British Gas have a very enviable business model, they are by far the largest of the big six, providing gas to over 11 million homes in the UK. This massive customer base gives them a huge advantage in the boiler installation business since they already have that customer relationship in place – this allows them to suggest replacement boilers and encourage people to sign up to their Homecare service almost on a weekly basis through their various marketing streams.
If you go on to their website, they do make the offer enticing – £400 trade in for your old boiler, and they even have an article on 8-reasons to choose British Gas for your new boiler installation including things like ‘You’ll have one of the most energy-efficient boilers’ and ‘Know exactly what you pay’.
One thing they fail to mention is the cost.
Local is usually cheaper when it comes to boilers
When I replaced my boiler many years ago (well before TheGreenAge came about), I had really no idea what to look for in terms of boiler and no idea of how much they might cost. I had obviously seen British Gas and I think I was getting my gas and electricity from them at the time, so it was logical to get them in for a quote. The quote they provided was over £4,000 to replace a regular floor standing boiler with a wall mounted boiler.
I went back to my folks for a bit of parental advice – namely, how the hell was I going to pay for it! They immediately suggested choosing a local installer, provided they have the necessary qualifications (the requirement now is for an engineer to be ‘Gas Safe’) as they were likely to be cheaper.
Taking that on board, I did end up choosing a local installer to do the job, it cost me £2,600 to do the job all in and my boiler is still in perfect working condition today.
Get multiple quotes for a new boiler!
It is not only me that gets quoted these prices though; you would be amazed at the number of our customers have also first gone down the British Gas route, but if you don’t believe me, simply type in ‘British gas expensive boilers’ into Google and look at some of the forums out there!
The issue is that many people just don’t know where to start, so they go with British Gas having seen the advertising messages everywhere.
Our advice would be to get British Gas round to quote for a new boiler – you then have your top end quote. We would then suggest ringing local installers to see what price they would charge to do for works. You can also take a look at this article to give you bit of help if you are completely new to all this and need to know estimated guide prices for new boilers!
As for British Gas Home Care – with prices starting from £8.50 per month, we suggest looking elsewhere, especially if your boiler is new, since it should already come with a sizable warranty. We appreciate there will be some people who want that peace of mind of always having the ability to get someone in if they have an issue, but at over £100 a year, if you have a nice local plumber then we recommend just paying them a one off fee.
As a final note though – beware any gas engineer who isn’t gas safe! This is the recognised mark of quality in the heating industry, so any engineer worth their salt should have it!
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Hi think British gas are a bloody rip off and people need to know! They sold me that monthly servicing thing they offer but when I had trouble with the boiler I had to call them out. Despite them saying it is free for call outs, they charged me after the third time. It is disgusting, people should be very wary, espicially since most new boilers come with 5+ year warranties anyway!
BG installed my Worcester boiler less than two years ago. I decided not to extend the homecare service as it was over£20 a month. My boiler has broken down but Worcester says I am not entitled to the 5 year warranty as BG has asked them to reduce the warranty to only one year. WHY?
Now I am not covered by either Worcester or BG. Do I have a case against either Worcester or BG for not honouring the 5 year warranty?
This is a good idea – get a top end quote! haha! British Gas won’t be happy when everyone starts doing this 🙂
I have come across this article too late – we went with British gas to get our boiler replaced. I am however going to cancel their Home care after reading this!
When I need a new boiler, I always get a BG quote – then use their quote, halved, as a guide to market price. I’ve done it three times at three addresses, and it it has proved consistently accurate.
Yep – It is amazing how many people do just that Andrew – it is what we suggest to be honest, getting British Gas to come and take a look!
The other thing we need to do is to warn people off their Home Care service. The warranty that comes with a new boiler gives the home owner protection – so if they went for a vaillant or Worcester boiler installed by one of the manafacturers approved installers, they would get a 7 year warranty – so they are completely protected – for many people that would save about £200 per year!
All of these comments above are hilarious. I have used british gas for my boiler installation and they were competitive after getting 2 other quotes from Swale and A C Wilgar and they beat both. The company above are having to use another company’s name negatively to try and get customers. The fact is british gas are probably more expensive than locals but there service and aftercare can’t be beaten. If tight people want to risk getting central heating cheap that’s up to them but people who want a quality service then I would recommend BG to anyone.
