Annual maintenance for gas heaters?

Hi, We recently converted from oil to gas heat. When we had oil heat, the boiler needed annual maintenance. Now that we have gas heat, we are wondering whether we will need a similar type of company to maintain the gas heater. Thanks in advance,

pvw07

in Roofers 9 years and 8 months ago

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deancollins | 9 years and 5 months ago

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So basically $700 more or less. Anyone else paying over/under this for someone they want to recommend?

soundhoner | 9 years and 5 months ago

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Hey – sorry for the lack of reply. I hadn’t subscribed and thus never saw this. The service cost me 175 * 4 hours. Actually, they tried to charge me for more, arguing they needed to go out to get parts (fine). But then they went out a second time (not fine). After that they tried to charge for staying an extra 10 minutes, which ’rounds up’ to an extra hour. 6 hours I argued down to 4\. So the maintenance on my boiler, from a reputable (via Yelp), cost that much. They took it apart, cleaned, and put solution in there.

deancollins | 9 years and 7 months ago

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Serious question @MP seeing we don’t seem to be getting an answer from @soundhoner ….how much would you charge to do this?

Master Plvmber | 9 years and 8 months ago

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And so, ultimately, how much did the service cost you?

soundhoner | 9 years and 8 months ago

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I did a ‘cleaning’ which included an inspection and disassembly, the cleaning fluid being run though, etc. using a licensed plumber that does heating. I paid 175/hr for two guys to do this. At one point they had to go out to get parts. One part replacement was for regulatory reasons and another was because there was wear in an area that could have caused an explosion. Or so they said. They were a reputable place and although they tried to charge me for a second trip out to get parts, I was able to negotiate it down. That’s a tangent though. For my gas steam boiler it took approximately 4 hours to do this work, which hadn’t been done in years. That’s the extent of the maintenance.

pvw07 | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Hi, everyone, thanks for the advice!

ellenlourie | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Yes you do need maintenance. check controls and control piping (disassemble, clean and assemble) check safety devices,particularly low water cut offs list depends on type of the heating system and boiler. test pressure relieve valve check ph of the boiler water. must be 7.5 clean burners in case of atmospheric boilers. check chimney or direct venting for obstructions. check air vents in case of steam system lubricate circulators in case of older type non-wet rotor ones in hot water system. blow down low points skim boiler in case of steam system run system, check for normal operation and abnormal conditions. list can go on. you might be surprised what you can find

daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Gas boiler will need more frequent servicing than a gas furnace, but not the yearly service which mostly entails the filter and jets for an oil burner.

timber | 9 years and 8 months ago

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doesn’t hurt

Arkady | 9 years and 8 months ago

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Not usually.