Gas boiler contract.....who to use?

British gas were ace for us.

And awful for us. They turned an intermittent hot water problem into no hot water, no heating, and a gas leak.

Never again.

Why pay for an expensive annual contract? I just call out a local plumber in the very rare occasions we have a boiler fault. It’s the same as insurance - only get it for things you can’t afford to replace or legal requirements.

Personally, none of them. Boiler serviced every few years and ring the same engineer if the boiler throws up an error.

House is set up so that the main shower runs from the boiler and the other is electric and we've a log burner in the living room that can provide enough heat if need be, so there's no panic if the boiler does fall over and we cant get an engineer out immediately.

Just find a recommended local boiler engineer/plumber, we have a really good local guy who turns up pretty quick when needed has also sorted any problems at a good price. Even he said annual service is a waste of time just fix it when it breaks as most wear and tear stuff can't always been seen as faulty unless it breaks or your just throw random parts on every year or so just for the sake of it.

Why pay for an expensive annual contract? I just call out a local plumber in the very rare occasions we have a boiler fault.

Same. I'm fortunate in that there's a gas fitter literally on the next block down the road. I had them out to service it when I first moved here (three years ago) because I didn't know its history, and again just before Christmas as it threw some error or other about ignition so I figured it was about due a looking at.

It’s the same as insurance – only get it for things you can’t afford to replace or legal requirements.

I'm generally of the same mind. British Gas's cheapest homecare is (currently on offer at) £16.80/month. That's £200/year, by comparison the boiler service was something like £60. That £480 I've saved doesn't just give me boiler cover, I can use it if the TV blows up tomorrow, I need a new washing machine, a slate falls off the roof, one of the cats is ill (a back of an envelope calculation suggests pet insurance for the last three years would have been north of 1600 quid)...

Never bothered personally. Always used a good local plumber, who gives it a service every few years and checks it's not slowly killing us. Currently 13 years old and still chugging on.

Only issue was the expansion vessel needed pumping up once and the pressure gauge started leaking, both DIY fixes and I believe legit, as you're not touching the gas side.

Worcester combi for reference.

I don't have a boiler but I have worked for British Gas.

Definitely 110% cultivate and develop a relationship with a local small scale business/engineer.

Never seen the point in any kind of boiler cover because they seem really expensive BUT we do have home emergency cover on our home insurance, it's about £30 a year and covers the boiler & other things like locks, boarding up broken windows etc.

In 9 years of living here we've used it once and they threw £500 worth of parts at the boiler and got it going again, so has more than paid for itself. How much is boiler cover, presumably more than  £55/year?

I've always shyed away from boiler insurance for the reasons mentioned above.

I have very basic heating cover with my house insurance...pretty much a 'get you back up and running policy' so if the boiler packs in to the point of being a write off, having to splash a couple of grand on a new one isn't a nice prospect...

...that said, chances are, if it does properly lunch itself, it will probably just need a new part, plus suitable person to fit it, so more like a couple of hundred quid rather than a couple of grand, so I'm hedging my bets and 'self insuring', as in if it breaks I'll just pay to get it fixed.

if the boiler packs in to the point of being a write off, having to splash a couple of grand on a new one isn’t a nice prospect…

Is this not the same as the boiler cover anyway? They won't fit a new boiler for you will they if yours is beyond economical repair?

Mine's 20yrs old and still going strong so yeah I'll be a bit miffed when it needs replacing, but it hasn't done too bad.

…that said, chances are, if it does properly lunch itself, it will probably just need a new part, plus suitable person to fit it, so more like a couple of hundred quid rather than a couple of grand, so I’m hedging my bets and ‘self insuring’, as in if it breaks I’ll just pay to get it fixed.

This is probably ignorance on my part, but boilers baffle me. You pay several grand for something which seemingly requires annual servicing to keep running, is capable of writing itself off beyond economical repair at the drop of a hat despite that maintenance, and for what? It's a ****ing kettle with delusions of grandeur, a pump and a timer. We wouldn't put up with that sort of crap from a dishwasher.

Is this not the same as the boiler cover anyway? They won’t fit a new boiler for you will they if yours is beyond economical repair?

Yeah, sorry I phrased that really badly!
What I meant was it's a bit like having mobile phone insurance... I guess it's peace of mind, but if it's say £15 per month, the chances of loosing it/smashing it up (for me at least ) is very very low, is if it's a total loss, based on my total loss history, I'm better off just buying a new one, I think my current phone is 4 years old and was about £300.
Chances of a boiler being a write off are very small unless it's ancient and no parts availability...so what I was trying to say very badly, is it's a good bet for me to pay to get it fixed if/when it causes a problem.

@cougar I do basic servicing myself, which really is just keeping half an eye on pressure/error codes, and once a year, clean the gunk off of the Mag filter, dump a canister of inhibitor into the CH, and re-preasurise.

I get the impression boiler services are a little bit like PAT testing for electronics, money for nothing if you are prepared to do a tiny bit of anuual maintenence yourself.

So I just went to look to answer my own question, from British Gas website:

A replacement for your boiler if we can’t
repair it and:
• it’s less than seven years old; or
• it’s between seven and ten years
old, we installed it and it’s been
continuously covered by us...

