Are maintenance contracts worth it?

[namsag]

So dangermouse you basically made it up about the guys boiler possibly catching fire because firstly its not a multipoint and we all know what happens when the pin sticks and its not a vaillant boiler or part of that group so it would not have defective seals that could cause a fire.

I find it strange that a boiler manufacturer that is as good as you say can get something as basic as this so wrong

 

[nickso]

i still find plenty of those silicon rubber seals too. if louse was having a pop at service intervals for my benefit BG have been systematically changing them and every engineer has the new version in his van. ive only seen one actually do any damage though.

the only boiler ive ever seen catch fire was a worcs 350 in a loft. god only knows how it went up but it made a fair mess, il try to dig out the pics.

 

[Madmog]

My Mum has an old Potterton and has a service contract with Potterton. On the minus side it takes three days for them to call out following a breakdown, on the plus side they carry most Potterton parts and can fix same straight away.

We ourselves use a local engineer. We've been unlucky and have had five breakdowns over ten years, costing us approx £440 in materials and labour, with £45 a year annual service charge. We are lucky, our engineer doesn't take holidays and always calls on us within 24 hours, but if we need a part it has to wait until he can collect it the next day.

All in all, you end up with pretty much the same result.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

So dangermouse you basically made it up about the guys boiler possibly catching fire because firstly its not a multipoint and we all know what happens when the pin sticks and its not a vaillant boiler or part of that group so it would not have defective seals that could cause a fire.

I find it strange that a boiler manufacturer that is as good as you say can get something as basic as this so wrong

boilers can catch fire, it happens. Vaillant made a mistake with the door seals-everybody makes mistakes even you. The seals were guaranteed by the supplier for 5 years, they f@*ked up. The new seals are bulletproof. I have seen an ideal icos that caught fire too, it can happen to any make, any model.

 

[heatingman]

The old twin pump 350's had a discrepancy in the original wiring instructions and if mis-interpreted they got wired up and the o/heat (button on top) got by-passed. Spent about six months when tech with BG driving around London and surrounding parts checking installed 350's. Found loads that where wired incorrectly, plenty that had already tripped out the o/heat, and a couple that had started doing a Chernobyl.

 

[nickso]

The old twin pump 350's had a discrepancy in the original wiring instructions and if mis-interpreted they got wired up and the o/heat (button on top) got by-passed. Spent about six months when tech with BG driving around London and surrounding parts checking installed 350's. Found loads that where wired incorrectly, plenty that had already tripped out the o/heat, and a couple that had started doing a Chernobyl.

probably what happened to mine then, it looked like the fire had started in the combustion chamber but thats hardly a surprise and i couldnt prove it, the boiler was scrap anyway. customer had lost faith even though i could have rebuilt it.