Gas Boiler Maintenance
Gas boiler maintenance is an important part of being a homeowner or a landlord. Keeping your gas boiler in good working order is vital to ensure the safety of the homes’ residents. A faulty, poorly-maintained boiler can cause carbon monoxide leaks – this odourless, colourless gas, known as ‘the silent killer’, can be responsible for serious illness or even death for those who unknowingly inhale it.
Proper gas boiler maintenance involves more than calling a boiler technician if you suspect a fault. In order to make sure your gas boiler is safe and running correctly, be sure to bear the following points in mind.
Regular Servicing
The single most important thing you can do to ensure your gas boiler remains safe is to have it serviced and safety checked annually. This is a legal requirement, and should be of utmost priority.
You may feel that it will save you money to simply have the boiler fixed if it breaks, but regular boiler maintenance will almost certainly save you money in the long run. If your boiler is working at maximum efficiency, you will be burning fuel far more economically, and therefore spending less on your heating bills. Furthermore, with regular servicing, small problems are found and dealt with before they turn into bigger, more expensive problems.
In addition to the above, proper gas boiler maintenance will prolong the overall lifespan of your boiler, meaning you won’t have to replace it as soon as you would otherwise.
Gas boiler maintenance in the form of regular boiler servicing is important for many reasons, the two main ones being as follows – over time, the efficiency of both oil and gas fired boilers deteriorates. Component wear can change the air-to-fuel combustion ratio, and soot (caused by the combustion process) can coat the heat exchanger surfaces causing the boiler to work at less than maximum efficiency.
Boiler servicing also involves important safety checks, reducing the risk of dangerous carbon monoxide leaks. Early failures in the systems can be found and rectified before any damage is done, and the various operational systems and components will be checked for faults.
Gas Boiler Insurance
Taking out insurance on your gas boiler can be very helpful in making sure that your boiler is maintained properly. Depending on the policy you choose, your cover will likely include a yearly service and safety check undertaken by the company’s own qualified engineers or by a recommended sister company.
Taking out boiler insurance will not only protect you should your boiler break down, but it could help spread the cost of important gas boiler maintenance – which will save you money in the long run.
Know Your Boiler
Being aware of the usual sounds your boiler makes can be an important part of gas boiler maintenance, also. If you hear a sound you don’t recognise, it could be a sign of early component failure – it is worth having this checked as soon as possible to save money and the possibility of being without a working boiler for an extended period of time. Remember, if you suspect your boiler has a fault, turn the gas supply off at the mains while you wait for a technician to check it over.