So, the time has come to replace your boiler. All of a sudden you find yourself inundated with quotes and information about an industry most people know very little to nothing about. One of the key things that often affects which boiler to go with, is the warranty that comes with it. Some companies may offer a 2-year warranty with your boiler, while others may offer up to 13. But what does this mean? Do you have to pay for it? Can it be voided? Let’s start by understanding what a warranty is.
Boiler Warranty: A Quick Guide
A warranty can be rather simply defined as:
“A written guarantee, issued to the purchaser of an article by its manufacturer, promising to repair or replace it if necessary within a specified period of time.” - Oxford Languages
Things to consider when choosing an installer when it comes to warranty:
Many companies within the industry aren't 100% open about the ‘warranty’ they provide, to better their chances of winning your business. Some companies may take a boiler with a 2-year warranty for example, yet send you a quote stating that said boiler comes with a ten-year warranty. How is this possible? Isn’t that illegal? Could they not be at risk of legal action?
The short answer is no. What these companies will often do, is apply their own ‘warranty,’ on top of what is already provided by the manufacturer. It’s essentially a company saying, ‘Well, if the boiler is only covered by the manufacturer for two years, we will look after it for a further 8 years after that expires, so you have a ten-year warranty.’ From the off, this comes across as a well-intended gesture. This is not the case.
More often than not, the ulterior motive is to catch you out with the little details hidden in their terms and conditions. Details such as the fact that most of these ‘company’ warranties are only valid if the customer has the boiler annually serviced by the installer, consecutively, over those 10 years, which may be much more expensive than services elsewhere.
This leaves you with a choice: do I pay their extortionate service prices and bend over backwards to adhere to their terms? Or do I forget about the ‘10-year warranty,’ which was a major deciding factor in choosing a company that I trusted with my money?
Our advice: Avoid companies that offer extra warranties
The answer is a rather simple one. It is best to avoid any company that offers any warranty besides that given by the manufacturer.
Manufacturers are the best backup a customer can get. They have the largest resources available to provide you with the best support you can get, and they will never try to push you into getting the boiler serviced by anyone. The choice is yours, as long as it’s done annually by a gas-safe engineer. Sometimes it may cost a little extra to upgrade your warranty to the 10-12 years that most people are looking for, but you can then be at ease with the reassurance that the company who fitted your boiler may go bust, like many companies throughout the industry often do, leaving you without the back-up and support they promised you.
How can a company honour their agreement to look after you if that company no longer exists?
That’s why at HomeTech, we will always encourage any customers to thoroughly read over their terms and conditions before choosing us and to feel free to contact us with any questions or queries they may have around them. Although we can do so if requested, we will never try to push people into service contracts, we will never ask anybody to rely on our company’s well-being for their warranty to exist, and we will never promise anything we cannot deliver. We recommend you read the terms and conditions of any quote you receive and to make an informed decision when it comes to choosing the company you are to trust to provide you with the installation and aftercare you are looking for.
