Boiler servicing in Bromley

Ours is £90 including VAT, with no call-out fee and no travel charge anywhere in the borough. Two appliances at one address is £150, and a service with a landlord gas safety record is £140. For context, Checkatrade publishes a Bromley range of £108 to £239 against £86 to £162 for London as a whole, the strongest local firm ranking for this search charges £122 plus VAT, and British Gas is £119 for a one-off. The £90 is the whole price, not a starting point that grows once someone is standing in your kitchen.

Combustion measured with a flue gas analyser before anything is touched, and the gas rate and working pressure checked against the data plate. Then the case comes off: burner and heat exchanger cleaned, injectors and electrodes inspected, fan and air pressure switch checked, condensate trap stripped and flushed, expansion vessel charge tested and recharged if low. The case goes back on correctly, the analysis is repeated so you can see what the clean changed, and the safety devices, controls, system pressure and inhibitor strength are checked. Then the Benchmark book is stamped and a written report goes out the same day. If an engineer is in and out in fifteen minutes without an analyser, you have not had a service.

Forty-five minutes to an hour for a combi serviced regularly. Around ninety minutes for a system boiler with a cylinder, or for anything not opened up in several years, because the heat exchanger and condensate trap need genuine stripping rather than a brush over. Back boilers and open-flued appliances take longest, since the spillage test has to be done with the room in its normal condition and that cannot be rushed.

Every twelve months, and for owner-occupiers it is not a legal requirement — it is a warranty requirement and a safety one. For landlords it is different: an annual gas safety check on every appliance is required by law under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and the guidance also expects appliances to be maintained in a safe condition, which in practice means servicing. The twelve months that matter for a warranty run from the installation anniversary or the last service, not from January, and a thirteen-month gap on paper is enough for a manufacturer to question a claim.

No. Any work on a gas appliance must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer — that is the law, not a trade preference, and unregistered gas work is a criminal offence. Beyond the legality, a service without a flue gas analyser is not a service: combustion cannot be seen, and a boiler producing carbon monoxide can look and sound entirely normal. Two things are worth doing between visits. Check the pressure gauge sits between 1 and 1.5 bar when the system is cold, and keep the flue terminal outside clear of shrubs, fence panels and stacked garden furniture.

One of the most common calls we get, and entirely workable. That first visit is £120 rather than £90 because it is longer: a full condition assessment alongside the service, and a baseline set of combustion readings so next year’s figures mean something. On the warranty, take the serial number from the data badge and the installation date from the manual and contact the manufacturer with both — the warranty follows the appliance rather than the owner, so an unexpired term may still be live. Whether a gap in the history has already broken the condition varies by manufacturer, and it is worth asking rather than assuming.

Not as part of the manufacturer’s service schedule, which covers the appliance. We do take radiator surface temperatures and check inhibitor strength, because both describe the system the boiler is attached to, and system condition is the second most common reason a warranty claim is refused. Cold spots at the bottom of radiators, a filter full of black sludge or depleted inhibitor are all reported with what they mean, not quietly converted into a power flush quote. Plenty of systems need nothing more than a filter clean and re-dose at £45.

A service is not a pass or fail, but anything unsafe is classified under the Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure. Immediately Dangerous means an immediate danger to life or property, and with your permission we turn the appliance off, cap or disconnect it and attach a Warning Notice you sign to acknowledge. At Risk means a defect that could become dangerous — inadequate ventilation, or a concealed flue with no inspection hatches — and the appliance is turned off and labelled until corrected, but not capped. Not to Current Standards means it is safe but no longer meets today’s regulations, so it stays on as an advisory. We cannot leave a dangerous appliance in service, but most At Risk faults are put right on the same visit.

No, and this is the misunderstanding we correct most often. A gas safety check confirms the appliance is safe on the day — combustion, flue, ventilation, safety devices — and produces a Landlord Gas Safety Record. A service is maintenance: the boiler is opened up, cleaned and adjusted, and recorded in the Benchmark logbook so the warranty stands. A boiler can pass a safety check while being filthy and six months from a breakdown. Landlords need the certificate by law and want the service to protect the appliance, which is why we do both in one visit for £140.

They are not the same product. A cover plan is insurance with a service attached: you pay £7 to £16 a month, and beyond the service you are buying a claims process with an excess and an exclusion list, usually with limits on the age of the appliance. Twelve months at £9 is £108, more than our £90 service, and the repair cover only earns its money if something breaks. We do not sell cover plans. We charge £90, set the reminder against your anniversary date, and charge £110 for the first hour if you do need a repair, with parts quoted for approval before anything is fitted.

Worcester Bosch, Vaillant, Ideal, Baxi and Glow-worm are the bulk of what is in Bromley, and we carry common parts for all five so a fault found at a service can often be cleared on the same visit. We also service Viessmann, Potterton, Alpha and Ferroli, and open-flued appliances including back boilers and gas fires. We are not tied to a manufacturer, so the recommendation at the end of a service comes from what the readings show.