An oil boiler service should be carried out annually to make sure your boiler remains safe, reliable and efficient. Leaving an oil boiler for long periods of time without a service can cause “sooting up” which can result in increasing fuel consumption, decreased reliability and higher repair costs. Even more worrying is without a regular oil boiler service, your boiler will not be checked to ensure it is not producing deadly carbon monoxide.
The service should be carried out by a qualified and experienced service technician.
Why should I service my Boiler?
An annual boiler safety check and boiler service, carried out by a professional service engineer ensures that your boiler is functioning properly. Regular servicing of your boiler is important as it ensures that the boiler is working to the specifications designed by the boiler manufacturer. This will help prolong the life of the boiler as well as reduce the risk of faults and expensive repairs down the line.
The efficiency of boilers, both oil and gas fired, deteriorates with use. There are several reasons for this, the key ones being:
- Soot production from the combustion process coats the heat exchanger surfaces
- The critical air-to-fuel combustion ratio changes due to gradual component wear
A boiler service will remove any sooting and, by adjustment, will re-establish the optimum combustion conditions. But while optimising operating efficiency is paramount in these days of rising fuel costs, there are other important benefits in having your boiler serviced. By checking the safety controls, early failures can be detected and rectified in good time. A variety of operational systems and components will be checked including:
- Oil
- Boiler start-up performance
- Noises that give an early warning signal of pending component failures
How often should I service my boiler?
Most boiler manufacturers recommend an annual service, primarily on the grounds of safety but also to ensure reliability. On efficiency grounds it is well worth servicing oil boilers annually because the soot build-up is such as to significantly increase oil consumption. With gas, while soot build-up is not so much a problem because of its clean burning characteristics, an annual service would still be recommended.
Who should I get to service my boiler?
As with all heating appliances, your boiler should be serviced on a regular basis to ensure that it is operating efficiently and safely. The service should be carried out by a qualified and experienced service technician / service engineer.