Talking to a man the other day who had spent years and years working for british gas, but is now working elsewhere.
Do people here generally agree with what he told me?
That new boilers cost about £900 and a new main circuit board costs about £600 so its worth getting the 'call out' type insurance, to cover it, if it goes wrong. Of which he thinks Eion and Southern Electric are the best to get. (he doesn't work for either of them).
He also said if the main circuit board goes its almost work paying out the extra £300 and get a completely new boiler. (of which he thought Valiant and another make {which i cannot remember what he said} are the best.
I find it staggering that there are not people out there who can repair these circuit boards without paying £600 for one.
What he says seems like 'off another planet' to me, but he seemed a reasonable bloke with a very technical and responsible surveying job.
I wouldnt remotely agree. If you buy insurance, even if you're lucky enough to get an insurer that does what they should, you're then paying average maintenance costs plus advertising costs plus employee costs plus profit margin and all sorts of other issues that simply don't apply when you pay for your own maintenance. Mug's game.
On a similar sort of topic but with less expensive parts I recently repaired a washing machine that had a blown PCB control module. The new PCB cost just short of £80 but it was an expensive washer so worth it.
Especially being that, it's likely, I will have a spare PCB once the Triac is replaced - I got its ID off the new PCB before I fitted it. Was unable to ID the Triac after a web search and before buying the new PCB because the side was blown off. A new triac of the right type is about £1.00.
I knew the PCB was blown as the side had blown off one of the Triacs and, thus, I couldn't see the part No. I took note of all the semiconductor numbers from the new PCB before fitting it so if any blow in future I know their ID's.
I knew the fault was a door interlock fault so, to be safe, I replaced the door interlock as well ( only £9 ish ) - didn't want to blow the new PCB if it had a S/C heater element or other prob.
I have a background in electronic repair but wouldn't recommend the inexperienced to follow this path unless they know what they are doing.
On the general question of product repair insurance.
If an extra 5 years product repair insurance would cost say £80 for that washer then the insurers know that, on average, that will more than cover their claims costs or they wouldn't do it at that price. Most of us only have one washing machine at once and a, one of, repair on that machine could cost more than £80 so we can't do the 'average' ing. Unless we include all things of value we buy that had an offer of extended warranty insurance.
Then, instead of buying the extended warranty insurance for each, we put the same amount of money aside in OUR account for repairs over the time the insurance would have covered. Not all of them will go wrong in that time period, the ones that do we use the fund to repair them.
Because of the averaging for ALL those things and the fact that the insurers, overall, will make money on extended warranties, the fund should remain in credit overall. Mine has.
Obviously there will be some items that go wrong that are old and not worth repairing but if you apply this principal you should remain in credit, the insurers do.
And if none go wrong, over what would have been the extended warranty period, you are building up a little sum for other things.
So ask the CH repair man for the faulty PCB he has replaced if you are competent in electronics. The next time you could have your own spare PCB that will have cost little.
I don't know whether this principal is explained well or fully enough here but hope it is.
I replaced the motor drive triacs in my Hotpoint. Only one had blown, but they were 50p each so I couldn't even be bothered to work out which one, and changed them both. (One does everything except top spin speed, and the other just does top spin speed which has separate field winding connection.)
Any 8A 800V Triac can be used - pick one with matching case style.
Being self employed I also have Permenant Health Insurance, that pays out should I be unable to work and is also an investment (I will get back some of the premiums paid). It doesn't pay a lot but combined with HMG's basic Sickness Benefit means that we can keep the heating and lights on and still eat... Her indoors life is also insured so that if I have to stop work to look after the kids we can still keep the heating and lights on and still eat.
I certainly don't buy any "extended warranty" insurances though.
Yes, it can be worth it for events you couldnt survive financially, but an appliance breakdown isnt one of those. And even if it were, there would be more useful things to do with it, like put in in the bank and build up a fund to cover a wider range of life's unpredictables.
I find Worcestor-Bosch offer a decent service + insurance scheme, although this is only for their own boilers.
One thing to bear in mind is how long can you manage without a working boiler? WB will come out next day, and sometimes the same day if you have a problem. Not bad for around £12 per month IIRC.
If the boiler does go wrong it is not always obvious where the fault lies and I wouldn't want to pay out a lot of money on parts that I don't need.
Had a call from the AA recently, initially to get my rating for services provided. It then became marketing for their new breakdown insurance. Seems that if you call them out, and work is required that needs a garage, you are covered for £500, with £25 excess (on up to 5 occasions), at a cost of about £70 per year.
I gave them the usual response - if you can make a profit at it, then I am better off putting the money in a savings account. The guy wanted me to believe that the average user got back about £300. Perhaps what he might have said more accurately was that it was the average of those who claimed. When I expressed the opinion that his figures did not support a business (managed to stop myself saying "I'm out") he seemed incapable of understanding this.
The trouble with Tabby's premise and your's is that it's not always obvious what's gone wrong, even to trained engineers. Mate of mine has a Worcester-Bosch boiler and pays (IIRC) about 12-quid per month for a maintenance contract on it (they also throw in an annual service with the price).
Under your system, boiler goes faulty, you have to take the time and effort to do the fault-finding, find a spare part, either wait for it to be delivered or go for it and then install it, all while SWMBO is giving you greif because it's cold - and then you may find out that it wasn't that particular part after all 'cos the replacement didn't fix the problem.
My mate's £12/month get him an annual service, all call-out charges, all parts and all labour, within 24 hours of reporting the fault. Last year he was very unlucky and had a spate of problems; first the spark generator went then a couple of months later the gas valve was replaced. About 3 or 4 months later the PCB had to be replaced. All covered for just £12/month - well worth it IMHO.
Until they decide they will no longer support this model. As happened to my brother with a BG service contract. On a boiler they'd installed only 6 years earlier.
Needless to say he no longer has a BG service contract and had a decent boiler installed - rather than the BG recommended c**p as before.
True, but then again, there isn't just BG offering these service contracts. We have one with a local company and they're excellent but if they decide to pull that trick, there's other places to go to.
What happens to all insurance schemes IMO, is that the work expands because they have intentionally broken the link between the amount paid and the service provided. Same with vets, dentists, car body repairers. Frequently a licence to print money. with the added incentive of generating unnecessary work.
For me it's the peace of mind thing. I am not prepared to a) look at it myself or b) ring a load of cowboys from yellow pages who might be able to diagnose the fault, might be able to get the parts, and might come when they say they will. With a manufacturer's callout you know it will be fixed there and then, and they take the hit for any parts fitted on a trial and error basis. The other important thing to consider is the price of spares. My boiler has a "special" pump, identical to a generic pump apart from one little detail, so it's £120 instead of £40. Labour charges are probably the least of your worries when assessing the risk.
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