Your guide on boiler repair services

Your guide on boiler repair services

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Applying for one-off boiler repair or any of the service plans, you need to understand what aspects to expect from the company to cover. It will save a lot of your time and even money and prevent you from paying for low-quality works. In addition, in this post we will reveal a few tips on how to save money by preventing a boiler breakage.

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A must-have when providing your boiler with repair services

Here we will discuss such essential details as your safety and guarantees a company shall ensure.

Gas Safe engineer

It is very important to entrust your gas appliance not to a handyman but a Gas Safe engineer. Dealing with licensed engineer, you can rest assured he is well-qualified to provide your boiler with quality repair services and get other benefits:

• Your safety during and after repair works
• Compliance with Building Regulations and the law
• Possibility to file a complaint with Gas Safe Register to resolve any issues related to service quality, staff behaviour or communication

Therefore, always pay attention to the presence of a yellow triangle and ask an engineer for his Gas Safe ID card. Otherwise, you risk endangering you and your households. Moreover, entrusting your boiler for service and repair to non-registered handyman, you can lose your home insurance.

Safety check

Any boiler service and repair must end with a gas safety check. This is the way the company ensures they leave your appliance safe to operate. This gas safety check at least shall include:

• Air supply
• Gas combustion
• Operating pressure

However, our survey showed at least one in ten repair works, accomplished in the UK, bypass this procedure completely or partially. Therefore, we recommend you control whether an engineer conducts a safety check after he repairs your appliance. 

Repair guarantees

Though, there is no law regulating the guarantee issues, providing boiler service and repair with certain post-work commitments is a common practice. Of course, the guarantee period and its conditions vary depending on the details to repair or replace.
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On average, companies give at least six months of warranty on parts and labour. It’s worth to ask about any guarantees in advance to understand your options.

Consider this before you hire someone to accomplish boiler repairs

With so many companies providing boiler repairs and so many myths about their services, it could be hard to find the one that suits you. Here are some factors to consider or not when choosing a repair provider.

Experience

You may have already read about the need to check a company experience before hiring its services. Of course, the number of years a company (or, better, its engineer) provides these services matters. However, with a Gas Safe engineer, it is unlikely you get low qualified repairman even if his experience is no more than just one year. To clarify, everyone who applies for the Gas Safe ID card must take and pass very strict exams.

Reputation

A company’s reputation is of great importance when you look for someone who completes gas boiler repair. No one wants to deal with poor communication and services. So, try to find any feedback about the company’s works to understand the level of its professional and communication skills.

Location

Is it necessary to book boiler repair services from a company near you? To be honest, this only has a sense in case of emergency, when every hour counts. However, if the case is not that urgent, you’d better explore other factors. In other words, find the company that can provide you with top-notch boiler service and repair rather than one that is near your location.

Costs

Typically, the cost factor is the cornerstone as it affects your budget. In turn, it deals with two subfactors:

• Labour costs,
• Spare part costs.

While most boiler owners understand the need to replace faulty spare parts with original ones, many of them try to save on labour costs. However, we highly recommend against such cutting corners practice. When it concerns repairs, skills are as important as the parts. And you need to pay for it as well.
So, try to compare the company’s prices with its reputation to find an optimal ratio. Besides, avoid dealing with companies whose prices are not transparent. That is to say, understand their hour rates before they visit your site.

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What to do to prevent your boiler breakdowns

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So, make little efforts and spent some money to prevent any issues instead of spoiling your nerves and drain your budget to fix them.

1. Regularly service your boiler

To minimize your boiler breakdowns and lower your repair bills in the future, regular maintenance is the service you need. First, by annually inspecting your appliance an engineer can find the one close to its end. Timely replacing worn or corroded detail saves you from having a lot of more serious issues with your appliance. Second, by checking and tuning your appliance, an engineer ensures its proper operating. To clarify, this prevents its excessive wear and tear and lowers its breakdown possibility.

2. Insulate your pipes

If a pipe gets frozen, it will block your boiler and your heating system as a whole. To avoid this, insulate pipes that have got a potential risk of getting frozen. Use any appropriate lagging and wrap these potentially problematic pipes with it before winter comes.

3. Don’t let your boiler stay inactive for too long

Many boiler issues come from it stays inactive too long in summer. If you turn its heating mode off for the whole summer, you may have the feeding system seized up. To prevent this, we recommend you run your appliance for 15-20 minutes at least once a month.
So, follow these three steps to avoid a lot of boiler failures. Or, if it does occur despite your best efforts, be equipped with our tips to get the best of provided repair services.