Worcester Fixed price boiler repair

crthomeowner

This is just a quick post. My gran had the combi boiler installed about 15 years ago. Never serviced it. It worked fine, never broke down. 
Recently the filling loop was dripping and called a local engineer, he took one look at the parts and saw rust inside and said it's not worth him touching it and directed to call and ask for the fixed price repair. 

Booked worcester in for £383 two working days later. Branded van came, all the parts inside. They would replace 3 major and upto 10 minor. I think minor means things like seals.
Got a new heat exchanger, filling loop, ignition nodes, seals, pressure release valve, auto air valve, thermostat because our wireless one was broken and she'd been manually turning the boiler on off to adjust central heating. 

The guy was 5 hours. The only thing he said might go in future is the pump. Almost had a new boiler installed. He could tell it had never been serviced. 

I don't understand why they do this, good customer retention I suppose. He was very thorough and wasn't trying to rush or do a quick fix. 

Before people complain about not servicing it, we did put a carbon monoxide alarm in. I don't know why she doesn't take care of things. I'm dubious myself about servicing as any replacement parts have to be paid for anyway. 

Spoke to another forum user and they had a similar repair for £400 with Valiant. Ideal mention this too but I can't comment on their work.

So essentially my gran saved £1500 in servicing and has a boiler which will probably last the rest of her life. 

If our Ideal gets a major fault I'll try them next. Obviously it's only worth it if a major part needs replacing rather than just a bit needs tightening.

Anyone else have experience like this? 

IvanOpinion

I sometimes question whether all these 'services' (boilers, cars etc.) are really a necessity.
My old oil boiler was installed in 2000, got serviced once in 2001, broke down in 2012 (pressure tank sprung a leak and dripped water onto the pump which was directly below - who on earth puts electrics below something that can drip? - so that was about £200 repair inc its second service).

Then in 2022 we were getting gas in.  8 weeks before the gas was due the boiler broke down again. The problem was the emergency oil shut off valve was refusing to open, so rather than pay for a new one it got held open with a cable tie for the last 8 weeks.

Two things of note. The majority of our neighbours, who had their boilers serviced regularly, had already had to replace their boilers (ours was one of the last to be replaced and was still working fine). There was no noticeable difference in the amount of oil we were burning over the 22 years (fill in Feb, fill in Nov). 

So you have to wonder if they are just money making schemes or a real necessity.

Devongardener

I have my boiler serviced annually for the gas safety checks and to keep the installation compliant.  It was done yesterday for £60.   A house three doors up from me had a serious fire when the gas boiler which had never been serviced exploded.    

It’s not a risk worth taking and installing a carbon monoxide monitor is no guarantee that the boiler is working safely.

jefaz07

I have seen a lot of boilers broken due to no servicing. Things that could’ve been picked up during routine servicing. With boilers now offering long warranties there is a lot of servicing to be done, if they want to keep their long warranties. 

Albermarle

Also it can preempt a breakdown, so you are not left freezing cold in the Winter for a week or more.

HillStreetBlues

My old property boiler not serviced in 13 years year 14 if broke down and needed £120 repair. Swings and roundabouts.

crthomeowner

Devongardener said:

I have my boiler serviced annually for the gas safety checks and to keep the installation compliant.  It was done yesterday for £60.   A house three doors up from me had a serious fire when the gas boiler which had never been serviced exploded.    

It’s not a risk worth taking and installing a carbon monoxide monitor is no guarantee that the boiler is working safely.

I understand that catastrophic failure can occur although I wonder how old the system was because there are many failsafe in modern boilers to prevent such incidents. 

Chrysalis

IvanOpinion said:

I sometimes question whether all these 'services' (boilers, cars etc.) are really a necessity.
My old oil boiler was installed in 2000, got serviced once in 2001, broke down in 2012 (pressure tank sprung a leak and dripped water onto the pump which was directly below - who on earth puts electrics below something that can drip? - so that was about £200 repair inc its second service).

Then in 2022 we were getting gas in.  8 weeks before the gas was due the boiler broke down again. The problem was the emergency oil shut off valve was refusing to open, so rather than pay for a new one it got held open with a cable tie for the last 8 weeks.

Two things of note. The majority of our neighbours, who had their boilers serviced regularly, had already had to replace their boilers (ours was one of the last to be replaced and was still working fine). There was no noticeable difference in the amount of oil we were burning over the 22 years (fill in Feb, fill in Nov). 

So you have to wonder if they are just money making schemes or a real necessity.

Generally they will be profitable, otherwise they wouldnt exist.  Similar to insurance in general, and things like extended warranties, sometimes its obvious its profitable.  As an example my fridge was circa £350 (if I remember right), cheap hisense brand, included 2 year warranty, but they offer an optional warranty for a double figure sum per month, and you would also be paying this during the first 2 years as well, basically paying for the fridge for a second time completely within 3 years, when the first 2 years is covered as standard.

Of course some things in life are regulated to be mandatory for safety reasons, such as MOT on vehicles, rented properties have to be serviced every year on boiler, and I notice my new boiler, requires annual servicing for the warranty to remain valid.

If I buy something I know will probably fail, has a short standard warranty and the extra warranty is sensibly priced, I will bite, e.g. game controllers, standard 1 year warranty, both Xbox and Sony controllers are of poor standards, and is a one off price for a longer custom warranty, I will pay for that.

For me for most things its a case of keeping some money aside for a rainy day, and that is my insurance/warranty.  When I got burgled and lost my phone, I did the maths, and I calculated I would have been financially down if I kept it under insurance and made a successful claim.