British Gas Boiler Service

robj20 said:
What safety you still haven't said what's going to kill me, you're just stuck in a loop when I've told you multiple times it monitors efficiency itself, and what exactly is going to kill me if I don't service it every year. By your logic I should be dead or it should be running like poop after 6 years of not servicing it but no it's working great.
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What boiler do you have? Make & model?

I've been a heating engineer 30yrs, so if anyone has an Q's just let me know :)

The BG 10min service is BS. At best it's a basic safety check and nothing more. BG engineers aren't even required to do a tightness test which is shocking imo. We have 3 ex BG engineers on our books so I know full well what BG have then do and not do.

I'm head engineer at our company, I'll get our service job list posted later, and you can decide whether your 10min service gets a 'proper' service done, or just the usual money grab.

Our trade is in quite a poor state as we are woefully under manned, which means there are plenty of average workers (that's me being polite) making quick money.
 
FlyingFish said:
What boiler do you have? Make & model?

I've been a heating engineer 30yrs, so if anyone has an Q's just let me know :)

The BG 10min service is BS. At best it's a basic safety check and nothing more. BG engineers aren't even required to do a tightness test which is shocking imo. We have 3 ex BG engineers on our books so I know full well what BG have then do and not do.

I'm head engineer at our company, I'll get our service job list posted later, and you can decide whether your 10min service gets a 'proper' service done, or just the usual money grab.

Our trade is in quite a poor state as we are woefully under manned, which means there are plenty of average workers (that's me being polite) making quick money.
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Ideal Vogue Gen 2, it's been pretty much faultless had it serviced the first couple of years and after watching them (two different companies) thought why the hell am I paying £70 for that.
It's a full new central heating system as well so the silly magnetic filter seems pointless as well nothing but clean water comes out every time I've tried it.
I keep the inhibitor's levels where they should be, I check for error codes often. It went into ignition lockout once and the display told me which sensor it was and where it was, swapped that and it's been fine since.

Like you say there doesn't seem to be a strict criteria of what a service is, when I've actually asked they're not very forthcoming with a checklist all I see then do is flu gas analyser, and take the cover off and stare at it.
While I can't do the gas analysis I imagine the efficiency would drop if something was wrong in used to seeing a fairly narrow range (not particularly high it being a high power combi)
 
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Appreciate the reply m8. Let me start by saying I'm not here for an argument, or any of that other keyboard warrior shut :D

Based on what you've said, and ignoring GSIR & MI. (which clearly is currently the case) My best advice to you is to find the cheapest gas registered person to come and do a 'service' just to keep the warranty in check. So that when it does hit the fan (and you seem to be comfortable that no one will be harmed) you have somewhere to go.

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This is a picture I took of 4 Vogue's, all professionally installed as you can see. I shut 3 off as dangerous. Gas leak, dangerous combustion, and hole in gas heat exchanger.
Ideal repaired all of them under warranty.
I suppose my point is, the boiler may seem clever at the front end, but that's barely half the picture.

Mick
 
FlyingFish said:
Appreciate the reply m8. Let me start by saying I'm not here for an argument, or any of that other keyboard warrior shut :D

Based on what you've said, and ignoring GSIR & MI. (which clearly is currently the case) My best advice to you is to find the cheapest gas registered person to come and do a 'service' just to keep the warranty in check. So that when it does hit the fan (and you seem to be comfortable that no one will be harmed) you have somewhere to go.

e483N8V.jpeg


This is a picture I took of 4 Vogue's, all professionally installed as you can see. I shut 3 off as dangerous. Gas leak, dangerous combustion, and hole in gas heat exchanger.
Ideal repaired all of them under warranty.
I suppose my point is, the boiler may seem clever at the front end, but that's barely half the picture.

Mick
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But like you say get the cheapest, they're probably not even going to check half the stuff you just mentioned, so is that wasted money?
Warranty has long gone.
Ideal do fixed price repairs that just makes more sense to me.
If I could find someone that actually does something of value as part of the service I'd happily pay it, I just can't make the numbers add up at the minute.

Would using Ideal to actually service it say every other year be a good option? They're not massively more expensive, would they do a proper job.
 
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robj20 said:
Would using Ideal to actually service it say every other year be a good option? They're not massively more expensive, would they do a proper job.
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I don't know about Ideal but even though I book Vaillant for my services to keep the warranty half the time I get a general heating sub contractor rather than genuine Vaillant engineer.

Even the Vaillant engineers has varied immensely, mostly fine but when I had a series of electronics faults and had many visits from Vaillant a couple of the engineers showed a frightening lack of understanding of the laws of physics, logic and the specifics of the device they came to repair. They tried to blame the rest of our system with rubbish statements but I challenged this and eventually they agreed to change one last part I had suggested all along and the problem was fixed.

It's a rock and hard place as a service may pick up a significant fault the boiler doesn't detect but in practice we're paying a lot for very little most of the time.
 
