Emergency boiler repair claim on home insurance

battenburg88

I have home emergency cover as part of my home insurance.

Just before Christmas the boiler developed a fault and someone came out and fixed it - nothing was replaced/repaired, they seemed to just drain some water from the system and it started working again. Having Googled the fault number, it seems like it's quite common for this type of boiler and can be a variety of things. It's been fine since then. At the time they recommended I got the system power flushed and installed some kind of magnetic filter as the boiler is 10 years old (I moved in about 6 months ago). As this happened just before Christmas, I haven't followed up on this.

Having just been away for the weekend I've come back and the boiler has the same fault. So, the plan would be to phone up and get someone to fix it again. My only concern is that if this keeps happening, will it push the general cost of the insurance up (or indeed, have I already crossed that line by making the original claim?)? I have a feeling that the emergency cover may have just been a fixed cost extra on the policy, but I'm not sure. So whilst I suppose it might not count as a 'claim' in the normal sense, its still a cost to the insurer.

Any advice? This is what the cover is for, so at this point I'll probably still call them (it would be good to have heating!). But, if it could push the premium up in the long run then there might be a point where I get someone to look at it independently.

missile

battenburg88 wrote: »

Just before Christmas the boiler developed a fault and someone came out and fixed it - nothing was replaced/repaired, they seemed to just drain some water from the system and it started working again.

Are you sure that is what he did?
I suspect he may have topped up the pressure. You can easily DIY.

DCFC79

Kettling is what someone I know mentioned about it, a magnetic filter is installed, I have the same issue where I am, a filter is going to be installed in a month or 2.

eddddy

battenburg88 wrote: »

Having Googled the fault number, it seems like it's quite common for this type of boiler and can be a variety of things.

What type of things?

Assuming it's a sealed system, as missile says, it's more likely that the engineer topped up the pressure (by adding more water), as opposed to draining off some water (which would reduce pressure).

That's fairly easy to sort out as a DIY job. But if the pressure was topped up just before Christmas, and it's already dropped very low, it suggests you have a leak somewhere.

battenburg88

missile wrote: »

Are you sure that is what he did?
I suspect he may have topped up the pressure. You can easily DIY

I have to say I'm not entirely sure, but he had a bucket so in my mind I might have associated that with draining water...
The explanation below might be a bit non-technical, but I'll try!

So, I did call them last night and someone was out today. I don't think they drained or added any water to the system this time, but rather let a bit more flow through which got the system working again.

His diagnosis was that there might be some debris affecting the sensor or pipes and that both the pressure sensor and another part be replaced. He thought that whatever the first engineer did might have temporarily cleared the system.

Its a Vaillant with the F75 fault. Pressure sensor seems to come up as one of the issues. Bit frustrating that I got in serviced a few months ago and they said the boiler itself was in good condition.