To skip boiler service this year?

[WoundTheBobbinUp]

Sorry for the boring thread!

Money is really tight at the moment (as it is for many). We usually get our 20-year-old boiler serviced every September and I'm tempted to skip it this year and save the £60.

Most importantly, we have got a carbon monoxide alarm so if there was a dangerous leak we should know about it.

The other thing is of course keeping the boiler running. When we've had it serviced before (by several different tradespeople) they haven't really done anything, just had a look and done some checks. I'm not convinced that it's ever helped prolong the life of the boiler.

If you are a bit more clued up about these things than I am, would you skip it? Or does it really make a difference?

Please ignore this, quite frankly, dangerous advice. Having your boiler serviced regularly means that it runs more efficiently as well.

Please get it serviced. It’s not only carbon monoxide that’s a risk, but gas leaks and explosions too https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-birmingham-explosion-casualties-reported-27333038

In one service they noticed the seal had perished so there was a tiny leak. In another they tweaked something which improved its efficiency so it ran better. Not worth skipping in my opinion, especially at that age.

I genuinely don’t know anyone in real life who has their boiler serviced annually. I know people who also have rental properties that make sure the boiler is serviced in those because that’s the law but even they don’t have their own done.

I know 2 households who used to pay monthly for boiler cover which included a service but when theirs broke the covers wouldn’t pay out and they were left feeling a bit scammed.

You can skip the boiler check but you can’t skip being gassed.

And I genuinely don't know anyone who doesn't have their boiler serviced regularly @PinkPlantCase.

The "it hasn't happened to me" in spite of your risky stance is really bad advice.

I used to think it was a waste of money too until my last one where they found a serious issue and told me I couldn't use it until it was fixed or I risked a serious problem. The boiler is in my children's room too so no way could it be left.

I imagine any insurance or guarantee you have wouldn't be valid either.

I would get it done, there's been a fair few explosions recently. I'd not want to risk it. Our boiler is being serviced next week. They have found issues in the past, simple ones to fix but still. One was a setting that had been changed by the previous owner of the house. No idea why you would tamper with a boiler when you don't know what you're doing.

If gas or in the house I’d probably service it.

Our local heating engineer advised not to bother servicing our 30 year old boiler and just to replace parts as they stop working. But it’s not in the house so risk from any carbon monoxide is much lower.

I don't know anyone who knows so much about anyone else's lives that they're able to say things like that.

Most people know dozens of people quite closely and hundreds/thousands of people casually and there's no way on earth that they'd be able to categorically say that even all their parents, siblings, cousins, adult children, grandparents, best friends and aunties/uncles all keep up with their boiler servicing schedule.

I'm with BG & they're offering a very cheap service (I thought £29, but may have been £49) but it just seems like a way to sell new boilers, so I'll pay more for an independent service. My boiler is about 8 years old, still seems quite new to me (had rads put in & it was all quite a big upheaval, which doesn't SEEM that long ago) but I did wonder about replacing it now as I'm sure they'll get more expensive & it might be more efficient.

Well they don't just 'look at it' and walk away! My boiler services have lasted the best part of an hour as various parts are tested, cleaned and so on. I am putting it off till this hot spell is past as I know they run the thing full bore which would mean all the heating will be on! But no, don't put it off, especially as your boiler is old.

If your boiler is not a modern combi one, then it has very little that can actually go wrong - it’s basically just a mechanical heat pump with a thermostat. Mine has only needed one new thermocouple and one new gas valve in 25 years, each costing less than £20.
I didn’t have it serviced for over ten years, and only then when it broke down (hence getting the new parts). The engineer cleans it so it runs more efficiently, and checks for faults, but missing one service appointment is only extending the service interval from one year to two years.
You have a CO detector, so are protected if there is incomplete combustion, and you would soon smell if there was a leak of the methane gas supply, too.
I would start saving for next year’s inspection, but not worry at all about missing this one.

When we have ours serviced the gas engineer is very thorough. He doesn't just look at it and leave. It isn't a combi boiler, and neither DH not I have a clue about boiler maintenance so we prefer to pay a qualified gas safe engineer to do the servicing.