Yes Jamie I am full agreement . Penny punchers get what they pay for..if .. Small installers get problems that were previously within their property I’d a new house installed on a Friday afternoon . However long it takes . British Gas will be able to correct the problem.. Small plumbers or companies would go bankrup. We have experienced such problems
Hi Jamie, your comment is just so stupid. It is blinkered and it is almost as if you were paid to say it! British gas are always more expensive for boilers than local companies, but local installers can offer the same warranties on the whole. In fact the aftercare is an f-ing joke. Homecare is £20 a month, for a boiler that has a 7 year parts and labour warranty?! What the hell! That is £20 x 12 x 7 wasted (£1680) which would pay for a new boiler anyway.
Also talking about tight people, it is stupid people like yourself that keeps British gas in business! You think they actually employ everyone of their engineers or have you ever considered that the majority of them are actually subbies! This means they pay to install under the BG brand and therefore can charge a premium to do so. Whether or not they do a good job is another question.
I used to work for BG and I can tell you the whole business model they offer is to make money. That means they will put their name to anything to make money. Re-branding a shitty Glow-worm boiler as a BG boiler doesn’t make it any good, but why not slap on an extra few hundred quid!!!
Getting quotes is always advisable for any large purchase. You also have to make sure you are comparing like for like quotes as if it’s too cheap you have to ask why, the average boiler on a wall cost is around £1800 – £2000. We can help get 3 quotes arranged pretty quick and we often see savings of over 50% when comparing quotes from local and national installers.
Agreed – getting 3 quotes is a good idea, that is why we suggest giving us a call! We have a huge network of installers across the country all of whom can install any boiler at a great price and offer the extended warranties. All our partners are gas safe – and the majority are installing these heating systems under the GDHIF scheme.
If you generally get 3 quotes you end up RECEIVING top notch prices once each tradesman know there are other people after your business. Meaning you get great deal in the end. It always worked. But if you get 4 price estimates it just gets better and better. 🙂
You are totally correct with British Gas. What you will also find out is that the 5 or 10 year Guarantee from Manufacturer is on valid if you have the British Gas care 100 which will be over £100 a year. The Flue is Free when you buyer a New Boiler and they charge you £200. Installation charge of £1000.00 does not include the Electrics, They charge an additional £200 for the Electrician to do their bit of work. There is no £400 saving at all.
BG installed a Worcester 24Ri on 28 Oct 2014, less than 17 months ago. Originally, I was led to believe I had an extra 12 months free BG Homecare at the end of my one year warranty. As it turns out, the free Homecare started the day my boiler was installed, which didn’t make sense to me at all. As a protest, I decided not to continue the Homecare package with BG, as I thought I thought that I could rely on the 5 year warranty from Worcester. Today, my 17 month old Worcester 24Ri boiler broke down and the Worcester customer service rep told me that I am not covered by the usual 5 year warranty as the boiler was installed by BG, and they had agreed to reduce the 5 year warranty to only 1 year. This was not pointed out to me at the time of the contract with BG. I will seek legal advice tomorrow as I think I should have a case either against Worcester or BG for agreeing to reduce the warranty to only 1 year.
I think you mean PEACE of mind, not “piece” of mind!!!!
Wouldn’t go near British gas with a barge poll. British Gas are so expensive. We had a quote to replace our combi boiler and it was £4.5k. Ended up getting it installed for £2.6k. Absolute rip off. Suggest everyone shops local for boiler installer making sure they are gas safe.
I have an Ideal boiler, 3.5 years ago BG/Homeserve came out to my house to fix the boiler as water was pouring out of the boiler . The engineer came out and fixed it but left me without hot water but I had heating. Next day the heating went off so no heat, my daughter played around with the controls 3 months later and I then had heat.
Fast forward to 6/5/2021 I called Homeserve out for a service , all he did was to attach a pipe to the water internal pipes and he said because of the age of the boiler ” I recommend you get a new boiler ” the same reply as the last engineer who called so now I have no heating and no hot water. £36 per month for what ? I have since found out that they are not allowed to repairanything other than the boilers that they install WBosch , Vaillant, Glow Warm and Viessmann.
Stear well away from Homeserve unless you have one of the above boilers