It can be very tempting to skip having a boiler serviced, in the mistaken belief that you’re saving money by avoiding the expense.

In reality, proper boiler servicing actually saves you money, rather than costing you money.

We service boilers, and I don’t want this post to look like we’re touting for business, so later I am going to advise you about how to find a good, reliable service engineer in your area.

First, let’s look at why you should give your boiler the proper maintenance it deserves.

A gas boiler is, in some ways, similar to a motor car. It is a mechanical device that consumes fuel.

We’re all aware that if a car isn’t serviced when needed, the fuel economy will drop off and running costs will increase.

Your boiler is exactly the same.

All boiler and gas appliance manufacturers publish what are called Manufacturer’s Instructions (MIs for short). These instructions describe exactly how that particular make and model of boiler should be installed, serviced and maintained in order to operate at its intended level of high efficiency.

A thorough, robust boiler service typically costs from £80 to around £120. During a professional service your engineer will carry out work to keep your boiler running as efficiently as possible and also do things that will help prevent avoidable breakdowns.

Before I continue, let’s just look at service cost. About £2 a week, on average throughout the year. That’s less than 30p a day.

It isn’t hard to understand that a neglected boiler will soon be consuming more than an extra 30p a day in gas, compared to if it was better looked after.

One of the jobs your service engineer should do is to clean out the condensate trap in your boiler.

Modern boilers (pretty much any boiler installed since 2004) produces condensation in the flue while it is running. This condensation is collected in a little container within the boiler. Over time, the products of condensation will thicken, and not always drain away through the condensate pipe to outside.

Once the condensate trap is blocked, your boiler will shut down.

Imagine a cold winter’s day. Your boiler has shut itself down. You’re going to pay way more than the cost of a regular service to get someone out in an emergency to get you up and running again.

There are a few other little tweaks your engineer will make to help avoid costly winter time problems, such as ensuring gaps on electrodes are correct, and make adjustments where necessary.

So, in summary, the cost of a service will always be more than saved by you achieving better fuel economy throughout the year, and you’ll help yourself to avoid expensive and unnecessary breakdowns at the coldest time of year.

Here’s a couple of ways of how you can find a decent, reliable heating engineer near you:

One way is by a personal recommendation. If you have a neighbour, or a nearby friend, relative, work colleague who has the same person service their boiler each year and they don’t have any bother with their boiler, it is a fair assumption that their service engineer is doing a proper job. Get the engineer’s number and give them a try.

Another method is finding someone from a boiler manufacturer’s website. Pretty much all boiler companies have an approved / recommended installer scheme. Normally, the names on these websites are engineers who have been on various training course given by those manufacturers, and are considered to be specialists in that make of appliance.

So, no matter what make of boiler you have, the maker’s website should throw up some of their approved engineers in your area.