Do I need boiler cover?

melwarner90

I have just bought a house. The boiler is about 3 years old and was last serviced in Feb this year. It is a glow worm combi boiler (can't remember what type off the top of my hear).

Both British Gas and Eon (who I am with for gas and electricity) are trying to sell me their boiler cover. My question is, do I need it? Or should I just put away the £14 per month into a savings account for when something does happen?

Lilium

I'd put the money away each month. Though if you do opt for boiler cover I do not recommend Eon. We had their boiler cover a few years ago and when our boiler developed a gas leak and had to be switched off they were pretty useless at fixing it. Well...the engineer was great when he got here but we had to badger the call centre several times a day for over a week to get anything booked and ensure someone came since their system seemed to mysteriously lose bookings. They were also supposed to come out to service it months before this happened...the service never happened because again, we booked it and my husband took time off work but, no one showed up because their computer system lost the booking.

Stuart_W

Might be worth just getting a local engineer to keep up annual servicing, and see if your insurance company offer anything.

Mine offer £2/month cover which covers all household emergencies including boiler and heating breakdown. I'm sure similar is offered elsewhere.

We used to have a British Gas service plan, but since getting a new boiler just pay the local company that installed it to service it each year, and the insurance is there if we need it (doesn't count as a claim on the main policy and no excess applies for £250 of charges). The main thing we like is having a number to contact that can get an engineer round promptly if things do go wrong, without unpredictable call-out charges.

British Gas do have a basic £9/month plan which covers an annual boiler service, and then if you do need to call someone out a fixed fee of £99 covers labour and parts and you have full access to BG's same/next day call out service.

Do check an annual boiler service is included in any plan you're looking at. Some of the cheapest ones don't.

macman

£14pm will cover an annual service and leave you £100 or so for any other repairs/callout that might be necessary. If so use a local independent GSR RGI.

BobQ

Not sure about other firms but, BG usually do not do a service, just a diagnostic/safety check. They only seem to service it (as most people understand the term) if they detect abnormal readings. The engineers are also more concerned with selling you other products (flushing systems, CO detectors etc) or issuing safety notices about minor safety issues arising from not complying with the current rules ( even though they installed it that way based on the then current regulations). THey do seem to spend more time on it and actually open the case up if you call them out on a Friday afternoon, its probably the weekend overtime rates! Rant over.

The question you have to ask is that if the boiler stops working on Christmas Eve or a Friday night in winter, how confident are you of getting an engineer out without a contract? Are you happy to wait till Monday or Tuesday to have the repair done? And are you sure they will have the right parts within 24 hours.

You may be right about saving £14 pcm, so £168. But it will probably cost about £50-60 to do an annual safety check plus VAT. You could try without one but while you might be content to risk your safety I would not. So you really stand to make a £100 if there are no faults.

But say the diaphragm goes? Typical call out for first hour might be £60 more if you want a guarateed response time. Say the job takes 1 hour, and the part costs £20. Add VAT and you have not saved anything. If its a water pump you are already out of pocket. And that assumes just one call out.

Personally, I think BG contracts are good value for money, you need an annual check and when you call them out late at night they have come quickly if necessary and they stock a good range of parts.

macman

And if you call BG out on Christmas Eve, or on a Bank Holiday, what is the chance of them attending within 24 hours anyway? They're usually swamped at such times and resort to subbing.

BobQ

macman wrote: »

And if you call BG out on Christmas Eve, or on a Bank Holiday, what is the chance of them attending within 24 hours anyway? They're usually swamped at such times and resort to subbing.

Well they came out to me on Boxing Day afternoon, after I called at 5pm Christmas Day.

melwarner90

Thanks for all of your replies!

I agree with what you are saying about emergencies... but we live very close to my parents who would happily have us stay over for a few days if needed, so I don't think that would be too much of a problem.

I will ring my insurance company tomorrow and see if they do extras that cover the boiler. Good thinking!