How often should you have gas appliances serviced/checked?

Cardew

johnofhertford wrote:

I used to have my boiler serviced annually (actually I had BG 3 star cover). I cancelled because I thought it was too expensive and about 18 months later my boiler packed in on a freezing night in December - the call out fee cost me a fortune. Given the nature of the fault it's very unlikely that it would have happened if I'd had it serviced.

I now have my boiler and gas fire serviced annually - but by a local plumber not by BG.

What does the servicing entail? Parts checked? Parts changed?

Have a look at the servicing schedules for boilers available on the website - there is very little to be done in the way of servicing.

I have the BG home care package. However for me it is just a form of insurance and a safety check which covers the whole CH & HW ststem.

I have had mine done every year, to make sure that I don't have any huge repair bills, just like my car I also have it serviced evry year

I have 2 CH systems both 'serviced' every year and it hasn't prevented major(expensive) faults occurring - the only difference is that it hasn't cost me anything other than my annual ' Insurance Premium'.

So I don't think any servicing, however thorough, will make sure that there won't be huge repair bills. It is not like a car service, where there are oils, fluids and parts that wear, to check.

Ken68

Sounds a bit of a scam to me, £50 for a service, which is not really a service, because there are no serviceable parts
so what are the heating engineers doing for their £50.
A £25 alarm is better value, and learning in detail what the engineers actually DO.
Checking that there is a vent in the room is one.
A CO detector would check if there is a leak.
Hoovering out the innards is another.
But to plant doubt aka Corgi then charge you £50 sounds like a scam.

ageing_biker

my friend, an ex british gas engineer services my boiler, he says the main part of a service is cleaning, if a boiler is in a chimney it should be serviced annually as muck and dust fall down the chimney, for combis which have their flues through the wall every 2 years is ok, he also says service contracts are not good value