Boiler recommendation

They don't need servicing annually and I don't need a qualified plumber to argue the point. Waste of money.

Whatever you say, I'm surprised how vehement you are about it.  I lost a good friend to CO2 poisoning and work in the industry so you will forgive me if I disagree I hope

I think your find he's not a plumber but a gas engineer, be madness getting a plumber servicing your boiler, 

I think you'll find I wasn't referring to anyone in particular, but any qualified person. That's the problem with the general public, making their general assumptions.

I've always had my system serviced annually. I know that the natural gas is very much cleaner that the coal-based gas which used to leave soot and residue in the boiler so these days they don't really need cleaning, but there's lots of other things that can go wrong e.g. sticky valves, seeping radiators, poorly fans, flues becoming blocked. Like others, I like the peace of mind. As with much machinery and other things, I've always preferred to invest (whether I pay or invest my time) in preventive maintenance, rather than have to deal with things when they break.  

I get my boilers annual service as part of a service contract

That covers the boiler two other gas fires, all the CH, water system plumbing & drains.

Is it worth it,  yes - last year my 13 year old boiler had a leak & was diagnosed as in need of a new heat exchanger,  a 10 hour job. A year before we had a ball valve go belly up in the cold tank in the attic,  I would normally do that myself but was away for a few days,  Mrs-B called in the contract peeps & a guy arrived within the hour.  He also replaced the CH expansion tank valve at the same time, then checked over the rest of the CH system while on the same call (summer time) & found & fixed a sticky TRV.

People who have annual service contracts or servicing, how much do you pay per month or year?

We used to have an elderly old chap turn up once a year to service our Grant oil-fired boiler (no fancy gas round here mate). He used to take ages but was very thorough. He's now retired and the fella who's bought his little business isn't nearly so thorough. I think oil-fied boilers do require a bit more in the way of servicing. I'm tempted to service the thing myself, having repaired a couple of electrical faults in the past.

£28.48 p.m.

A crock of what? nobody is making you have your boiler serviced every year. There's no need for that sort of response. 

Glad it was a Worcester-Bosch classic. Ours is: great, been in for 7 years now. Great 5year extended guarantee. Took us through the two cold winters, although make sure the drainage pipe is lagged so that it does not freeze. Stay warm!

No uproar Scoot, it's all fun, but some people forget to join in.

Annual servicing will be one of those subjects that people will never agree on. Some like peace of mind, so pay more.

WB insist on annual service to keep the guarantee? So basically charging you more for the product in the first place. As I said earlier, WB clever marketing/sales from them. Valiant don't do this as I understand (just been on their website).

I've had my Vaillant for 16 years now. It's still perfectly quiet, never tripped out, lost it's ignition, radiator water still perfectly clear and I'm still alive. I also check all the radiator temps with an infrared temp meter each year, to make sure all is working well. The only problem was a faulty diverter valve, which was commonly know around year 2000. As far as danger is concerned, I better have my car serviced/checked every 2 months in case the suspension/brakes are failing.

Although Mike's servicing is £28.48 per month, his includes other installations. No one else has stated their charges, but that didn't surprise me. Multiply the annual serving by 16 years and I'm sure I'd have a brand new Valiant for free, with money left over. 

P.S. You need a infrared temp meter if you want to set/check the the system is working correctly. That's need.

I think your find it not only wb that insist on annual serice to keep up the guarantee, even vaillant insist on this, I take it your vaillant is a turbomax plus, which as you say is a very good boiler( I have one myself) but not to have it service in sixteen year, you lucky man. I'm not sure if your boiler has flue comes off the top or out the real, if it comes off the top I would highly recommend you get it checked to see if the rear flue exit blanking plate is in place, the plate is held in by plastic rivets which become brittle due to heat stress causing the blanking plate to become loose and fall inside the appliance.

Typical boiler only contracts are around £6-£7 p.m.

A gas pressure meter & exhaust gas analyser are also needed - plus the training & skills required to know what you're doing is handy 

Not that impressed with the skills of the Vaillant trained engineer who intalled my boiler. He wouldn't fit my existing thermostat, said the boiler couldn't be fitted with a 240v thermostat, the wiring schematic clearly indicated it could.

When I fitted the thermostat I checked the electrical installation was as recomended in the installation instructions. Most of the instruction had been ignored.

Use the strain reliefs provided. No, both where unused.
Only strip the outer sheathing of fleaxible cables to a maximum of 3cm. No, 6cm long.
Fit stripped ends of conductors with crimp pin terminals. No, this was not done.

On top of this, the cable entry into the boiler wasn't through the dedicated cable duct, the cable was fed through a grommet which took it close to obviosly very hot heat exchanger.

I corected the above when I fitted the thermostat.

When my father in law had a boiler and thermostat fitted, the installer located the thermostat in a room that contained a radiator with TRV contol.

With regards to servicing every 12 months, the Vaillant 5 year gaurantee requires service every 12 months, however the maintenace instuctions refer to 12 monthly inspection, not service.
However, the  maintenance list, which I would say is more like a service "must be carried out at regular intervals"

Household insurance may require the condition for annual boiler service, or to put it another way; if your home burns down or blows up due to a boiler fault they may ask when it was last serviced...

Debs

Yep, anything they can come up with to avoid paying.

Unless this requirement is in the insurance small print, I would say this caution has gone much too far. I would quite happily go to court if an insurance company disputed paying out for this reason.