They often find something that needs replacing or tweaking. Our boiler is 11 years old.

My DH is a gas boiler engineer. Please don’t skip it with a boiler that age. Would you be happy to drive a 20 year old car without regular checks on its safety?
and whoever you use, make sure they aren’t rushing. They should be taking the front off, cleaning bits out and doing a series of tests.

he goes to houses all the time where the customer says things like “the last person here only spent ten minutes on it” (and btw that last person is often a British Gas engineer. They are under huge pressure to meet targets and get through a certain number of jobs in a day)

I would think it's a community duty to have it serviced really if you're responsible for the building. Because a fault could have an impact on the whole street, a deathly one I believe? I thought there was a legal duty like car insurance.

I've had a few engineers around as I am thinking of changing my 36yr old concord boiler (yet came with the house!). Every single person said not to get it serviced because cleaning it could cause it to break as previous owners never had it serviced regularly.

Its running fine nothing wrong with it but now im looking to change it due to how inefficient it is and the prices increases otherwise I would of left it to run until it broke. Shame because those same engineers say its a solid boiler that will last a long time.

Don’t skip it. Mine was condemned during a service. It had seemed fine but it wasn’t.

See this is the problem - we've had 4 or 5 different people service our boiler, and not one of them was here for more than 20 mins. This was a mix of independents and big companies, and all were on recommendation! How do I find one who will do a proper job? I don't mind paying if they do it properly.

Exactly what I was thinking - I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation in real life about boiler servicing 😂😂 let alone everyone I know to be sure that everyone I know definitely does or doesn’t get their boiler serviced annually.

For what it’s worth I do, but only because I pay a monthly fee for some sort of cover and it’s included (boiler is 3 years old). I’ll be honest I thought paying for cover on a brand new boiler seemed a little unnecessary but something went wrong last winter and they sorted it within a couple of hours so then it felt worthwhile.

i think you probably should get it serviced OP, as it’s quite old.

Our last boiler was old when we bought the house in '93. It worked well and was serviced annually. However we had a new one last year as spare parts weren't available any more. It's more efficient so running costs won't be so high. We used a very good local firm, I wouldn't touch British gas, a friend waited days for them to come out in freezing weather despite having a service contract. Our new boiler has to be serviced annually by the firm who fitted it in order for the guarantee to be valid

We have found this with British Gas! We had their home care package and they would only spend about 15 mins looking at it, say it was fine and give me a piece of paper to say so. Then one year we had a problem with it making a really weird noises, I literally thought it was going to explode or fall off the wall or something, and I spoke to one of the dad's at the school gate whose a gas engineer and he basically said don't bother with BG, they're useless, don't service properly and don't clean certain parts etc. The problem with our boiler turned out to be because they'd not cleaned a certain part out, ever, in the 5 years they'd been servicing it (which they should have been doing). AND, even though my annual service was due, because of the problem, I had to pay a £60 call out charge on top of the 300 odd quid I was paying them yearly, and they couldn't come out till 3 days later, so we were without hot water or heating for that time, in winter. Safe to say I cancelled the policy and will pay someone independent to do it, saving myself a few hundred quid a year.

Don't skip it. If it's 20 years old it's on its last legs anyway (last legs could be another 5-10 years by the way, we replaced a 30 year old boiler last year, but it needs to be looked after). If you pay the £60, that might save you needing to replace the boiler for a while.

And that's without the safety issues.

Please find something else to save on. There must be ways to find £6 a week savings on food shopping over the next 10 weeks, for example.

Skip it op. If you’ve got a carbon monoxide monitor you’re good to go. The whole servicing boiler thing is little more than a racket!

They do practically nothing, and then when they do find something amiss, they ‘can’t get the parts’ and are telling you to get a new one🤔
we’ve never had ours serviced.

I must be the only poster who has never had a problem with British Gas servicing.

Every gas engineer who has serviced our boiler has taken the front off it, cleaned it, checked every part, checked our hot water tank and generally been very thorough. We have also never had to wait more than 24 hours when we have had a breakdown.

The whole servicing boiler thing is little more than a racket!

Please take no notice of this ^^ nonsense.