Gas boiler service. I know i should get one but

jvjack

I got new gas boiler in Feb last year. Cost £2300 with online IHeat. Similar to the Boxt online.
Was cheap but works fine. Service to protect 10 year gaurentee is difficult finding engineer to do service. 
IHeat price is £90 if i book quick but is day off work so £170 in total.
Over 10 years are there problems that would cost more than that?

SaverRate

Definitely get it serviced to maintain the warranty you never know what will go wrong!

Can you not arrange it for when your not working? The energy companies like British Gas etc, Eon etc and then Homeserve do boiler service (not recommending just saying!)

Depending on the boiler manufacturer they may also offer boiler servicing. 

[Deleted User]

I have a 5 year old WB boiler which so far has had a new heat exchanger; fan; syphon and seals under warranty. I may just have been unlucky.

Key parts of every service are gas safety; combustion chamber cleaning and flue gas testing.

There is no law requiring homeowners to service their boilers but it may prove to be a false economy. Key boiler components are not cheap.

matelodave

jvjack said:

I got new gas boiler in Feb last year. Cost £2300 with online IHeat. Similar to the Boxt online.
Was cheap but works fine. Service to protect 10 year gaurentee is difficult finding engineer to do service. 
IHeat price is £90 if i book quick but is day off work so £170 in total.
Over 10 years are there problems that would cost more than that?

If you are deciding not to service then it would be a very good idea to put a reasonable chunk of money away in saving account just in case.

As said above, some of the bits in a boiler are incredibly expensive and you will be invalidating your warranty so make sure you've got your own repair fund.

You could even get some interest on it if you don't need to use use it and you'll have a lump to put towards a replacement if it does die

We have our own "insurance" fund which covers repairs and replacements, So far it's got us a new tumble dryer, and replacement underground water supply pipe and its still got over £4k in it earning a bit of interest. It will be buying new set of tyres for the car in the next few weeks.

JohnB47

matelodave said:

jvjack said:

I got new gas boiler in Feb last year. Cost £2300 with online IHeat. Similar to the Boxt online.
Was cheap but works fine. Service to protect 10 year gaurentee is difficult finding engineer to do service. 
IHeat price is £90 if i book quick but is day off work so £170 in total.
Over 10 years are there problems that would cost more than that?

If you are deciding not to service then it would be a very good idea to put a reasonable chunk of money away in saving account just in case.

As said above, some of the bits in a boiler are incredibly expensive and you will be invalidating your warranty so make sure you've got your own repair fund.

You could even get some interest on it if you don't need to use use it and you'll have a lump to put towards a replacement if it does die

We have our own "insurance" fund which covers repairs and replacements, So far it's got us a new tumble dryer, and replacement underground water supply pipe and its still got over £4k in it earning a bit of interest. It will be buying new set of tyres for the car in the next few weeks.

I believe that this is very good advice.

We had a WB boiler fitted in 2001 and it was serviced only twice (I think) before it was replaced in 2020, having given us no problems in all that time.

Our new WB boiler came with a 12 year guarantee and we have it serviced every year.

Perhaps we were very lucky with our old boiler but once the initial warranty expired, I felt that saving money in an emergency fund was better than paying for a service each year. That certainly worked for me - saved a fortune, much more than the cost of the new boiler.

Safety is a concern of course. But I believe boilers are pretty safe devices and we've always had a Carbon Monoxide detector in the same room as the boiler.

lohr500

In my experience (although not related to gas boilers) modern appliances do not seem as well built as the older ones.

Personally I would look at getting the boiler serviced annually to preserve your warranty. If you could find a way to have someone available at your property on service day to let the engineer in, then the cost would be £90.

Ten years of servicing would be £900, not allowing for any increased costs due to inflation.

It all comes down to your appetite for risk.

Even if you put the £90 a year into an emergency fund account, if the boiler needs major surgery within 10 years you could well be significantly out of pocket given some of the crazy prices that get charged for replacement components and labour.

Mstty

Put £20 a month away for servicing and when you get to then end of 10 years you will have £1500 towards your next boiler.

Corrected due to bad or worse math lol

So total is £2400 minus 10 services at £90 each so £1500 for your next boiler and probably more if you get cheaper services and good interest.

Off to bed lol (I did leave the mistakes to see the usual suspects stick the boot in, they failed to disappoint)

lohr500

Mstty said:

Put £10 a month away for servicing and when you get to then end of 10 years you will have at least £3000 for your next boiler and that accounts for servicing costs increasing and no interest.

£10 a month = £1200 in 10 years, or am I missing something?

jvjack

Digested everything said in posts in day (thanks for all) and decided to get it done this time and maybe book gas engineer earlier in advance next year on day when am off work. Peace of mind.

Then the gas engineer that fixed and serviced my gas fire 6 months ago got back in text this evening and will try and do it late afternoon next week for £60. 

"Key parts of every service are gas safety; combustion chamber cleaning and flue gas testing." Dolor 2023

pochase

Mstty said:

Put £20 a month away for servicing and when you get to then end of 10 years you will have £1300 towards your next boiler.

Corrected due to bath math☺️

You are sure it is not £2400? 12 x £20  =£240


Also the 10 year warranty will only be valid if you do the annual service.

Edit 
Seems you made it even worse by correcting your initial post. Just saw the quout ein the next post.

k_man

Mstty said:

Put £20 a month away for servicing and when you get to then end of 10 years you will have £1300 towards your next boiler.

Corrected due to bath math☺️

Yes, that's much better.....
🤪