My Ideal boiler is 3 years old now and is due an annual service. Last year I had it done (just before warranty expired), it turned out it was leaking flu gas, meaning I luckily managed to get it repaired for free.
Seeing as the boiler is only 3 years old and also had a part replaced last year, do I need to continue the yearly service, spending ~£80, or should I perhaps get annual cover (which includes a ‘free’ service)? I know you can’t anticipate things going wrong however you’d like to think nothing major would happen to a new-ish boiler.
Would keeping aside ~£80 each year with a view or being able to pay outright for a potential, future issue be a better way to do it?
Thanks!
8 comments
It’s tricky….
The service does remove gunk that has collected in the pipes over the year….
Ours was on a 7 year guarantee, and though we had to pay for the services, we did so to make sure the guarantee was not invalidated…
What if a future failure costs £500 to repair?
It’s difficult. Outright cost or monthly outgoing is a massive burden either way
But it’s the what if that the hard bit.
It’s basically insurance so statistically you’ll be better off just paying for a annual service and putting some cash aside for repairs.
Basically it’s a gamble vs peace of mind.
While it’s in the warranty period it’s pretty much a given that a cover plan is a waste of money vs just getting it serviced.
Even after that, it’s likely to be better in the long run to not use a plan and keep paying the yearly cost. If you add up the difference in cost you can probably have a pretty big failure once every few years and still come out on top.
Got to be honest, some of these boiler cover plans are not worth it.
Getting an engineer can take weeks, then getting the part can take even longer. They often look at ways of getting out of it, and even if you do get an engineer, the quality of the service given is questionable.
My advice would be to put the money aside each month and find a local reliable plumber, so if it ever does breakdown you have some money to pay for the repair, also do get it serviced each year.
Boiler cover has saved me multiple times, as others have said it is a gamble. I don’t budget boiler repairs, so having something I can pay and forget about suits me.
My boiler cover includes the yearly service so why not just do both?
It’s a gamble based on age and reliability of the product. This [Bathtub curve graph](https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/3-s2.0-B9780125249959500398-f15-11-9780125249959.gif) shows high failures in early life of the product, a reasonable period of low failures then increasing age related failures.
Insurers will calculate premiums using their data in a similar way.