How to keep a boiler working at its rated efficiency for the next decade.
Primary question · What do I actually have to do, once the new boiler is in, to keep it running properly and the warranty intact?
An annual service by a Gas Safe registered engineer, with the magnetic filter cleaned every visit and the flow temperature left at the value the installer set. Most boiler complaints in years six to ten trace back to skipped services, magnetic filters that were never installed, or homeowners who turned the flow temperature up on a cold morning and then forgot to turn it back down.
Anyone who has just had a new boiler installed and wants to retain the full ten-year warranty.
Annual service: £90 to £150. Magnetic filter clean: included in most services. Power flush, only if symptoms appear: £400 to £700.
- Maintenance is genuinely simple
- A registered annual service typically keeps the warranty intact
- Most modern combis are quieter and more efficient in year five than the unit they replaced was when new
- Skip a single service and the manufacturer warranty often reverts to two years
- A power flush is occasionally sold as routine maintenance when symptoms do not support it
Set a calendar reminder for the eleventh month of every year, two weeks before the warranty's anniversary, so the service does not slip into year two and break the registration.
The household that books the annual service on time every year quietly retains a decade-long warranty and a boiler running close to its rated efficiency. The household that skips one is the household that pays for a power flush five years later. There is almost no middle ground.