Soldato
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- 22 Apr 2009
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Homecare
- Thread starter ChrisD.
- Start date
I'm not sure on a newish boiler but for a boiler that's getting on a bit it's well worth having. Especially as independent boiler repairers don't have the best reputation for being honest / reasonably priced.
The price also includes an annual service. E.g just last week my cousins boiler was fixed by BG through Homecare. It took two visits totaling 3 hours of work. It included three different parts, one of which was a pump that costs £250. If you total up the labour and part costs for that job it's probably somewhere near £700 (it also included a service).
Plonking the money in an account could be better off if you don't have an instant issue. I mean you may have no issues for five years. However you could have some major issues several times over the next year...... it's a risk.
The price also includes an annual service. E.g just last week my cousins boiler was fixed by BG through Homecare. It took two visits totaling 3 hours of work. It included three different parts, one of which was a pump that costs £250. If you total up the labour and part costs for that job it's probably somewhere near £700 (it also included a service).
Plonking the money in an account could be better off if you don't have an instant issue. I mean you may have no issues for five years. However you could have some major issues several times over the next year...... it's a risk.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Apr 2009
- Posts
- 3,772
- Location
- North-West
Quoted the wrong post sorry. I agree Homecare is better than putting x amount each month. If you put £16 away a month doubt that is enough to fix a boiler problem.
I've had my boiler serviced twice in 11 years! If it is a condition of the warranty that it is serviced every year then service it but use the warranty for repairs. The animal servicing of gas appliances is a scam whatcha what they actually do next time they visit for £80 it's hilarious!
I have watched them and checking it is running efficiently and safely is hardly a scam.
He
1) Removed the casing and cleaned the heat exchanger of a fair amount of soot/dirt, and cleaned the gas injector.
2) Checked the combustion chamber seal to make sure it wasn't drawing air in from the room.
3) We have a vertex flue, so went up in the attic and put a gas analyser in the flue to check CO content of the combustion gases.
4) Did a spill test in the attic to make sure fresh air was being replenished through the soffit vents and that the flue was drawing combustion gases outside properly.
These things are safety critical, I can't see how it can be considered a scam.
You have an unusual flue arrangement but still a co2 alarm would monitor that it was working correctly for much less money, a standard modern fanned flue is ridiculously straight forward and safe. I don't disagree that boilers need periodic servicing but the idea that it needs to be done every year is frankly laughable it's created a whole industry that has closed itself off through regulation and pushed prices up to a silly level.
I'd reform the whole industry, it needs two regulators in competition not a single organisation who expends half it's effort protecting it's members and putting ridiculous barriers to entry into the profession. I'd bring back the job title Gas fitter as well love the idea that a man is an engineer because he runs low pressure gas through copper but a plumber if he runs high pressure water through it!
It's Carbon Monoxide - CO, that gas appliances give off and are harmful.
Why wait until there is an issue and an alarm is going off? Why not service it regularly and avoid that.