owners.

Just a point that always seems to come up. It is often said that BG fitters do not carry out a full service. Well mine did - every time - and I carefully checked what the did against the full servicing manual.

In any case it would not be in their interests to skimp on anything that would cause problems - as they would have to sort out those problems.

As I say, all valid questions IMO!

U've_been_framed

I haven't read any manuals, but if my boilers were 15 and 20 years old I would certainly want them checking out annually, if only for safety reasons.
My own central heating is covered by a maintenance contract which paid for itself when the boiler kept cutting out. It took a lot of visits, but at the end of the day I had a boiler that had 90% new parts.

Snow_Dog

Dad used to be a heating engineer specialising in ducted warm air systems, afaik one of the important things he did in a service was to check the state of the heat exchanger, if it was perforated you would end up with carbon monoxide blown around your house into every room. Not nice.

Otherwise the service is a clean up and inspect, preventative maintenance.

owned_by_2_Siamese

I have two properties - one oil one gas. The oil service involves the annual replacement of parts (so you see what you get!) The burner jet. After its done its quieter and uses less oil! No BG service contract exists really for oil so its a guy from the next village -£70 all in
As for the Gas well a 17 year old boiler in a small flat - last service revealed the heat exchanger had got blocked up with crap and guess what ? Carbon Monoxide.... so an annual service can be a life saver.... No parts were exchanged so no tangible evidence!!!
So my take on it is Oil to keep it working, Gas - for safety, think about how paranoid we are about drafts and insulation - very limited airflow so ifs faulty you have little chance but to get a lung full of Carbon Monoxide...

How about the age old question though - service contract or local guy you know and trust ?

TankMaster

Many years ago, I was loosely involved in research into the effect of having oil boilers serviced. In terms of efficiency alone, a boiler service can pay for itself very quickly - when in the space of five years (and perhaps less) a boiler can lose up to 15% of its efficiency.

Aside from the boiler, on an oil system any competent installer should also be replacing the flexible oil supply line feed, which if not replaced can ultimately doze. The filter at the connection to the tank should also be replaced and in the case of a bunded oil tank, any condensate which has formed between the inner and the outer tank should also be removed.

As a matter of course I always dip the tank using water finding paste to determine the level of residual water inside the tank. I would automatically remove anything other than a trace element, to prevent potentially expensive problems in the future. And I would also check the fire valve on the oil line.

Then there's the matter of maintaining the validity of product warranties. Most plastic oil tanks these days are supplied with a 10 year warranty and on the front of them there's an Oil Care Label which specifically instructs that the tank and pipework is inspected every year and the inspection's recorded.

I undertake work for a number of oil tank manufacturers and no annual inspection means no warranty... which is fine for me, as I make more money from one off general public installations than I do on contract warranty work for tank manufacturers And much the same applies on boilers and burner units too.

In essence and subject to the claims of some self-professed armachair experts, modern oil heating systems are not fit and forget products.

Regards

TM

TankMaster

Many years ago, I was loosely involved in research into the effect of having oil boilers serviced. In terms of efficiency alone, a boiler service can pay for itself very quickly - when in the space of five years (and perhaps less) a boiler can lose up to 15% of its efficiency.

Aside from the boiler, on an oil system any competent installer should also be replacing the flexible oil supply line feed, which if not replaced can ultimately doze. The filter at the connection to the tank should also be replaced and in the case of a bunded oil tank, any condensate which has formed between the inner and the outer tank should also be removed.

As a matter of course I always dip the tank using water finding paste to determine the level of residual water inside the tank. I would automatically remove anything other than a trace element, to prevent potentially expensive problems in the future. And I would also check the fire valve on the oil line.

Then there's the matter of maintaining the validity of product warranties. Most plastic oil tanks these days are supplied with a 10 year warranty and on the front of them there's an Oil Care Label which specifically instructs that the tank and pipework is inspected every year and the inspection's recorded.

I undertake work for a number of oil tank manufacturers and no annual inspection means no warranty... which is fine for me, as I make more money from one off general public installations than I do on contract warranty work for tank manufacturers And much the same applies on boilers and burner units too.

In essence and contrary to the claims of some self-professed armachair experts, modern oil heating systems are not fit and forget products. I've seen time and again where people who think they are, ultimately find out they have made a very expensive mistake.

Regards

TM

Cardew

Tankmaster,

Thanks for the above - it seem that fuel contamination on oil boilers is a problem.

My point was that in the full servicing schedule on gas boilers there seems to be no adjustment of anything that will improve efficiency - or indeed measuring efficiency.

How to you measure the fall off in efficiency on oil boilers?(it seems logical that performance could drop off) and are there adjustments on the boiler?

Ken68

I have skipped one years servicing and fitted a Carbon Monoxide meter.
And £60 for half an hours 'service' has always seemed way over the top and of course if unnecessary anyway, a swindle.

moonrakerz

I must confess that I have always harboured the same doubts as Cardew.

Up until last Dec I had an oil fired boiler, from new until I moved out when the boiler (Trianco) was 21 years old. I never got it serviced every year, usually every 2 or 3 years, if it was lucky. Every service the man (local one man outfit) said it was nice and clean and put new burner nozzles in. Several times I asked him if it was time to replace it - each time an emphatic no !
My metal tank lasted about 16 years, I replaced it with another metal tank for 3 reasons:
1. I thought plastic ones were b****y expensive.
2. A similar capacity plastic tank (600 gals) occupied a lot more space.
3. I would have moved on by the time the second one needed replacing !

I can't say that I noticed any loss of efficiency by it using more oil over the years. In general I was very happy with the system, despite the warnings of the doom and gloom merchants at the time - "oil is very expensive, etc, etc". My first fill was 10p per litre - or was that per gallon !!

I believe that some of the new boilers "require" servicing twice a year - hmm !

Canucklehead

Hi


http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Deadly-gas-killed-boy-as.1244296.jp

Please note the quote near the end of the report about servicing /safety checks.

A CO alarm is a poor substitute for annual servicing/maintenance of your entire central heating system.

Corgi Guy

TankMaster

Cardew wrote: »

Tankmaster,

Thanks for the above - it seem that fuel contamination on oil boilers is a problem.

Yup, there certainly seems to be something weird going on with oil at the moment - either as a result of cross contamination, or else as a result of somebody somewhere screwing around with fuel specs. The worrying thing is that proposed EU changes to Kerosene specs in the UK will only add to the problem. More information here:

http://www.tankdepot.co.uk/articles/99,1/index.htm

Scarey stuff me thinks!

Regards

TM