central heating boiler service ??????

[paulyoung666]

anyone had recent experience of c.h. boiler service or repair ?????????? , i was just wondering as i have signed up for british gas service for c.h. repair , £14.50 / month , assuming a boiler service is going to cost in the region of £100 / year i reckon that it is pretty good value as it covers the complete system , any thoughts

[SMHarman]

How old is your boiler? My CH engineer said these annual BG inspections are a lot of a waste of time. Look through the porthole, check you have a good blue flame burning in there, no yellow. Check the exhaust is not blocked by a bush or birds nest, check it lights first time when a tap is turned on and only get them done every other year.

Put the £360 you save in the bank for when you need it, by the time you do you will have enough cash to pay to renew the system.

[Bulky]

my latest boiler service was £30, but nothing was wrong with it, if replacement parts are needed this is when it costs the money, have considered the british gas plan myself just need to get around to setting it up

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

How old is your boiler? My CH engineer said these annual BG inspections are a lot of a waste of time. Look through the porthole, check you have a good blue flame burning in there, no yellow. Check the exhaust is not blocked by a bush or birds nest, check it lights first time when a tap is turned on and only get them done every other year.

Put the £360 you save in the bank for when you need it, by the time you do you will have enough cash to pay to renew the system.

i think i am going to , mind you i know a bit about boilers but i am not allowed to touch them am i , i will be watching like a hawk when they come to service it

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

anyone had recent experience of c.h. boiler service or repair ?????????? , i was just wondering as i have signed up for british gas service for c.h. repair , £14.50 / month , assuming a boiler service is going to cost in the region of £100 / year i reckon that it is pretty good value as it covers the complete system , any thoughts

we have the British Gas contract, on a combi boiler, so far we have had a new heat exchanger, exhaust fan, 2 diaphagm valves, the pump, timer & automatic bleed valve replaced. All for no extra charge for parts or labour beyond the contract fee and with priority callout (once they got called at 16.30 & were here less than an hour later).

- so I reckon we have had good value for money. The annual 'service' is more about peace of mind, as they don't do much more than a safety check & vacuum it out.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by homealone

we have the British Gas contract, on a combi boiler, so far we have had a new heat exchanger, exhaust fan, 2 diaphagm valves, the pump, timer & automatic bleed valve replaced. All for no extra charge for parts or labour beyond the contract fee and with priority callout (once they got called at 16.30 & were here less than an hour later).

- so I reckon we have had good value for money. The annual 'service' is more about peace of mind, as they don't do much more than a safety check & vacuum it out.

now that has made me a bit happier , i like the idea of finding a dead boiler on a cold winters day and being able to get it sorted out the same or next day

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

anyone had recent experience of c.h. boiler service or repair ?????????? , i was just wondering as i have signed up for british gas service for c.h. repair , £14.50 / month , assuming a boiler service is going to cost in the region of £100 / year i reckon that it is pretty good value as it covers the complete system , any thoughts

We've got a British Gas contract, 3 Star - £150 pa, I think, and I have to say that they are pretty good. They turn up within 24 hours and over the years I've had a number of failed motorised valves and a pump replaced without any problem. All in all, I'd say that we've had value for money. The yearly service is fairly basic, they check inside the boiler, make sure that the radiators are not leaking and measure the amount of CO in the exhaust gases.

[paulyoung666]

starting to feel better all the time

It would cost for more than £360 for a new boiler and dont forget you have to be Corgi registered to fit one. I know it would cost near on a £1000 for a new boiler and fitting if you want a decent one.

I had mine serviced earlier this year £50

HOWEVER i looked at one of these contracts once and it covered replacement of parts but NOT the complete boiler. So i'd check up if i were you.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by gary_580

It would cost for more than £360 for a new boiler and dont forget you have to be Corgi registered to fit one. I know it would cost near on a £1000 for a new boiler and fitting if you want a decent one.

I had mine serviced earlier this year £50

HOWEVER i looked at one of these contracts once and it covered replacement of parts bot NOT the complete boiler. So i'd cehck up if i were you.

good point my mate , i will check when i get the paperwork , mind you as the boiler is a sum of parts then i reckon that shouldnt be a problem , well i hope so anyway

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

good point my mate , i will check when i get the paperwork , mind you as the boiler is a sum of parts then i reckon that shouldnt be a problem , well i hope so anyway

better to find out now than to argue in the middle of winter when your freezing cold.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by gary_580

better to find out now than to argue in the middle of winter when your freezing cold.

yup , like i say , i will wait until the paperwork comes and then i will see

[goldoni]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

How old is your boiler? My CH engineer said these annual BG inspections are a lot of a waste of time. Look through the porthole, check you have a good blue flame burning in there, no yellow. Check the exhaust is not blocked by a bush or birds nest, check it lights first time when a tap is turned on and only get them done every other year.

Put the £360 you save in the bank for when you need it, by the time you do you will have enough cash to pay to renew the system.

SMHarmenââ‚à ƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s advise is good as dear old BG only do a safety check and are in and out within 15 minutes normally, as advised put the money in you minds bank or a high interest account, then if you have a breakdown contact a known GORGI engineer if not try to get a member of the Institute of Plumbing who is GORGI registered. DO NOT use yellow pages with those nice adds all areas covered as they usually charge the earth and most donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t know what they are doing, apart from charging a lot of money!

If you have a modern boiler with a power flue the advice as given to SMHarmen is cool. These are the boilers that have a round flue and you can hear a fan running. They will be controlled by quite a few safety controls. Cost of service £55/65 Balanced flues (square box on the outside wall) and conventional flue boilers (connected to a chimney) should be serviced yearly for your own safety. Cost about £50/55 for a full service. Back boilers (fire on wall with boiler behind) £65/85 for a full service. The most important thing about conventional flue boilers is free air. This is the big air brick that says Do not cover, but most people do. In rough terms for every volume of gas you burn you need two of air or it could kill you.

If you would like to know some more info or search for a CORGI registerd person in your area plus see some photos of people who did not get their boilers serviced LINK if you have any questions and youââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re a CF member just email me from the link on site or PM, if I can help with advise I will.

NB: Please note this is not for advertising my business its for information only on prices, service information, photos and the search facility.

Regarding me recommending a member of the Institute of plumbing, this would mean the person who turns up at your door will be qualified and you have some comeback if your not happy with what that person has advised or done. Please note not all members are CORGI registered.

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

yup , like i say , i will wait until the paperwork comes and then i will see

We've had a couple of problems with our combi boiler, recently, so as I'm off this week I phoned at about 7pm last night & arranged a visit for 'between 12 & 6' this afternoon.

Anyway phone goes at 11am, its the gas engineer, would I mind if he came now - no problem, here in 5 minutes - kettle on

He listened to my description of the problems (slow to light when calling for hot water & running over pressure for the heating).

After twiddling about and checking the operation of one of the diaphragm valves he diagnosed that as the cause of the hot water problem & said the expansion tank would need re-charging to cure the high pressure.

So he got his laptop out, which has details of all work done on the boiler since installation, plus full service manuals for my model, brought up the schematics of the required parts, entered the part numbers into the relevant form, which raised a job number, which wirelessly downloaded the order for the parts to their central warehouse. He then (again wirelessly), printed the confirmation sheet & will be back to do the job on Thursday morning.

I was impressed with that.

[paulyoung666]

i have had cause to use them and was suitably impressed , polite efficient and they knew the score