Service intervals for Gas Boilers

[fiveminutejob]

Can anyone advise on the recommended safe intervals for servicing domestic gas boilers?

In early January 2004 we took out an annual boiler maintenence contract with British Gas as we were having a problem with our Vaillant Thermocompact, just days out of its warranty period. BG took 2 weeks to fix it (but that's another story!).

As we have had no annual service since then, I rang BG and asked when they intended to service it. Their answer was that it can be done at any time in "the contract year". In other words, from, say, 1 January 2004, they need not visit again until 31 December 2006, two years later. I have asked them to write and tell me formally that a two-year servicing interval is operationally safe, never mind what their contract allows. No response so far.

Incidentally, Vaillant's handbook says "the appliance should be serviced at least once per year".

Any thoughts from the helpful CORGI experts on this site?

 

[micky p]

It is recommended that they are serviced once every 12months. Not too sure where you stand on it tho with BG. But the £170 or so a year is a lot when they don't come out and service it compared to a local rate of about £50 for a service. You are paying for insurance on the boiler mainly. They very rarley take the cover off the boiler and clean inside as they just take a flue reding as see if it need cleaning which 9/10 they don't. They belive that they only take the combustion cover off if it is really necassary. Which i don't. Can beat a good old vac out.

 

[HarrogateGas]

If the instructions say once per year then once per year it is........BG are just so under staffed that they cannot cope wth the services they have, you will be lucky to see BG. I honestly think that with the state of the company as it is now there will not be a British gas as we know if in about 5 years time, id start looking for a good local corgi registered engineers get him to service it and forward the bill to BG.

 

[fiveminutejob]

Thanks both for your speedy replies. Appreciated.

I do know that Vaillant offer an annual service contract (and BG in January 2004 were going to call them out as a last resort anyway), so should I just cancel BG contract and sign up with Vaillant?

 

[ollski]

I think some areas are very far behind on the safety and performance checks (bg don't service your room sealed boiler unless required) and have a legal obligation to ensure all open flued appliances are serviced within 12 months so yours may well get pushed back.
In all honesty it won't cause any problems not to get it seen to in 2 years, but if you are worried call it in as a breakdown and tell the engineer when he gets there that you are fed up waiting for a service and he will do it.

 

[Agile]

Its important the understand that BG do NOT offer a "service" as part of the breakdown cover. Its only a "safety check".

The manufacturers and conscientious installers will do a proper service.

However, many modern boilers do not need a full service every year and doing it would actually lower reliability ( which is why BG stopped doing services because they found that just caused more faults ).

In my view a service inspection is beneficial every year to visually inspect for leaks and to check and reset operating parameters. Opening up the combustion chamber on a premix boiler is only required every 3-4 years and has to be done very carefully by a very competent person who replaces the seals and then checks the CO2 level on a flue gas analyser to ensure the gas mix is correct.

We only charge £55 for a service in the London area yet hardly do any because 99% of people just dont bother to ever get boilers serviced.

Tony

 

[fiveminutejob]

Thanks also to ollgi and agile for speedy comments. Looks like I will go for a Vaillant contract and ditch BG.

Thanks again to all who freely contribute their advice to this site.

 

[fiveminutejob]

Sorry.....ollski!

 

[Paul Barker]

You'll probably find they drove past one day and stuck an analiser probe in your flue, found it was safe and drove off without disturbing you. £170 nice and quick, thanks very much m8.

 

[micky p]

it is up to you but any contract is like an insurance.... Now if you just saved your money and got it check out by a reallable corgi chappy then im sure he would do the same job and cost you less. And if it does break down you pay out then. instaed of paying upfront on the chance it may break down. Some people want insurance as a less head ache, but watch for the clauses.

 

[ollski]

You'll probably find they drove past one day and stuck an analiser probe in your flue, found it was safe and drove off without disturbing you. £170 nice and quick, thanks very much m8.

I think bg are one of the few who offer any sort of annual check on a contract. The annual check should include full electrical checks, case seal inspection, burner pressure, emissions and walk of the system as a minimum though in all honesty there are very few room sealed boilers that need much more than 15mins to complete all this.

 

[corgiman]

more fool the service engineers that dont do what oll says

 

[Alfredo]

Working on council & housing assoc contracts we now have a policy of capping meters where the tenant has refused access for servicing and the CP 12 is about to run out (12 months). This morning this policy paid off big time.

I went to service a Glow Worm 45/2 & Miami 3 BBU and fire where we had capped the meter due to lack of access. I duly dismantled the fire and burner bar..cleaned it all out and reassembled it.

I had already purged the system before reconnecting the gas valve, and duly set the gas valve to 'pilot' to relight it. I pressed the piezo igniter, and the whole lot went BANG in quite dramatic fashion. In a nutshell the gas valve was allowing full flow of gas on the pilot setting. A new gas valve sorted it out.

Get it checked once a year..you never ever know.... QED

Alfredo

 

[micky p]

Working on council & housing assoc contracts we now have a policy of capping meters where the tenant has refused access for servicing and the CP 12 is about to run out (12 months). This morning this policy paid off big time.

I went to service a Glow Worm 45/2 & Miami 3 BBU and fire where we had capped the meter due to lack of access. I duly dismantled the fire and burner bar..cleaned it all out and reassembled it.

I had already purged the system before reconnecting the gas valve, and duly set the gas valve to 'pilot' to relight it. I pressed the piezo igniter, and the whole lot went BANG in quite dramatic fashion. In a nutshell the gas valve was allowing full flow of gas on the pilot setting. A new gas valve sorted it out.

Get it checked once a year..you never ever know.... QED

Alfredo

you right

 

[fiveminutejob]

Thanks for all comments. Since my first post, BG have still not written to confirm what they told me on phone - that a two year interval is safe - because their contract intervals allow that long. Does not fill me with confidence. As soon as their service is done I will look elsewhere.