Is it worth paying for boiler cover?

modern gas boilers are today the best,probably the biggest scam this country has ever seen,no one can repair thebloody things,a curse on a society,they go wrong on an unprecedented scale,and if you try to repair these things on a large scale I will say that there wil be a lot of gas engineers with mental health problems,in their later lives,and its not good for customers either listening to exscuses why the thing don’t work.fact.

Graham – How do you soften the water? I’m interested because Beryl brought up the issue of water hardness.

In trawling through manufacturers’ instructions I have found some cautions, such as this one in a Worcester Bosch manual: “IMPORTANT: ARTIFICIALLY SOFTENED WATER MUST NOT BE USED TO FILL THE CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEM”

My own thoughts are that simple water softening where calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged for sodium ions would not be beneficial other than to avoid limescale deposits but use of purified water from which salts have been removed (as in water sold for use in irons) could be beneficial.

The nature of the heat exchanger (aluminium, stainless steel or old fashioned cast iron) could be a significant factor.

I agree that producing efficient but unreliable boilers is of questionable environmental benefit. Hopefully we can look forward to a compromise that combines decent reliability and efficiency, even if not the best in either category.

As far as I can see it is fine to use your normal tap water, with an inhibitor to minimise corrosion (giving the black sludge that accumulates in your radiators). The system is more or less closed and does not require regular additional water, so hard water should not be an issue. Is this the case?

With boilers containing aluminium heat exchangers, the pH is important. If the system water is alkaline, rapid corrosion will occur. A service engineer should check the pH routinely, using either a meter or simple test strips.

One of the big benefits of modern pressurised systems is that there should be little opportunity for oxygen to enter, except when the system is commissioned or drained for repairs or modification. I agree that tap water with inhibitor is OK but suspect that purified water (reverse osmosis is the primary treatment) will help prevent electrolytic corrosion that would occur when different metals and a conductive fluid such as tap water are present.

A heating system using a suitable grade of stainless steel for the boiler heat exchangers, radiators and plumbing and valves would avoid the fundamental flaw of using dissimilar metals, and might not be prohibitively expensive.

All my water is softened – apart from the kitchen sink tap and that for the garden. I have a fitted water softener.

My system is fine. It has softened water, inhibitor and no magnetic filter. It utilises an old boiler with an iron based heat exchanger. Realistically there isn’t much to go wrong, and that turns out to actually be the case. If people really took the bother to understand how things work then they wouldn’t allow themselves to be fleeced by boiler servicing companies who charge a lot for doing practically nothing. Where is the evidence that those who have their boilers serviced suffer fewer or less expensive breakdowns? None of the failures I’ve experienced would have been prevented by a service.

Flue and casing safety is a different matter. CO can be fatal and often is.

In reply to those who question boiler servicing as useful or not.

As a gas engineer (plumber) I see many systems that have never been checked throughout their working lives and are 100% fine. Mostly standard efficiency models.

When it comes to newer A rated boilers, they produce a higher amount of acidic water from the spent flue gas. If this water happens to leak into the metal parts of the boiler then it will quickly eat its way through. If the main boiler casing becomes badly corroded then it’s pretty much new boiler time.
The A rated boilers are set up precisely to allow the correct ratio of air/gas mixture to burn properly and if this goes out of sync it loses efficiency and also becomes a health risk.

I would say that servicing is probably the wrong word to use for it as generally no parts are removed and cleaned etc like the older types used to need. We charge a standard call out for a “service” as its normally straight forward but still essential once a year I feel.

As for boiler reliability and parts. Absolutely shocking. Some manufacturers should be made to answer for producing such crap yet punishing the unlucky user by charging outrageous amounts for the spare parts to replace the garbage that they put in a boiler.

It’s embarrassing to have to tell somebody how much a part costs sometimes and I do feel bad when it joins a list of other repairs. Due to the amount of bad engineers out there there is a huge amount of distrust by the public towards engineers. The maintenance plans take this problem away as engineers can throw parts at the boiler till its fixed and it won’t cost the customer any more than the monthly fee.

Manufacturers don’t help engineers who are trying to fix their machines either as they want to use their own guys. Problem with boiler company repairs is that the price to even get them in the door is around £250 or higher. That could be for a 2 minute job.

Boiler companies should be made to answer. Training provided by them to assist engineers is only for sales.