Boiler Service?

dagger_meerkat

I need some help out here, what is entailed in a boiler service? I mean do engineers adopt the "If it ain't broken, don't mess with it" attitude?

Coz I just had someone around to do a boiler service, all he did was look around, check for leaks. Looked at the gas meter, topped up the pressure and he says everything is fine because there is no funny noises or strange faults.

espresso

That sounds more like a safety check than a boiler service!

Cardew

Depends what type of boiler it is. Most have nothing to 'service' in the sense of parts to replace etc. A simple check ensures that it is running efficiently and above all safely.

BG get a lot of flak about this on their Homecare plan. However if anything goes wrong because it wasn't serviced correctly, BG have to fix it at their expense - so it is in their interests to do things properly.

If you have any doubts, look on the internet for your model and find out what is supposed to be done.

Ken68

What did he charge, Dagger for your safety check.??
Just had a reminder from my Heating Engineer , he will service an 8year old boiler and issue a safety certificate but am shopping around.He charges £50 . Took him half an hour last year, and he had two others to do in the same street. Perhaps without a certificate might be cheaper.

dagger_meerkat

I was charged 82 pounds for this, I have already sent a written complaint by e-mail to the company because as espresso pointed out, all he did is a simple safety check rather than a full extended boiler service and I think this includes, opening up the boiler, cleaning the parts, checking for scale, and quite a numerous number of tests as i have discovered after calling Corgi up and my boiler company. This would definately take more than half and hour I assume, but this guy did not have a clue about the boiler and was instead peeking about trying to pretend to be busy.

Switching on central heating, and hot water to see if its working is a test anyone can do. I have indeed been ripped off, I am thinking of calling up my credit card company and stopping the payment.

Ken68

WOW....you right to complain...my bloke at least took the cover off and descaled, hoovered whatever, then did the pressure thingy.
If as Cardew says not a lot to check why the high prices.
Corgi name I think, for what!!

wolfehouse

british gas started doing the same to my thorn boiler (at a previous address) because the seals were causing gas leaks into the house when repeatedly opened. they used to hoover etc. but then suddenly just started coming out with an electronic sniffer, taking a reading and leaving (and this was a decade ago).

I now have a combi boiler serviced by the manufacturers and they do take things apart and clean etc.

dagger_meerkat

wolfehouse wrote:

british gas started doing the same to my thorn boiler (at a previous address) because the seals were causing gas leaks into the house when repeatedly opened. they used to hoover etc. but then suddenly just started coming out with an electronic sniffer, taking a reading and leaving (and this was a decade ago).

I now have a combi boiler serviced by the manufacturers and they do take things apart and clean etc.

How much do the manufacturers charge you for servicing the boiler? Asked mine, and they quoted 150 pounds which is a bit steep.

wolfehouse

my service costs £110 but includes a years parts/labour insurance for breakdown. we have already had a fan changed and they are really nice to deal with if i have any problems.