No boiler service for 3 years, what to do now?

[Epictantrum]

Hi all, we had a new boiler fitted by a local plumber almost 3 years ago and it is working fine. However, my grand plans to service it every year (required by the guarantee with Worcester Bosch) have come to nothing and I realised it is now well overdue. What would you do:
a) Get it serviced now by a local plumber, keep it going annually and hope if I do have a problem WB won't notice the lack of services initially and cover any problems. Is a service actually useful for a young boiler or is it just to maintain the guarantee (which may be too late anyway)?
b) Get a service agreement/insurance which has an annual service included (some seem a bit too cheap, cheaper than than what you would expect a service to cost on its own, and some are £££, so no idea what level to go for.
c) Wing it. Put the money I would have spent on the above aside and use it to pay for any problems if they crop up.
d) Contact WB and beg forgiveness and see if there is a way to reinstate the guarantee??
Thanks!

I missed a couple of years and voided the warranty on our boiler. I just got a local company to do a service and accepted that I was now responsible if it needed repairs. It did need a new part in what would have been the final year under warranty but it was only about £200 and would have been more than cancelled out by the cost of the additional services. I still only get round to it every 2-3 years. Just keep a bit of money set by if you can.

Well just service it now, and stop worrying.

I use Hometree for boiler care. Doesn’t cost much. They service it once a year and come out to fix it when needed no problem, which I have used several times in two houses.

Hi I would have the boiler serviced as soon as possible.

I have a Worcester 4 years old. I was with a service company and had had it serviced but changed to another company which meant my service certificate was about 5 months out of date. I then started having problems with it and the service company I was with changed 3 parts but it was still not working, the service company contacted Worcester directly and Worcester came out and fixed the problem I was not asked for a service certificate and the engineer from Worcester said if I had any more problems to contact them directly and they would come out. It has now been serviced and I will now continue to have it serviced regularly just in case and I was suprised it broke as everyone has always said how reliable they are. They were very good to come out and repair it with not cost to me. It is worth it as they are guaranteed for 10 years.

It's worth going with a service company one that does a service every year and then you know you are covered by both. Look around you can get some good deals.

OP, I know this isn’t what you want to hear but our Worcester Bosch is only 5 years old and luckily we have had it serviced every year, because at our most recent service in December our local engineer noticed a potential problem.

He called WB, who said they would send someone round. Turned out to be a faulty heat exchanger, which they replaced for free - that repair would have been a good £800+ had it not been under warranty.

Some PPs have suggested that you can call WB and they will do a service themselves that will reinstate the warranty. Based on our experience, I think that might be worth a try!

Otherwise I would get your service done ASAP and then just be strict about putting some money away each month to cover any potential future repair/replacement. I don’t think I’d bother with a service agreement - they are usually £££, and imo, over the years you could end up paying more under the agreement than you would for a completely new boiler.

You will have voided the warranty, but that's not the only consideration. It needs to be serviced to be safe and there can also be safety alerts and product recalls so it's important to know about these. I set a reminder in my calendar for a month before the service is due.

My boiler has never been serviced in 13 years. It's still using the same amount of gas and producing the same amount if heat.

So no carbon monoxide poisoning or explosion ?amazing 😂

I cant believe how many people on here dont get their boilers serviced every year! A small gas leak alone could cause a huge explosion…….

I don't think you'll be able to reinstate the guarantee because it's not been serviced.

Get it serviced now though and try and keep up the annual service going forward. It will make sure it's working safely and efficiently and will help prolong its life in the long run. All boilers need a bit of maintenance from time to time.

🤣

Your guarantee is now void. We had ours serviced to maintain the guarantee but when it came out of it our plumber said to save the money and get it repaired when it needed it. A service on a relatively young boiler was unnecessary.

our plumber said to save the money and get it repaired when it needed it.

my Worcester comes with a 10 year warranty. I wouldn’t trust any plumber who told me to save this first class warranty for the sake of £100 a year to pay him for any problems that came along

Wouldn’t you still need to get it serviced anyway?

Get a plumber and get it serviced fgs.

My boiler was about ten years old when I bought the house and it had issues. Got it on a service plan which basically means repairs are covered. So far it has paid for itself and it is a relief I don’t have to suddenly come up with £xx and they find out within a day or two. Three months payment covers the annual service and I’ve had to have them come out three times to fix it so I’m quids in currently.

Why not put it on a British Gas service deal? They will service it every year. They are not too fussy about the age of the boiler.

You’ve missed out on someone checking it is safe and not going to kill you with carbon monoxide.

Only your safety and peace of mind! Our very reliable boiler had been serviced every year and seemed to be working well. On the last service the engineer tested the flue gases (as they should) and found it was burning way hotter than it should and producing more carbon monoxide than it should! On further investigation the cause was discovered and the boiler condemned! Very scary!

Whatever you do don't get a service plan with Corgi. It's part of the OVO group. We had a terrible experience with them at the end of 2024

This. I really hope I don’t live next to any of you! Absolutely frightening.

We did this when we moved, I didn't register the boiler and didn't get a service for 2 years so the guarantee was void.

We took out cover with a company called yourcover. They sent an engineer out each year to service it, and we've had 2 call outs/repairs done by them too.

British gas waiting times if you have an emergency breakdown were literally weeks. They wanted to leave me with no hot water for 9 days even though I had boiler cover with them

I actually got £300 compensation from British Gas as they left me fecked up for so long with no heating or hot water as part of their service plan

Worcester service for me

Sounds similar to mine apart been in my house 26yrs and wasn’t new when I bought house so it’s prob 30/35yrs old

but works perfectly - till it doesn’t …… as with anything

guess one day I will have to renew it

def get boilers serviced yearly. I haven’t been and daddyblondes told me off

THE SERVICE CHARGE IS FIXED BY LAW IT INCLUDES VAT is £95

If pay cash some do it for £72

legally not allowed to charge more then above

so if a plumber says it’s £150

• pull them up

I have an 11 year old WB boiler. My DH used to tinker service it but he’s passed away. I had it serviced last September. The heating engineer said it was in perfect condition and that WB boilers last for years.