Home heating cover

General Discussion Forums I Need Help!
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We have a Worcester/Bosch oil fired central heating boiler, now 12 years old. Have used them for annual service and breakdown cover for many years now, 

We have no complaints in the past, BUT they have used DGS for several years and we pay them monthly. This year it’s gone up to £250 per year (paid monthly).

This is ridiculous, and I see 24/7 are offering full cover with annual service for £7.60 per month. Tempting, but has anyone used them and what’s your thoughts on them? No-one else in our area seems to offer realistic cover.

 

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Hmm, we have a Glowworm 24HXi (badged Vaillant) as heat-only (NOT a dreaded combi) and until two years ago it was serviced by the same private contractor every two years for about £120 including a new gasket kit (he originally installed the system and said it was such a reliable type it did not need annual, simply because the servicing did more damage than the usage).  If it had been a combi, then annual was essential.

Alas he emigrated last year and soon after the motherboard and gas/fan controller both died (Mains electricity spike?).  Standard fixed price repair from Vaillant was £249 - regardless of what they did, be it reset a switch or a major repair - and the engineer did almost everything that a service would have as well as fit two parts that could have totalled more than four hundred.

A full service of a combi (oil or gas) should take at least an hour (depending on how easy the access is maybe two), should include descaling the hw exchanger as well as cleaning the clag off the gas chamber and checking the combustion products and the cleanliness of both water systems.  If any drainage or flushing then add another couple of hours.  How much an hour do you think a properly qualified gas engineer should earn?  Then there are parts, the seals around the combustion chamber should always be renewed, they tend to work like crush washers - one use only.

I’m always happy to pay the going rate, provided the job is done properly.  My safety and comfort depends on it.  I’m having difficulty in finding a suitable replacement for my tame gas engineer - now earning twice as much in NZ.

 

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Hi Gerryn

These service contracts start to get expensive or simply not available when the boiler gets past 10 years old.

If that £7.60 a month includes an annual service, not a bad price at all, assuming they don’t surcharge what is generally considered an old boiler like yours.

I have a Glowworm  30HXi, basically the same as Richards, installed in 2006 so old like yours. Only runs hot water and occasional heating with LPG as have woodburners.

I do my own servicing but get the gas professionally analysed. I certainly would not encourage this but as with everything I do nowadays, prefer to take responsibility for everything I rely on. Gasket sets for the HXi are very cheap at around a tenner and as Richard says always worth replacing when disturbed.

Look at the cost of spares and consider an annual service with a trusted local professional rather than the expensive contracts.

I have priced all spares likely required for my 12 year old boiler and nothing is above £100 except for the heat exchanger. This part is a silly price from the manufacturer but as usual other much cheaper options available. The same is no doubt true of your boiler.      

          

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I’ve always considered these cover plans a complete rip off. A good friend of mine is a gas safe registered engineer and services my boiler every year for a reasonable price. I have a combi, which is a different monster to yours. But the basic service consists of checking the exhaust gasses, and if they’re within limits, leave well alone. There is additional work at certain intervals, but not every year. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I’ve saved enough to replace a boiler three times over during the past 30 years. You don’t need a plan, you need a good relationship with a plumber.

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Thank you all for replies so far, No wish to seem ungrateful, however some seem to have missed the point and others make assumptions which do not hold water. Sorry for that, but I prefaced this with ‘Oil fired’ boiler and replies relating to gas miss the mark by a mile. I need an OFTEC approved plumbing and heating engineer familiar with Worcester boilers and in this area one is harder to find than a chicken with four legs. Oh -and it is a Combi boiler, not that matters to me, as I want a maintenance and service contract.

The real question was: Anyone use - or used 24/7 services for central heating of any or the other services they offer - and what’s your opinion of them? They claim to have 300 engineers covering the country, though whether that also includes car servicing, electrics, etc which are some of the other services they offer, remains to be seen.

Gas engineers are available anytime, OFTEC is a different field altogether. (Neither of us will ever consider gas, which has a habit of exploding, causing major house damage, injury and even death, fairly common up here, such is the quality of so called experienced gas engineers.) That’s apart from gas leaks, often the cause in the first place. Yes - Oil is now B expensive, at 49.9 a litre, but when we first had an oil fired boiler, a tank top up (around 4/500 Litres, cost £25 (still have an old invoice from the seventies) That was before this and previous governments added VAT and Tax, and the oil gurus were happy to make a living. All this you know!

Oftec engineers are not self employed, their relative status means they are eagerly sought after for employment with large firms, which sadly, are few and far between. My step brother was a master plumber, but as he moved to the east coast many years ago I couldn’t afford to employ him, relative or not. Also unsure if he was ever OFTEC qualified or Gas either. Not heard from him or his wife for several years now, so may well be plumbing heaven (hence the rain) for all I know.

Friendly plumber with oftec qualification? - see above.

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Have you looked on OFTECs website for local engineers? That’s how I got mine serviced.

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Brilliant suggestion (why didn’t I think of that?) Many thanks. Some ringing round to do methinks.