British Gas Homecare Or A Similar Maintenance Contract

Does anyone have any experience of British Gas Homecare packages, ive heard some good, but mostly very bad, things about them. I'm renting my flat out in a few months and want to get a maintenance contract for central heating and general plumbing sorted out to make sure any problems that arise can be dealt with by my tenets.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other vendors/insurers who offer good maintenance packages and sensible prices? I'm based in Edinburgh.

thanks in advance
ewan

All the packages are about £18 per month.

The advantage of British Gas is that you are only dealing with one organisation.

With the others they are insurance companies and employ another company in many cases to organise the claims and further contractors to do the actual work.

A competent local boiler engineer who will do plumbing work would be the best option as the schemes do not cover everything which can arise.

Tony

Thanks, a follow up on this. I'm getting a new boiler fitted (bog standard sealed system). Depending on who's quote i take it will be a Ariston or a Worcester Bosch. The boiler i have is 12+ years old, the gas valve has gone and it takes about an 30mins to light. No one will take it on a maintenance contract at that age so a new one is the way to go i think.

After reading these boards i'm thinking about Power Flushing.... should I / shouldn't I?

BG's quote of £2700 for bolier+powerflush also got me thinking about this.

I've got 6 rad's in total no cold spots, no delay in heating, no leeks as far as i can see. I top up the pressure in the system a little maybe every month or so. When i bleed the rad's the water coming out of 4 of them is clear the other 2 (which are closer to the boiler and further away from the storage tank) are dirtier.

Comments? suggestions? To powerflush or not to powerflush that is the £400 question.

ta
ewan

BG will take it on contract no matter how old it is.
As long as they can get parts for it.

Power flushing when a new boiler is installed should NOT be an optional extra.

It should be up to the installer to assess the situation and treat the water as necessary and give a full unconditional guarantee.

Any quotation which lists power flushing as an extra should be viewed as a quote for the total cost.

Power flushing should be about £320 as a stand alone or £180 at the same time a new boiler is fitted.

As a guide our price would be the trade price of the boiler plus £20 and £720 for fitting it including an unconditional guarantee if its a combi to combi swap. BG would be about £1000 extra to cover their overheard and corporate profits.

Tony

Hi,
Are these Plumbing Insurances any good \ worth the money?

I think the one from Homecare is @ £65 a year, but has restrictions on how much they will pay out and how often, so is it worth it?

What don't they cover?

Thanks

Steve

My neighbour had a service contract with a certain company that I won't name.

When the engineer came out he told her her boiler was FUBAR'd and she would need a replacement which they he provided a quote for. Not convinced she told him she would get a 2nd opinion first. She got a local gas fitter in who rectified the problem and the boiler has worked fine since.

The problem with some of these service contracts is that the engineers are on commision, and as some are not as honest as others they may try to sell you a replacement boiler that you don't need.

There is sometimes a confusion with british gas as they are obligated under the contract to inform customers as the wheather the parts are fully supported or not. This information is provided by the manufacters. Some customers take this information to mean they need a replacement and of course Bg will accomodate. If it does happen that a part is requied which isn't held in bg stock they will try all of their retail suppliers but if they don't have one either that is that. They will also advise replacement based on efficiency and condition. There is never an obligation to buy anything

I would say taking out insurance is dependent on the boiler and heating system you have. Some boilers are very reliable and if the system has been installed correctly insurance can cost far more than paying out yourself to have it repaired.

Some boilers eg Puma, Ideal Response, older Saunier Duvalls may warrant taking out insurance.

I advise most of my customers to set up a direct debit and put the money in their "boiler repair" account.

Some insurance companies start off on a lower rate increasing it the following years. Obvioulsy any pre-exstiing faults are not covered (and there is always the "powerflush" scam to be weary of).

Remember to check the small print. Damage from scale/sludge is not covered - that can mean a whole host of parts won't be under warranty. And you won't get a new boiler unless there are exceptional circumstances and the existing one's fairly new.

Another problem is the insurance companies sub-out the work, as a result there's often little money left for quality enigineers - the reason why I don't do insurance work.


I recently had a call from a lady in her mid 80's - she had paid the big one for the last 10 years (over £2000). The Apollo boiler had only had a thermocouple in that time. The kettling heat exchanger wasn't covered (due to scale) and they said the only option was a new boiler etc - cost nearly £3000.
Needless to say she asked me to swap out the heat exchanger, £280 +fitting. The boiler will outlive her. This scenerio happens all the time.

With some customers boilers/heating systems insurance companies will never make a profit, they take them on hoping one day they can upgrade the system with a replacement or a powerflush - then they make a killing.

I would also advise an insurance contract on an Ideal Response or a Sonya Duval.

The Insurance companies mainly use maintenance contractors which employ over 8 engineers. The rates paid to the contractors are not that bad. The reason you dont get quality engineers is more because, as BDL has found recently, the better ones are not going to work for those firms which do council, housing association and insurance work which is perceived as being "low standard".

Tony

And of course having a warranty does not guarantee an engineer will turn up within a reasonable time - as demonstrated by BG and widely publicised last Christmas.

Some customers had no hot water/heating for a few weeks.

I would also advise an insurance contract on an Ideal Response

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I know they have a few common faults but the biggie with a Response is the failed heat exchanger. Some maintenance contracts exclude heat exchangers.
What do BG do with those?

Ewans, boiler of choice in Glasgow or Edinburgh would appear to be a Vokera. Hence I work on plenty of these.

My suggestion would be to get someone who repairs boilers instead of changing parts or selling boilers to look at the boiler to see if it really needs to be replaced.

Modern boilers are not ment to last like boilers that were made some 10 years ago. Look at the Flowmatics, earlier Eurocombis, Vaillant VCWs and even the Sine 18.

If I were in your shoes, I would hold off spending good money on a replacement. I would than look for a boiler repair person who can diagnose the defect.

Put the money equal to the monthly premium in a bank and then call out your trusted heating man. It is very rare to find a Flowmatic, sine 18 or a VCW that will eat up £18.00 times 12 ( 12 monthes monthly premiums)

Have travelled to Edinburgh for travelling time. Am Glasgow based

ChrisR said:

I would also advise an insurance contract on an Ideal Response

Click to expand...

I know they have a few common faults but the biggie with a Response is the failed heat exchanger. Some maintenance contracts exclude heat exchangers.
What do BG do with those?

Click to expand...

They change them chris....although I believe they are now out of production and not too many left floating around (80 I was told).

I am sure I read somewhere that the office of fair trading instructed Ideal to provide heat exchangers to clients for the next few years, if the client rings ideal direct they charge about 400 (i think) and ship them out to site. This is not open to installers and the end user must make the call and payment