3 Star Central Heating Care
Discussion
So assuming you'd get the annual service anyway, the real cost is maybe £100 or so.
There's no way it's worth it (over a long period) in hard cash terms - what you're buying is peace of mind.
If you're handy with plumbing/electrics, or you've got someone you can rustle up in an emergency, then most CH faults are pretty simple to fix. However some of the parts can be expensive, especially if you have to get them in a hurry.
There's no way it's worth it (over a long period) in hard cash terms - what you're buying is peace of mind.
If you're handy with plumbing/electrics, or you've got someone you can rustle up in an emergency, then most CH faults are pretty simple to fix. However some of the parts can be expensive, especially if you have to get them in a hurry.
wedge girl said:
Is this worth the money, I've just been quoted £172 for a years renewal, which includes a low call out discount.
I have a combi boiler which is 2 years old, I believe this premium also includes an annual service.
No. I had this and my combi packed up because of scaling in the bellows (sounds painful). They wouldn’t replace it because it was wear and tear and quoted me 2K to supply and fit a new one. Told them to f-off, cancelled the cover and got a local plumber to fit one for 1300 quid.
This sounds like the same cover I have, I pay via direct debit so dont really notice it. Having my service this saturday.
Over the years I have had 5 radiators and two water tanks replaced, all covered under the policy.
Radiators rust from the inside out, the first you will notice is a pin hole and a jet of water. Price up a replacement radiator + fitting then compare it to the price of the cover.
Over the years I have had 5 radiators and two water tanks replaced, all covered under the policy.
Radiators rust from the inside out, the first you will notice is a pin hole and a jet of water. Price up a replacement radiator + fitting then compare it to the price of the cover.
Let me tell you a story.. might ramble but ill try and keep it brief.
3 years ago...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service, (including going up into loft and banging about) a week later bathroom ceiling collapses due to water damage from leaking tank. Coincidence?
2 years ago...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service, pilot light starts blowing out. All the time. Its cold, brrrrr... THREE separate visits (days off work) later (including a no show, and a very rude engineer who scared my missus) and it works again.
1 year ago...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service. Chaps ramps up boiler pressure. Breaks valve in boiler. Without heating & water for a week in December. Unsure if fixed before xmas. Great. TWO more visits and they finally fix it.
Last year...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service, pilot starts blowing out all the time. Sounds familiar? FOUR visits later, including one with 4 engineers in attendance, and its fixed.
Am i renewing? Am i heck!
BTW - One engineer actually admitted, they have a two week window after the service visit whereby if you call them out again you do not lose your no call out reduction. Why? Because they EXPECT to be back!!!
Grrrr! Save your money, get it serviced by someone who knows what they are doing. The only aspect of it that makes sense to me is the ability to get someone out within 24hrs of a breakdown, but I suggest you dont let them near your system and it wont breakdown...
...and breathe....
3 years ago...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service, (including going up into loft and banging about) a week later bathroom ceiling collapses due to water damage from leaking tank. Coincidence?
2 years ago...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service, pilot light starts blowing out. All the time. Its cold, brrrrr... THREE separate visits (days off work) later (including a no show, and a very rude engineer who scared my missus) and it works again.
1 year ago...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service. Chaps ramps up boiler pressure. Breaks valve in boiler. Without heating & water for a week in December. Unsure if fixed before xmas. Great. TWO more visits and they finally fix it.
Last year...
central heating, boiler etc all fine. Get annual service, pilot starts blowing out all the time. Sounds familiar? FOUR visits later, including one with 4 engineers in attendance, and its fixed.
Am i renewing? Am i heck!
BTW - One engineer actually admitted, they have a two week window after the service visit whereby if you call them out again you do not lose your no call out reduction. Why? Because they EXPECT to be back!!!
Grrrr! Save your money, get it serviced by someone who knows what they are doing. The only aspect of it that makes sense to me is the ability to get someone out within 24hrs of a breakdown, but I suggest you dont let them near your system and it wont breakdown...
...and breathe....
wedge girl said:
Is this worth the money, I've just been quoted £172 for a years renewal, which includes a low call out discount.
