Boiler breakdown cover?

[Deleted User]

It seems to me that the BG `safety and maintenance` annual inspection is different to the annual service covered in the HG annual contract. I used BG for 8 years in my other house and they always responded promptly but their annual check only seemed to take 20 minutes. HG offers the annual service according to the maker`s instructions.

I would not be without a service contract after having major work done on my last boiler starting one month after the guarantee period. I don`t need to start a contract for three months but I am coming down on the side of HG

Browntoa

I come down on the side of putting the money aside

10 years with old boiler....10 x £18 a month = £2160
boiler blows up £1600 to replace...still £560 ahead

new boiler 4 years old (1 year manufacturers so take a year off).....3 x £18 = £648, total £1208 still in pot.

Minor repair today , expected cost £70 + Labour

works for me !

MyUserNamesTaken

black-saturn wrote:

Waveney Insurance Brokers Ltd, Bevan Street, Lowestoft and I pay £6 per month for the cover of my boiler (3 years old) and all the pipes a radiators of the house.

#

Thanks for that. I've just taken out BG £16 a month insurance on my brand new Vaillant boiler (including rads). I'm off into town in a minute anyway, so will pop into Waveney Insurance on my way. The only reason I went with BG is because the £16 a month includes a yearly service, which normally costs me around the £60 mark anyway. Does the cover you have include a service?

[Deleted User]

Browntoa any insurance is a gamble. The installation plumber here also advised me to take out cover. I`m thinking back to when I was 1 month past my guarantee date on my last boiler. The work done was major and would have cost me a huge amount of money

Bg say that they do a safety and maintenance check yearly. I do not believe that this is a proper boiler service

Cardew

kittie wrote:

Browntoa any insurance is a gamble. The installation plumber here also advised me to take out cover. I`m thinking back to when I was 1 month past my guarantee date on my last boiler. The work done was major and would have cost me a huge amount of money

Bg say that they do a safety and maintenance check yearly. I do not believe that this is a proper boiler service

I agree about any insurance being a gamble - I think we all pay our premiums(for all kinds of insurance) and hope we don't have to make a claim.

Re the 'proper boiler service'. If you look through some of the many threads on this subject you will find the exact quotes from BG on what the service entails - and it is a proper service. Mine is always fully serviced - burners out and cleaned etc.

If BG are covering your system it is not in their interests to skip tasks as they will have to repair any problem caused by inadequate servicing.

Everyone seems to concentrate of the boiler when they talk about BG servicing. Most of my problems over the years have been other parts of the system - pump, radiators, valves and a hot water tank.

KTF

If you take out this cover, say from BG, knowing that the boiler has a fault, will they still come out and fix it?

My boiler has decided to stop igniting and the fault lies (I think) with one of the circuit boards so I am working out the cheapest way to get it fixed.

Cardew

KTF wrote:

If you take out this cover, say from BG, knowing that the boiler has a fault, will they still come out and fix it?

My boiler has decided to stop igniting and the fault lies (I think) with one of the circuit boards so I am working out the cheapest way to get it fixed.

The simple answer is no!

There was a thread about the same subject a little while ago.

Whilst they will sign you up for their service, it is then dependant on an inspection to ensure it is worth 'insuring'. Much in the same way as someone suffering from a serious illness might find it difficult to get medical insurance.

On the other hand if it is not a major problem they might think it worth the risk - you have nothing to lose and you might get a free diagnosis of the fault.

loobs40

keithboy40 wrote:

had to call out british gas as combi boiler was piping out hot then cold water through the hot tap. service man came and stated he could not fix the problem under the terms of the call out contract. apparently the boiler had lime scale on it and this was blocking a pipe in the boiler. this problem is not covered.

he wanted to charge £170, on top of the £16 a month i already pay. needless to say i am terminating my agreement with them. what is the point if they do not fix the problem. the boiler is only 4 yrs old and has been serviced by them from year one.

my advice save the money and pay for repairs when they are needed.

I had the same problem with limescale. We moved into a 10 year old house and we could never get the radiators to heat up properly, especially the ones furthest away from the boiler. Eventually the BG engineer suggested it could be the heat exchanger being clogged up with limescale.

Again they charged extra, over £100, saying that limescale was not covered. When they changed the part they also put into the system limescale inhibitor. The result ? The system now works perfectly, is really quiet (there used to be also sorts of rattling presuambly with small bits of broken limescale going round the systme) and I am really happy.

I baulked as well at first at paying the extra, but in the end I doubt I could have found anyone else to do it cheaper and I would have had a devil of a job trying to find someone reliable and recommended to do it

atlasview

hi dont know if this helps, but we have a policy with homecall+. 96 quid a year (think you can pay monthly tho) - covers first 500.00 of repair costs to boilers, plumbing emergencies, wiring faults plus vermin, lost keys, broken windows etc and hot water failure. not for everyone i know (boiler has to be less than 10 years old) . we have called them out twice in 3 months for a blocked drain and once for plumbing problems. arrived within an hour and fixed everything! im sure if i had called a plumber, it would have cost more than 96 quid each time!!
https://www.homecallplus.co.uk/ or 0800 195 2033
hope this helps someone

alanobrien

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

#

Thanks for that. I've just taken out BG £16 a month insurance on my brand new Vaillant boiler (including rads). I'm off into town in a minute anyway, so will pop into Waveney Insurance on my way. The only reason I went with BG is because the £16 a month includes a yearly service, which normally costs me around the £60 mark anyway. Does the cover you have include a service?

I am curious as to why ??? You have a 2 year guarentee on the Vaillant boiler and their service people have a good reputation.

Of course that would not cover the radiators but then again they rarely have problems. I would have thought you would be better off just paying for an annual service at approx £50 to £70 which is something you have to do for the Vaillant guarentee to be valid anyway.

Then get insurance once the boiler guarentee runs out.
Incidentally, Vaillant run their own extended guarentee scheme, i recieved some info on it through the post quite recently, seems competitive with BG at least.