annual boiler service - new boiler - options

RelievedSheff

We bought a new build last year which came with an Ideal Logic condensing boiler. To keep the 10 year warranty on this we have to have it serviced annually by an Ideal approved company.

We found a local company who are Ideal approved installers and repairers and they did the service for £60. It took them about 45 minutes and they were very thorough.

We intend to have the boiler serviced every year as a preventative measure and for our own peace of mind that we know it is working fine and not silently trying to kill us.

We had an elderly Potterton in our old house and we had that serviced every couple of years as it was a far simpler design with very little to go wrong.

Jeepers_Creepers

Happypie, it's not for me to suggest that you shouldn't bother; that's entirely your call, and - fair do's - peace-of-mind is worth a lot.

However, you say "boiler costed me 1600 pounds and installation another 700 pounds, so its quite a lot of money, which if I had to spend again in 5 years time then it would be very sad thing". Yes, that would be pretty painful right enough, but can you think of any circumstance where you'd have to spend that amount again in 5 years? No, nor me. Even if for some crazy reason you had to replace the WHOLE boiler in 5 years - which you never would - it wouldn't cost as much as the first time since it would now be a straight swap. In any case, it is very unlikely that the boiler will go wrong at all in the first five years.  

"After 5 years or so I might not spend 100 pounds a year on service."  Yet that's when it is more likely to go wrong.

Bottom line, I think, is - if the warranty is important to you (and fair enough if it is), then you will need to have it serviced by a manufacturer-approved agent each year. This will give you peace of mind. End of. To you it's worth it.

For anyone simply wondering if it's good financial sense, I think the consensus is 'no'. 10 years of servicing is going to cost you around, ooh, £700. Most boiler repairs come in at well under this - you'd have to be very unlucky to spend that much on repairs over a decade. What's more, a boiler - like every other device - has, by law, to be of serviceable quality. If something significant goes wrong within, say, 5-6 years, then it'll almost certainly either be a manufacturing defect or installer error. In either case, I would expect to reclaim the cost of this whether or not I've had it serviced annually. 

What makes boilers go wrong? I understand the most common cause is sludge in the pipework and rad system which slowly coats internal parts of the boiler either blocking them or causing them to stick. What often is exempt from warranty claims (even after-market ones)? Yes, damage caused by 'sludge'. 

So one thing that should be checked - and cleaned - each year is the magnetic filter. In a thoroughly clean system, there should be next-to-no sludge collected by this as next-to-no sludge should exist, and no new sludge should be formed either as the system has 'inhibitor' in it. So, if you find a thick coating on your magnet when you check it, be concerned as these filters do not catch it all. 

Should folk have any regular servicing carried out on their boiler at all?! I think it would make sense to have someone out every 2 or 3 years, especially as the boiler becomes older. He/she should be able to spot obvious oncoming issues such as a slow weep, a starting-to-stick divertor valve, a build-up of carp etc. 

Mickey666

RelievedSheff said:

We intend to have the boiler serviced every year as a preventative measure and for our own peace of mind that we know it is working fine and not silently trying to kill us.

That's fair enough but remember that any boiler can develop a fault at anytime, so in terms of a boiler ' silently trying to kill' I'd rather rely on a CO alarm than an annual service.  No harm in both of course.

RelievedSheff

Mickey666 said:

RelievedSheff said:

We intend to have the boiler serviced every year as a preventative measure and for our own peace of mind that we know it is working fine and not silently trying to kill us.

That's fair enough but remember that any boiler can develop a fault at anytime, so in terms of a boiler ' silently trying to kill' I'd rather rely on a CO alarm than an annual service.  No harm in both of course.

Indeed which is why we have a CO alarm in the kitchen where the boiler is as well.