Inlet pressure gas readings • Flue gas analysis • Cleaning of spark and detection electrodes • Cleaning of main heat exchanger • Cleaning of condense trap and drain as necessary • Cleaning of boiler as necessary

That's what Ideal say they do. Not much for £95 is it.
 
robj20 said:
If I could find someone that actually does something of value as part of the service I'd happily pay it, I just can't make the numbers add up at the minute.
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Your not alone in thinking that way, it's not as if I can point to the cowboys in our trade, when big companies sell the idea of a service and charge accordingly, when actually all they are doing is the bare minimum (if that) and that slides even further down the scale when work is contracted out backed with a pay structure that is all about speed and numbers, what they can sell you.

Like I said earlier, our trade is nothing to be proud of and I can't see how it's going to get any better sadly.

I'll get the office to send me our service sheet and post it here.
 
We got ours done when we moved in to our house and the boiler then was 4 years old. I then left it a couple of years and just got it done again. The guy was about 25 minutes. 15 at the boiler and 10 at the gas meter outside. He said the boiler looked absolutely brand new and in mint condition. Said it needed nothing doing. Said that it's also a high end Worcester one. It makes me feel a bit like leaving it for 3 years this time unless I have a problem. I think they charge £100. Haven't had the bill yet.
My parent's old original Potterton boiler they got with the house they had for over 35 years. They just had the kitchen all done last year and got it finally replaced. Was still working, Just a bit noisy and not as efficient.
 
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I have a Viessmann in my house (from before they went rubber), it's been serviced every year, although not really sure of the standard of service. Had tightness check done, gas readings, clean down and inspection, he did make me aware the insulation block may need replacing this year a its starting to show signs of wear. If I'm honest for £75 or so it felt like money well spent.

Although, I am a little wary as sometimes I get a whiff of gas from the meter location, already had Cadent out once and they found the stopcock for lack of better term external to the property was slightly loose but its past BG tightness check (meter upgrade) and theirs and still no sign of a leak... may just be my nose.
 
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Hyburnate said:
I have a Viessmann in my house (from before they went rubber), it's been serviced every year, although not really sure of the standard of service. Had tightness check done, gas readings, clean down and inspection, he did make me aware the insulation block may need replacing this year a its starting to show signs of wear. If I'm honest for £75 or so it felt like money well spent.

Although, I am a little wary as sometimes I get a whiff of gas from the meter location, already had Cadent out once and they found the stopcock for lack of better term external to the property was slightly loose but its past BG tightness check (meter upgrade) and theirs and still no sign of a leak... may just be my nose.
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See £75 for some might not sound a lot but for others it's not that simple. If I felt it was money well spent I'd spend it, as it is that's over a month's fuel for the car.
 
robj20 said:
See £75 for some might not sound a lot but for others it's not that simple. If I felt it was money well spent I'd spend it, as it is that's over a month's fuel for the car.
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Oh trust me £75 is a lot to me, it may not seem that way but it definitely is.

However, without that visit, I wouldn't sleep well because I get that odd gas smell, and I wouldn't have known about the insulation block. I tend my hand to many things, running an electrical company means I'm quite happy to run circuits, plumb radiators and bathrooms in, tile, plaster etc etc, gas is just one of those things that absolutely petrifies me.
 
FlyingFish said:
This is the service sheet that I did for our engineers to go alongside the usual gas safe and MI tasks.

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Mick
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If only they all did that. Sadly they certainly don't. The ones I've had never even checked the filter, certainly didn't clean anything inside the boiler.

Don't suppose you're willing to do a boiler in Manchester.
 
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I get my boiler serviced every year by BG and it normally takes around 15-30 mins.

They check the boiler to see if everything is working ok, then they empty and clean the magnetic filter.

They also check if the Carbon monoxide detector is working.

Lastly they check if all the appliances and radiators are working before giving me a certificate with a boiler efficientcy rating.
 
Thanks all. After reading all the responses I certainly feel ripped off by that British Gas service and won't use them again, even with a discount offer!

FlyingFish - that looks like a comprehensive service sheet - do you stretch down to Kent? :)
 
robj20 said:
Don't suppose you're willing to do a boiler in Manchester.
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theukmoog said:
FlyingFish - that looks like a comprehensive service sheet - do you stretch down to Kent? :)
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Sorry guys we're just a local company here with about 10 engineers, and a few thousand customers. We are plenty busy enough as it is.
We have service guys, installers, apprentices, myself on the technical side of maintenance & QC etc and 6 in the office. And for years we've been screaming out for more engineers, running constant ads for staff.

It's incredibly hard finding conscientious engineers who actually take pride in their work. We've been through loads on a trial basis, and most either don't know their stuff, can't be bothered, or are just after high turn around and big bonus employment.

If you find a decent gas safe engineer, then keep hold of them :D
 
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