06-01-2012, 10:45 AM
Very interesting thread.
I must say David , it is pleasing to hear of an honest opinion on maintenace contracts from the gas board especially from a senior manager.
I stopped our full contract which I was paying over £30 a month for ( it was the full monty) and had been paying for over 10 years with no claims. A silly situation whereby we had to call back the engineer at every yearly check , these checks used to take about and hour , 15 minutes of actual enginnering interspersed with frequent use of their mobile phones followed by a 40 minutes period to fill in the paperwork while they try to sell you system flushes and whatever else they were promoting at the time.Constant reminders that the combi boiler was getting old and spares maybe a problem and how crap "Halstead " were as a quality of boiler.
The final straw was when one of the bathroom towel radiators was corroding and I was worried about a failure. BG refused cover as it was a towel rail not a radiator.
Since I stopped the contract and got over the phone calls every 2 days by BG to encourage me back I have been putting the £30 a month into a maintenance account. I wished I had done it 10 years ago I could have bought the wife a new car.
We have quite a large bungalow ( 1700square feet) and have always had a combi boiler in the 23 years we have lived here, heating and hot water have never been a problem . Our first unit was a huge Worcester floor standing unit ( about the size of a chest freezer) that we replaced after 10 years purely to move to a wall mounted more compact unit. We have had this unit which is a dreaded "Halstead" that most plumbers referr to as the "devil's spawn" yet has given us trouble free operation and is still doing so , though having finished this posting I do not know how long it will continue to do so ( knowing my luck). I must say this year I intend to replace the boiler with a more modern unit so I am finding the info in this thread most useful.
I am afraid I am a big believer of "each to his own" when it comes down to DIY re engineering. Modifying a boiler even with just lagging would make me feel uneasy, I would work with a knowledgeable decent heating engineer if you intend to reengineer.
Mike
I must say David , it is pleasing to hear of an honest opinion on maintenace contracts from the gas board especially from a senior manager.
I stopped our full contract which I was paying over £30 a month for ( it was the full monty) and had been paying for over 10 years with no claims. A silly situation whereby we had to call back the engineer at every yearly check , these checks used to take about and hour , 15 minutes of actual enginnering interspersed with frequent use of their mobile phones followed by a 40 minutes period to fill in the paperwork while they try to sell you system flushes and whatever else they were promoting at the time.Constant reminders that the combi boiler was getting old and spares maybe a problem and how crap "Halstead " were as a quality of boiler.
The final straw was when one of the bathroom towel radiators was corroding and I was worried about a failure. BG refused cover as it was a towel rail not a radiator.
Since I stopped the contract and got over the phone calls every 2 days by BG to encourage me back I have been putting the £30 a month into a maintenance account. I wished I had done it 10 years ago I could have bought the wife a new car.
We have quite a large bungalow ( 1700square feet) and have always had a combi boiler in the 23 years we have lived here, heating and hot water have never been a problem . Our first unit was a huge Worcester floor standing unit ( about the size of a chest freezer) that we replaced after 10 years purely to move to a wall mounted more compact unit. We have had this unit which is a dreaded "Halstead" that most plumbers referr to as the "devil's spawn" yet has given us trouble free operation and is still doing so , though having finished this posting I do not know how long it will continue to do so ( knowing my luck). I must say this year I intend to replace the boiler with a more modern unit so I am finding the info in this thread most useful.
I am afraid I am a big believer of "each to his own" when it comes down to DIY re engineering. Modifying a boiler even with just lagging would make me feel uneasy, I would work with a knowledgeable decent heating engineer if you intend to reengineer.
Mike
