Gas Boiler Maintenance

nationwide_3

Mark - Thanks for that I would certainly get a second opinion before letting them replace it.

I have had a few things go wrong in this old terraced house, we moved in to find the built in cooker oven did not work and it would cost more than it was worth to have it fixed so I bought a new cooker. Then found there was a funny smell in one of the base units which happened to have an air freshner in!! This turned out to be rising damp in the back wall, so I had to get a builder in and they took off the wood panelling and a metre high plaster, the damp proof specialists came in and injected the wall and £450.00 later the kitchen still looks like a bomb site. The original kitchen base units have been thrown out because they had rotted hence the smell.

With the luck I am having that is why I have gone for the 3* BG scheme!

Derek_A.

Just another theme with BG 3* service,if you do not have a callout in any year,you will receive an £18.00 discount in the following year.

This brings the cost down to £12.66 per month.

I have always had a very good "service"ie burner removed and cleaned, safety check & a flue gas check each year.

You pays your money,and takes your chance.I know that if my boiler breaks down Christmas day an engineer will be out.

kirkie_2

Be Warned

I am with British Gas and last year my premiums were £7.00 a month. I have just received my schedule of direct debits for the coming year and they are £14.16.

I contacted them and the female told me this was because I had a new boiler fitted and last year they were only covering me for the pipes as the boiler was still under warranty!!!!

I can't grumble with British Gas for service, but I'm sure there must be someone just as good, but cheaper. I have read all the posts on here and I am a Powergen customer, but wondered if there was a comparison site like there is when you want to change energy supplier...

Derek_A.

Kirkie,

There are other good Gas maintenace companies,most of their employees, are former BG trained engineers, as BG made thousands of service engineers redundant over the past 11 years.
I will stay with BG because of the way they operate their out of hours standby cover, you will always get an engineer to come out, what ever the time of day, or what day it is.

As you say it would be nice to see a league table of costs and responce times etc.

davejold

Well put dougk, I do the same as you, all these companies make big profits with scare tactics, what if? water leak! gas! electric! car! house! contents! life insurance! boiler! funeral! o-dear worry worry.

StephenB_2

You pays your money,and takes your chance.I know that if my boiler breaks down Christmas day an engineer will be out.

I cannot speak for your area, but I know that if my boiler breaks down any time of any day of the year, BG will take 24 hours to turn up. And any parts seem to arrive at the depot the working day after the working day on which they are ordered: several days over the Christmas break don't count as 'working days'.

My boiler once developed a small leak over Christmas. As Frank Zappa so nearly said, BG 'rushed on over and wrecked it some more', creating a large leak and putting the boiler completely out of action for a week (as far as BG were concerned - I fixed that PDQ).

All their guys are certainly whizz-bang at the 'very old system this, parts are hard to get, wouldn't you like a new one?' routine.

SJB

zain

As i mentioned earlier, I have decided against this kind of cover ( see Dougk). However, i know our boiler has not been serviced since we moved in (about 3.5 years ago).

Should i get an independent service done anyway? How much does it cost? And will it really prevent any major problems?

What do others think?

Thanks

Mosh

I'm the same as Zain. I moved into this house about 4 years ago (the house/boiler are now around 12 years old). I know that until I moved in, the boiler was serviced every 12 months.

But... I don't know how much it costs. Is it a simple job? Do I need a CORGI-registered engineer to do the job? Will I make news headlines in a "scary house explosion kills madman trying to service own boiler" story?

Darryl

I get our gas boiler serviced by a local CORGI registered engineer for about £60 each year.

We also have 24 hour home emergency cover with our home insurance for £38 per year, which covers up to £250 per incident (all plumbing covered, incl. hot water system e.g. boiler leaks, radiator leaks, etc). We've claimed on this 2 times in the last year, and it does not effect your no-claims discount.

Both cost much less than any maintenance cover I have seen (e.g. BG).

Darryl.

[Deleted User]

My central heating is 23 years old. So far it's cost me 2 termocouples, 2 rad stats, and one timer. You could do the lot for about £50.
Last time the gas board came out, I asked him to check it for carbon monoxide leaks. He just looked at me as if I had two heads, and said "what do you want me to do that for?" and then "well I haven't got anything to measure carbon monoxide with, do you want me to check for gas leaks instead?".