So I'm well outside the 7 / 10 years, but yes they will replace it if they can't fix it. At least for a while.

Yeah, sorry I phrased that really badly!

No you didn't, I just realised that I didn't know the answer as I'd never looked that deeply into it.

My British Gas cover has been completely worth it. The only original part of my Worcester is the casing. I've also had a brand new pressurised h/w cylinder as well, thousands of pounds worth of work. Never any problems getting them here either. 

Isn’t this just some kind of insurance?

🤷🏻‍♂️ just get a friendly heating engineer and get things done as needed?

Oh, and avoid Worster [sic] Bosch boilers.

My British Gas cover has been completely worth it. The only original part of my Worcester is the casing. I’ve also had a brand new pressurised h/w cylinder as well, thousands of pounds worth of work. Never any problems getting them here either.

But presumably your annual boiler insurance cost, plus annual service which imagine is about £150 a pop on top as it will be a condition of your insurance policy... are you really any better off over 'X' period of time as opposed to just paying to get it fixed, or just buying a new boiler?

Very subjective, I agree, it depends on what sort of time scales we are talking about but 'thousands of pounds worth of work' could have just bought you a new boiler with a warranty?

Boiler service is included. Gas plumbers hourly rates are high, quite rightly. The training and re certification alone costs a fortune. Its whole heating and hot water system, my cylinder is pressurised, around £800 just for that. Two gas plumbers, two days installation pluss sundry parts. That job alone was the price of a combi boiler.

Personally I would just put aside £30 a month and not bother with insurance,  that said new boilers do need a yearly service,  I had a new boiler fitted 3 years ago and because of the things that keep it eco , it's needs yearly service...my last boiler lasted 25 years I had it serviced once...it was simple on off boiler not like nowadays

Touch wood, only ever needed a boiler engineer about three times over 27 years (same boiler). Circuit board, gas valve and a new diverter valve 'motor'.

I tend to keep an eye on the boiler - drained the system down a few times and filled with more inhibitor than specified (get it on-line, it's much cheaper). Replaced the valve motor myself after it failed this year - £23 and 30 minutes, and also the gas valve solenoid as it was buzzing when the gas switched on for heating - picked up a whole new gas valve for £30, and just changed the solenoid (magnet) without touching the gas side - which I wouldn't do anyway.

No boiler cover here, but the guy who installed it comes every year and services it for about £80 (+biscuits!) and in return he's a phone call away if anything goes wrong.  His advice when it was installed was the manufacturer warranty was good enough not to bother with taking out cover as they had fixed every issue FOC on all the boilers he installed (and there were few issues).  Its now out of warranty so we have slightly more risk but "probably about £1000 is savings"!

Never seen the point in any kind of boiler cover because they seem really expensive BUT we do have home emergency cover on our home insurance, it’s about £30 a year and covers the boiler & other things like locks, boarding up broken windows etc.

I'm amazed it covers a boiler for £30/yr.... ....but then I'm also confused that you've never seen the point in cover, but have a policy and then say this:

In 9 years of living here we’ve used it once and they threw £500 worth of parts at the boiler and got it going again, so has more than paid for itself. How much is boiler cover, presumably more than  £55/year?

Is this not the same as the boiler cover anyway? They won’t fit a new boiler for you will they if yours is beyond economical repair?

It depends on the policy.  Some of them are very much promoted on the "if we cant fix it we replace it" model.  BUT there can be caveats like, "provided you've had it serviced by us since the start" or "unless its >25 yrs old" etc.  Some will put an upper limit on parts - e.g. £500, but if it needs a replacement will give you £500 off (if you use them!).   Its all a bit of a racket, but there are people who would really struggle to replace a boiler and so it makes sense for them to spread the cost/risk.  My folks have it for the speed of response if a fault arrises rather than the cashflow issue - but discovered that if there is extreme weather everyone's boiler suddenly plays up (frozen condensate pipes) and what do you know British Gas have made promises they can't deliver.

We're in the "just replace it if it goes wrong" camp.

Cost us a new boiler not long after we moved in! 50/50 whether it was the water backing up in the frozen condensate pipe, or a crack/pinhole in the burner/exchanger. Either way it was flooded all the way back to the gas valve so a write off.

So that's £30/month it's cost us on average, but it might last another 7 years (£15), 23 years (£7.50), etc.

I'm quite handy though so things like pumps, expansion tanks, small leaks etc are just Saturday morning jobs, not huge unexpected bills. And we have a joint account that we both pay into that pays the mortgage, various insurances, taxes, etc, car repairs if we're both using the same car, as well as acting as a savings account for stuff like this (and fun stuff like holidays, meals out, theater, etc).

Well it sounds emphatically like I should not bother with boiler cover then. To be honest, after the total s@#tstorm that was Plusheat it's starting to sound more appealing. Thanks for all the replies.

I’m amazed it covers a boiler for £30/yr…. ….but then I’m also confused that you’ve never seen the point in cover, but have a policy and then say this:

I guess I mean I've never seen the point in such expensive boiler cover! £30/yr is a bargain. £30/mnth not so much.

This is what we've got https://www.halifax.co.uk/insurance/home-insurance/our-cover/home-emergency.html

Looks like it might go up to £52 this year, which might be the tipping point where we don't renew it. £34 last year.