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!

Definitely contact WB. I missed the service on ours (so went two years without a service). I contacted WB and they said that it wouldn't currently be under warranty due to this, but getting it serviced would bring it back under warranty (by my usual heating engineer, I didn't have to get WB to service it).

please don't beat yourself up

never knew this

Wow - a gas boiler service is what £70 a year, its important. Its not about the warranty - a gas boiler should go a good ten - fifteen year, its about making sure its safe.

Neither did I till my dad said

and he’s a fountain of knowledge

Servicing a boiler every year is compulsary in rental properties for a reason. I would get it serviced, our last service showed carbon monoxide leakage in the gas appliances that we could not smell.

I know our one gets muck in the trap that needs cleaning out. And it's worth keeping an eye on system pressure. Look to see if the outdoor release pipe produces water. Listen to the boiler. Look over the heating system. And any tuning. Something an engineer would likely do.

I've heard a neighbour's boiler's fan go. And another where theirs was pissing water that they hadn't even noticed.

I watched a company service a boiler once, basically hoovered the inside, did get ours done after 15 years and was told its basically like brand new...i guess its a waste of money.?

I've no idea where you got this information but there is no legal set price on boiler services in England at least.

Most gas engineers are running their own businesses and are responsible for setting their own fees.

£70 - £120 plus Vat is about the right range, depending on location. The service should take around 50 minutes - 1 hour and the boiler should be thoroughly inspected and cleaned.

In view of the fact it's an essential appliance that could potentially kill you and your family if it goes wrong, £100 or so once a year to keep it working safely sounds like a pretty good choice to me.

The previous owners of our house were doctors with young kids, still didn’t get their boiler serviced though. The mind boggles.

My dad told me there was a fixed charge

I think you are confusing the fact that most heating engineers will give you a fixed quote for servicing the boiler. So mine will say ' servicing of boiler from X pounds', but if work is required it's extra.

We got a 7 year guarantee with our Valliant boiler on istallation and have it serviced every 1-2 years since, not the strict yearly service required by the guarantee.

When it developed a water leak after 5 years we called the original installer (who had also carried out the services we had had) and he was able to contact Valliant to get the parts under the guarantee and fit them for free. On our behalf he said that it had been serviced as required so if you've a good relationship with the service engineer they maybe able to 'smooth' the way

Well obv if something needs repairing it’s more

A fountain of bullshit. Or you are.

The price of servicing a boiler is fixed by law in exactly the same way that the prices of getting your lawn mown, your undercarriage waxed or a bag of cocaine from your dealer are fixed by law.

nope, none at all
boiler not serviced since it was installed 9 years ago

Boilers have only been serviced for the last 20 years or so. Before that, they weren't.

😳😳😳😳

There is no fixed charge - each company / engineer will set their own fee.

It is not a waste of money. A service will tell you whether the boiler is safely operating - and you can’t tell that simply by whether it works or not. They will check the gas is connecting properly and it isn’t releasing carbon monoxide. If there are any issues you can fix them before they become dangerous. It is not just about hoovering out the inside!

My Mum didn’t get her boiler serviced regularly when I was little and once when we were at home it spontaneously burst into flames. It was terrifying and I still remember the flames leaping out of the cupboard. Thankfully we weren’t asleep and could ring 999 and escape easily. After that she always, always got her boiler serviced regularly.

Find a boiler engineer who will post date the three you missed for a lesser fee , That’s what I did.

So it seems

I will tell my dad 😇

Get it serviced by a corgi registered plumber fir your own safety

That's not true - I remember the one in my childhood home being serviced annually in the 70s

Gas safe replaced corgi about 15 years ago.