British Gas PowerFlush Required or a Con?

missindecisive

hi, £800 for a power flush seems a little steep-it might be worth your while making a few phone calls round bet you could get it done much cheaper than that.
BG are muppets if you ask me, the homecare agreement is too good to be true and they have to claw their money back some how by drawing you in to little schemes such as this, i know ive been there. read the small print on your agreement and you will see that once they 'suggest' a power flush, if you don't get it done they can basically cancel your agreement. beaware that not all of their engineers know what they are doing. we had a gas fire condemmned by them, they were unable to locate a fault,and tried to sell us a new flue, even though the flue was absolutley fine and had only recently been installed. as it turned out , there was a kiddys rubber bouncy ball stuck behind the fire causing melting fumes to go into the room! so after one engineer condemned the fire, we had to fight tooth and nail to get a second opinion from them off someone higher up, who eventually spotted the problem. they are idiots and I will never have any dealings with them again. you would be better off finding yourself a reputable gas engineer if you can, someone who you can trust, and then stick with them. good luck

albyota

Hi to all, just quoted for powerflush to three customers at between £250 and £350 (depending on amount of rads / size of house), after all, it is a good days work to do properly, don't get ripped off by BG get a local firm to quote, you may even find its cheaper than above.

Gerrard_8_lfc

BG are expensive for flushes Local guys will do it much cheaper if there is sludge in the system get a local guy to do it and then get BG to check it and that should be fine.

Just incase anyone is intrested BG powerlfush included a lifetime guarantee. Edit - as long as you keep a active homecare.

albyota

Most decent reliable companies will have trained a young, polite, considerate lad, send him out in a van (with dust sheets etc.) with the correct chemicals and formulas for working out the correct dose of chemicals and replacement inhibitor/sticker, including pressure test to check for leaks, does a thorough job, sometimes he will run over into a second day, but at least the customer is happy. if a leak is found, (rare, unless very old system) this is flagged up and option to repair given.

i8change

In mid May this year we had a Powerflush (Sentinel X800 was used), a MagnaClean Professional filter fitted and the Pressure Release Valve replaced.
That was for a Worcester Bosch Combi system with nine radiators and it took all day and two blokes did the job. The local Heating/Installation company charged £471.15 including the VAT.
I think, from memory, if we had n't changed the Pressure Release Valve (it had started leaking slightly) the bill would have been roughly £425ish.
I think British Gas are expensive and if you know of a decent company locally you will get a good job done at less expense.

notbritishgas

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

BG are expensive for flushes Local guys will do it much cheaper if there is sludge in the system get a local guy to do it and then get BG to check it and that should be fine.

Just incase anyone is intrested BG powerlfush included a lifetime guarantee. Edit - as long as you keep a active homecare.

Does the powerflush carried out when BG fitted a new boiler count for the lifetime guarantee, ie if in the future BG try to say any fault needs a powerflush can I get it done foc.
Thanks

Gerrard_8_lfc

notbritishgas wrote: »

Does the powerflush carried out when BG fitted a new boiler count for the lifetime guarantee, ie if in the future BG try to say any fault needs a powerflush can I get it done foc.
Thanks

If you got us to install your boiler plus flush your system any faults due to sludge can be recalled and done all inclusive if your keep a active homecare.

hope that helped

notbritishgas

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

If you got us to install your boiler plus flush your system any faults due to sludge can be recalled and done all inclusive if your keep a active homecare.

hope that helped

Thanks for reply. Yes that is just what happened, 2 years ago BG replaced my boiler. I had sludge in the system and BG said a powerflush was necessary (about £600 then). They convinced me:rolleyes: that it would be to my benefit, as the boiler was 15 years old, to have it changed as a free powerflush was included. So your comments are very welcome.

Samtoller

To power flush or NOT: The only way to really know if you need a power flush is to have a sample tested, which the power flushing association will do for free. There is no point in paying £300 for something that is not needed.

bengasman

jackieb wrote: »

..I've also had a couple of letters in from BG recommending that I change my boiler. I get it serviced every year and it works fine.

Are you absolutely sure it is really serviced? If it takes less than half an hour, you almost surely only get a safety check, which has nothing to do with maintenance/servicing.