I have a combi boiler which is 2 years old, I believe this premium also includes an annual service.
Depends on circs, really. If it was just me living alone, I wouldn't bother with the BG cover. But, with a toddler and a baby, we'd be seriously inconvenienced if we lost all our heating at, say 15:00 on Xmas eve. And since I don't know of any trustworthy plumbers/heating blokes in our area, I'm happy to keep on paying out to BG.
Make sure they didn't include the plumbing & drains in the price. I used to sell it @ BG & it was £15pcm or £19pcm with P&D.
I always thought it was pretty good value, but it depends on the size of your house, boiler age etc..
Good thing is all the parts are included, they come & service the boiler each year & the 365 callout.
I always thought it was pretty good value, but it depends on the size of your house, boiler age etc..
Good thing is all the parts are included, they come & service the boiler each year & the 365 callout.
bobbins said:
The above 2 posts are a bit contradictory – surely scaling (of the boiler) and rusting (of the radiators) are kind of the same thing?
Combination boilers scale up on the hot water side, not the heating side. Heating pipes NEVER scale and radiators NEVER rust if the system is running correctly. The water in a heating system is circulated and therefore once it's been heated a couple of times the scale has been deposited. In the same way there is no free oxygen to caused rusting, the water is, if you like, inert. However, bad system design, in particular pipe sizing can cause 'pumping over' which means water is circulating through the header tank and just like a fish tank is oxygenated as it pours into the tank from the vent. Then you get rusting, the rads are steel, the heat exchanger and pump are both iron (probably) so it's bad news. Sludge is formed, flow gets worse, pumping over increases.........
Combis should have a scale reducer.....magnetic preferably because they actually work or a polyphosphate doser.
SpencerO said:
Get annual service, pilot light starts blowing out. All the time. Its cold, brrrrr... THREE separate visits.
Service should include testing of the Flame Failure Device. On newer boilers the FFD is normally by flame rectification, using the flame as a conductor. On older boilers FFD is probably a thermocouple, using two heated dis-similar metals to generate enough microcurrent to hold valve open by means of a winding. It's unlikely you could increase the likely hood of a pilot blowing out since you wouldn't really lower the pilot jet for any reason, BUT loosened thermocouples can drop the pilot out.......
bobbins said:
The above 2 posts are a bit contradictory – surely scaling (of the boiler) and rusting (of the radiators) are kind of the same thing?
I don’t have a service contract but I always though BG would replace parts until they became unavailable.
Two completely different things, Scaling is due to calcium deposits, usually in a hard water area (as found in the bottom of a kettle & around its element. Rusting is when ferrous metals oxidise & form rust, The latter you need air & moisture so there must be a serious problem if your radiator rusts from the inside. This could possibly be from a manufacturing fault with the radiator, or else the heating system is well & truly Fcuk's
I look at it this way: a new unit is either going to break within the first year or ot for a long time after. If it goes within 12 months you have a warranty issue, so ignoring inconvenience, you shouldn't be footing any bills. In say five years time if it packs in, in all likelihood the £600 you've saved by not having a maintenance contract will knock a large hole in the price of a new one.
To be honest, modern society makes us soft. Just how hard is it to boil a kettle if you want hot water?
I haven't had a bathroom for two months, so been resorting to showering at my parents' or washing in the kitchen sink. As a kid (70s) I often saw my grandmother performing her ablutions in the Belfast sink, nobody thought it was too much trouble then.
It's a bit like fitted carpets: only this country seems to feel the need for wall-to-wall nylon. The rest of the world build their houses with floors worth looking at and merely dots a few rugs about the place...
To be honest, modern society makes us soft. Just how hard is it to boil a kettle if you want hot water?
I haven't had a bathroom for two months, so been resorting to showering at my parents' or washing in the kitchen sink. As a kid (70s) I often saw my grandmother performing her ablutions in the Belfast sink, nobody thought it was too much trouble then.
It's a bit like fitted carpets: only this country seems to feel the need for wall-to-wall nylon. The rest of the world build their houses with floors worth looking at and merely dots a few rugs about the place...
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