Boiler cover or just go for a one off service?

SkeeterUK

SkeeterUK

SkeeterUK

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My mother had a new combi boiler a ideal logic 24 put in as part of the free boiler if u qualify and she did.

Shes coming up to the 1 year mark since it was installed. She is wondering weather or not to get boiler cover like homecare 100 which i assume does a 1 year service and if it needs parts replacing its free of charge so no hidden costs like £170 for a circuit board or whatever that might be a lot. Tho i did read something about "excess" which i am not clear at all about. Anyhow homecare 100 is like 8.50pm atm so over a year thats £102.

A service which i think is about £60 or somit? For warranty purposes and to give it a bit of a clean if need be might be cheaper but if the guy said it needs a part even tho its 1 year old and no problems heating etc, then theres parts and labor costs too so could add up. I doubt it would need parts this soon tho but i dunno what the likelyhood of that would be.

Any advice?
 
As far as I know, there are three good courses of action:

1) Get decent boiler cover for peace of mind. I've had it with British Gas for years. Homecare 200, I think. When my old boiler was failing, they came out half a dozen times, replaced various parts and I never paid any excess. There's a cheaper monthly payment option that does have an excess per repair - standard enough stuff for what's essentially an insurance policy.

2) With a new boiler, it might also be worth not having cover but putting money aside each month. If you're lucky, the boiler won't fail in any expensive way before the amount you've been putting aside accumulates to enough to get a new boiler. This is a riskier route - if the boiler does fail it will cost you more but if it doesn't fail for long enough then it will cost you less. An annual service would still be a good idea.

3) See if you can get it added to the general home insurance. Some policies have it as an option under some sort of home emergency cover, although it might be more restrictive (e.g. only apply if the boiler is completely non-functional).

I went with the boiler cover after being blatantly ripped off for component costs for a repair. £150 for a control board, for example. They clearly weren't expecting anyone to contact the manufacturer directly and find out the retail cost of components (the board was £95 and the repair company probably paid quite a bit less for it). This price inflation seems to be the norm.
 
Get you mum to check the status of the warranty, pretty sure logics came with several years warranty (as long as you keep the servicing up to date, and as long as the installer registered it). Then all you need is an annual service, no need for a contract for that unless your very forgetful or can't find anyone reputable.

Mick
 
To be on the safe side, I'd go with the homecare cover. If you wanted to just do the service, that will also be fine.

You'll want to do the service initially until the warrenty is up, then it's up to you really. If you've had no problems, you can just wait until there's a problem and get it fixed or if you want piece of mind, just pay X amount a year.

I'd personally do neither, but I've never had a problem with boilers in any of the houses I've lived in. If it's brand new, I would expect any actual problems to surface before the first year's up anyhow.
 
I wouldn't bother with homecare on such a new boiler it is almost certainly money down the drain, service it regularly and put the cost of homecare aside for repairs if your really worried about it!
 
I have Homecare cover. Cashback is available at the moment from the usual quidco and topcashback. I have it for the free service, parts are covered, plus if my boiler does totally die they will pay a massive part of the new one.

My homecase is only £12 a month. Peace of mind really.
 
I wouldn't bother. If one big repair lump would be an issue, then stick £10 a month in a savings account and raid that for repairs as they arise. Outside of servicing, nothing much of any great expense usually goes wrong.
 
Wouldn't bother on a new boiler, just get it serviced every year and get cover in ten years time or something.
 
I would just get it serviced annually and not bother with home care. Stick money aside that you would have spent and if ever there is a problem I'd bet there would be more in the kitty than the cost of repair - plus there are so many exemptions in these service contracts that when I was looking at one a few months back I didn't see any benefits at all.
 
It's all well and good saying put money aside in case something goes wrong, but that relies on you having a plumber who is not booked up for weeks. Around here trying to get a plumber at short notice is a right pain.
 
benhaha85 said:
It's all well and good saying put money aside in case something goes wrong, but that relies on you having a plumber who is not booked up for weeks. Around here trying to get a plumber at short notice is a right pain.
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The boiler is under warranty if it breaks down she shouldn't be waiting for joe plumber to come fix it the manufacturer should be sending someone asap.
 
Lets see £15 pm = £180 pa over 10 years is £1800.

Chance of breakdown over 10 years? Not very high. When 10 years is up buy a new boiler and save money on gas. Locate a good plumber. They are not like rocking horse **** like people seem to make out.
 
Edinho said:
Lets see £15 pm = £180 pa over 10 years is £1800.

Chance of breakdown over 10 years? Not very high. When 10 years is up buy a new boiler and save money on gas. Locate a good plumber. They are not like rocking horse **** like people seem to make out.
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This is my take on it, our kerosene boiler must be 20 years old at least (we have owned it for 4 years now, we didnt replace it when we bought the house) and its never broken down since we've had it.

Save the money and just fix it if it ever breaks or eventually replace it.
 
We have an ideal boiler in a new build and i'm sure when we spoke to them about it's maintenance history they told us that it hadn't been registered with them. I'm sure they told us that the first service would have been free.

I think I would go for homeserve contract if the one without excess isn't badly prices through a cashback website.
 
Just a heads up for anyone interested, Quidco are doing £40 cashback on contracts with SSE Shield, which is offering 6 months for free then 6 months full price, including free annual boiler service.

I went with £16.90 cover (which includes free call outs), after the 6 months free and cashback it will work out at around £60 for the year. I spoke to customer services who said if you refuse the cooling off period you can book your annual service straight away.

Hopefully this won't bite me in the arse.
 
we bought a new build which obviously came with a brand new boiler and I've never owned my own house before. are you suppose dto get the boiler serviced every year regardless of age ?

This boiler has now celebrated it's 2nd birthday. I am a bit clueless when it comes to boilers having never owned a house before and just relied on the landlord doing it (which coincidentley never happened either)
 
IMO you should get the boiler serviced annually - it's a legal requirement for landlords to do this but imo it's just not worth taking risks with gas. Servicing doesn't mean you won't suffer component failures such as control boards etc.
 
bloodiedathame said:
Just a heads up for anyone interested, Quidco are doing £40 cashback on contracts with SSE Shield, which is offering 6 months for free then 6 months full price, including free annual boiler service.

I went with £16.90 cover (which includes free call outs), after the 6 months free and cashback it will work out at around £60 for the year. I spoke to customer services who said if you refuse the cooling off period you can book your annual service straight away.

Hopefully this won't bite me in the arse.
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Cheers for the heads up - just gone for the same one :)
 
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