Best value for annual boiler service

Moon_River_2

Please TAKE CARE.
I have just had -17/9/2013-a renewal invitation for a years Npower Hometeam boiler care. Whilst the monthly fee has risen from 17.50 to 18.00, the unique hundred quid CASHBACK arrangement has been ditched. The cashback is due if you do not call out an engineer over the 12 month period(one service visit allowed.
Some folk might interpret this as a 100% price hike!

ilikewatch

Ken68 wrote: »

I thought of having it done every other year.

I've completely given up having mine serviced - it got to the point that it felt like I was paying £50 odd quid a year for the privilege of someone coming to my house to suck their teeth and tell me that I needed to spend thousands on a new boiler because mine was "obsolete". Instead I've invested in a good CO alarm and left it well alone.

Southend1

Had mine done recently. Quoted £58 then tried to charge £67, told him where to get off. All he did was a quick visual check and suck out the dust with a Hoover. He was gas safe though. Don't think I would bother again. As another poster said get a CO alarm and leave out the "servicing".

nickj_2

£60 over a year is only £1-15 per week or 16p per day , it's hardly breaking the bank , do you really value your life and your family's life so little ?
you wouldn't want to drive a car that hasn't been serviced for 5 years , so why not your gas boiler

jellie

If I was looking to make savings, not getting the boiler serviced every year would definitely not be on the list.

Southend1

If there was anything involved in the "service" then I would have it done as often as needed. However why pay £60 for someone to simply Hoover out the dust and check the flames burn blue by looking through the peephole?

locky123

Personally I dont have my boiler serviced annually. If its relatively new then I am not sure there is a real need. I came across this info...

The original concept of annual servicing was for open flued boilers, which did need an annual clean etc due to the dirt that would be drawn into the boiler during its operation, but modern condensing boilers are very clean boilers, with pre-mix burners etc the dirt issue has gone, in Europe they do not service their boilers annually and the makes of boilers I service only require an analyser annually, as long as the readings are within a certain % of the manufacturers requirements and if you have the information the previous years results, then that is as far as you go, if however the readings are out then further servicing would be required, but every four years the boiler is stripped and seals etc replaced regardless.
This is simply a case of the UK not moving forward with maintenance of boilers with the new clean burning boilers we currently have on the market.

southcoastrgi

locky123 wrote: »

Personally I dont have my boiler serviced annually. If its relatively new then I am not sure there is a real need. I came across this info...

The original concept of annual servicing was for open flued boilers, which did need an annual clean etc due to the dirt that would be drawn into the boiler during its operation, but modern condensing boilers are very clean boilers, with pre-mix burners etc the dirt issue has gone, in Europe they do not service their boilers annually and the makes of boilers I service only require an analyser annually, as long as the readings are within a certain % of the manufacturers requirements and if you have the information the previous years results, then that is as far as you go, if however the readings are out then further servicing would be required, but every four years the boiler is stripped and seals etc replaced regardless.
This is simply a case of the UK not moving forward with maintenance of boilers with the new clean burning boilers we currently have on the market.

If you have a new boiler then it MUST be serviced every year to maintain the warentee, some boilers come with 5,7 or even 10 yrs warentee so why would you buy a boiler with that long of warentee to give you piece of mind & then just throw it away for just over £1 a week

if the engineer services the boiler correctly they can identify any issues that are present at the time, boiler manu's sometimes release important safety notices if a issue is found with their products, alot of this isn't available to the general public

you have to have an mot on your car every year to make sure it's safe to drive on the road but you may not drive it every day, normally a boiler is used every day for heating or hot water & a dangerious boiler can kill you & your family within mins, is your families lives really only worth £1 a week

for example how many of you have a modern glowworm or vailliant boiler ? Do you know that the burner door seal should be replaced on a glowworm every 3 yrs or 5 yrs on a vailliant ? I would think that most of you would answer No i didn't know that, that's one reason it should be serviced

George_Bray

ilikewatch wrote: »

I've completely given up having mine serviced - it got to the point that it felt like I was paying £50 odd quid a year for the privilege of someone coming to my house to suck their teeth and tell me that I needed to spend thousands on a new boiler because mine was "obsolete". Instead I've invested in a good CO alarm and left it well alone.

I agree. My gas boiler hasn't been serviced for over 25 years, and as a result, works perfectly well. I'm sorry to say I don't trust 'Gas Safe' engineers based on several reports of how they tried to cheat customers into unnecessary work or entire new systems. Here's one example of which I have good knowledge. It's from about 5 years ago. I think they were called CORGI then.

The first CORGI man said the system was obsolete and couldn't be repaired. He suggested a new boiler costing about £4000. The second man (different firm) said it was rubbish to say parts couldn't be obtained, and it needed a new electronic control board. This would have cost about £400 plus labour, I guess. He was told to get lost too. A third man said it just needed a new gas valve, and it was fitted, but the system still didn't work, so he also fitted a new thermocouple. Then it worked. He charged about £200, around 5 years ago. I have good reason to believe it only ever needed a new thermocouple - £10 from him or less than £5 elsewhere.

If the second man had fitted a new board, it wouldn't have worked either. So then he would presumably have fitted a new valve, and finally, a thermocouple. He would never have admitted the board and valve weren't needed so the customer would have ended up with a bill for perhaps £700. There may be some honest Gas Safe people around but I've never come across one.

jacques_chirac

George_Bray wrote: »

I agree. My gas boiler hasn't been serviced for over 25 years, and as a result, works perfectly well. I'm sorry to say I don't trust 'Gas Safe' engineers based on several reports of how they tried to cheat customers into unnecessary work or entire new systems. Here's one example of which I have good knowledge. It's from about 5 years ago. I think they were called CORGI then.

The first CORGI man said the system was obsolete and couldn't be repaired. He suggested a new boiler costing about £4000. The second man (different firm) said it was rubbish to say parts couldn't be obtained, and it needed a new electronic control board. This would have cost about £400 plus labour, I guess. He was told to get lost too. A third man said it just needed a new gas valve, and it was fitted, but the system still didn't work, so he also fitted a new thermocouple. Then it worked. He charged about £200, around 5 years ago. I have good reason to believe it only ever needed a new thermocouple - £10 from him or less than £5 elsewhere.

If the second man had fitted a new board, it wouldn't have worked either. So then he would presumably have fitted a new valve, and finally, a thermocouple. He would never have admitted the board and valve weren't needed so the customer would have ended up with a bill for perhaps £700. There may be some honest Gas Safe people around but I've never come across one.

It seems you have only met two - hardly fair to tar everyone with the same brush on such limited experience!