Gas Safety Week: How to look after your boiler

A well-maintained boiler is efficient and safe. Here’s how to look after it

Gas Safety Week is, quite rightly, all about gas safety and the best way to keep your boiler safe is to maintain it well. However, that’s not the only benefit: a well maintained boiler will be more effective, giving you better heat distribution; more efficient, saving you money; and will last longer, saving you even more money.

There are a number of things you can do to keep your boiler working well for longer, some have a cost and some you can do yourself

Service your boiler annually

We’ve been banging the drum for this throughout Gas Safety Week but it really is the best thing you can do for your boiler. See more information here.

Bleed your radiators

Air can get trapped in your radiators which can cause them to not heat up properly and puts more pressure on the boiler. Bleeding them regularly will release the air and keep them working effectively. You should be able to do this yourself. See further details here.

Add inhibitor

Sludge and limescale can cause significant damage to your heating system. Adding inhibitor to your can prevent this build-up of limescale, which is corrosive. If this sludge is left unchecked it will start to compromise performance (commonly resulting in cold spots in radiators) and ultimately can cause actual damage to the system. This is something a heating engineer can do for you.

Install a magnetic filter

Because the sludge that builds up in the system is predominantly rust from the insides of pipes and radiators, a magnetic filter is an effective way of attracting those metallic elements from the system and filtering them out. This can be used as an alternative to adding inhibitor but is especially effective when both are used together. This is something a heating engineer can do for you.

Powerflush the system

If you already have sludge byild-up, a powerflush is designed to flush it out of the system. Adding inhibitor as well will prevent it from building up again. This is something a heating engineer would do for you.

Lag outdoor pipes/condensate pipe

This is something very simple that you can do yourself. When the weather is very cold your outdoor pipes are at risk of freezing which in turn can cause the boiler to break down. A frozen condensate pipe is one of the most common reasons for boiler issues in the winter. Lagging can be bought very inexpensively from DIY shops and this tiny outlay can save you an expensive breakdown the next time we get very cold weather.

This blog has been produced as part of our Gas Safety Week 2019 campaign. See more information about Gas Safety Week here or follow the hashtag #GasSafetyWeek.