If you heat your home and hot water though a gas boiler it’s very important that you have an annual boiler service carried out. I have listed 7 reasons why below.
1 The number one and most important of all is SAFETY. All gas boilers produce products of combustion that disperses through a flue connected to the boiler. When the annual boiler service is carried out the flue is inspected and checked for spillage of products.
We all know how dangerous carbon monoxide is, you cannot smell or see it, but it could be life threatening, so the boiler flue is a very important part of the boiler service.
2 When the annual boiler service is carried out the engineer carries out a combustion test with a gas analyser, this will give a reading of how the boiler is burning gas, this is checked against the boilermakers technical specifications, should any adjustments be needed, they can carried out.
Most gas boilers are now designed to be very efficient and save you money on your energy bills, but a gas boiler that is left unserviced will eventually cost you more to run and eventually a new boiler.
3 Many boilers are now high efficient condensing boilers and produces condense, this condense water is acidic and needs to exit into a drain internally if possible or an outside drain and protected from the cold weather.
Within the boiler is a condense trap, a little like what you have under the kitchen sink, it always has water in, this trap needs to be cleaned out and checked over. The reason the condense trap and the pipe work needs to be checked is it is part of the boilers flue, should there be a small leakage within the condense trap or pipe work it could leak carbon monoxide into the room the boiler is located in.
4 Many of today’s high efficiency boilers work on high pressure, basically this mean the whole of the heating and hot water system is pressurised, known as a sealed system. The system is filled up with water to around 1.2 bar through the incoming water mains. If the system pressure needs to be topped up on a regular basis, this indicate a problem is present. Having to keep topping up the pressure is not good for the boiler, part of the boiler service is to check if the pressure has been dropping and find out why.
5 Every pressurised, sealed heating system has an expansion vessel fitted, with most boilers these are fitted internally, some are fitted externally close to the boiler.
So what is an expansion vessel and what does it do?
When you look inside a Cv ketel vervangen depending on the make and model you will see a long flat type tank, it could be grey or red in colour, it may also be located at the back of the boiler.
Every time the boiler starts to heat up your water or central heating you get expansion of water. As water heats it starts to expand, this is where the expansion vessel goes to work, it absorbs the expansion,
The vessel is like a big sponge it takes up the expansion. It is pressurised at the factory and set to the correct pressure for the boiler. Over time the vessel will deflate and need resetting, this is another very important part of the boiler service. With an expansion vessel not working you could find your boiler pressure keeps dropping, if left and not reset you could find yourself having to replace the boiler.
6 Many other tests are also carried out, these involve checking the gas supply is of the correct size for the boiler, ventilation if needed, is also checked to make sure it complies. In general checking the boiler for any hidden faults and is working as it was designed for.
7 If your gas boiler has a warranty, then to keep the warranty valid, you need to have an annual boiler serviced carried out. Only a gas safe registered engineer who is registered for boilers can carry out the service.
When your boiler was installed it came with a benchmark book, this book has a service history section and needs to be filled in signed and dated when a service is carried out. If you don’t service your boiler you have no warranty.