We’re thinking of moving and Mrsspursn17 has seen a house that she’d like but it has got an oil fired boiler, I know nothing about these so what are they like to run?

Bum, I put this in the wrong forum! Mods can you move it to the chat forum please?

Like any other kind of boiler will depend on what it actually is, how new it is etc.
But you will have an oil tank – that should be in good condition, you are susceptible to rapid changes in oil prices and remembering to check it’s got oil it. It’s also wise to budget a sensible amount per month into the refill account and have a never get below line or make sure it’s full before winter sets in.

Depends. Oil fired boilers are often larger than their gas fired counterparts. Worcester/Bosch are the reliable brands. Oil is not too expensive, our last 1000 litres was £469.00 and in winter lasts us 4 months. we then top up with 500 and that lasts the rest of the year.
Maintainence plans can be difficult to get hold of unless you go through the manufacturer but we have one with Reactive who are good

Cheers, what are the service schedule and costs like?

Fine. We had ours serviced this week – clean bill of health 🙂 cost £100 but we hadn’t had it serviced for probably three years. You’ll take a while to figure out your usage and when to order more fuel.

We run central heating and hot water off ours, use about 1500 litres a year. The cost of fuel does vary so there’s a bit of ringing round but typically you’ll be paying 40-45% of diesel prices on the forecourt

we pay 23.00 per month for our maintainance plan.
http://www.reactivewarranty.co.uk/product/

We’ve never had a service plan. There’s not much to go wrong with them, they are much simpler beasts than gas boilers. The service engineer was saying that the parts that tend to go, like the pump, are pretty standard so you can get bits for even pretty old models. Ours is at least 20 years old, his comment was “if it ain’t broke …”

We’re on oil. Servicing is about £100 per year. Oil does fluctuate a bit but it doesn’t work out anywhere near calor prices.

We get our’s serviced every year from a local oil supplier. Had it done last week and was about £70. The boiler is as old as the house, so about 35 years. No electronics, and everything is replaceable, not sure what modern ones are like.
You need to keep an eye on the oil level, and make sure you order in time. Not so easy to work out exactly how much you’re using, apart from the cost per year. Smart meters haven’t made it to oil fuelled central heating yet.

No smart meters ..but you can get a digital watchman which tells you when you are getting low .
We pay £45.00pm for our oil on a standing order ..we don’t have the option of gas ..so don’t know any different but it works very well for us ..new boilers are quiet & efficient .

We’re on a “top up” service, where they come round every couple of months and top the tank up. It means we can’t play the market (i.e. wait for the oil price to drop) or shop around, but on the plus side we never run out of oil.

You can tell when you’re running low because you get a cold bath one night. Then you go outside, lift up the end of the tank and put a brick under it and get another few days worth once you bleed the pipe until it fires up again. Then the next day you ring the oil man and tell him you’ve **** up again and you’re in the shit with your wife and can he come as soon as possible.

Get it serviced once a year by a local firm, new jet etc. Occasionally a part fails, so that bit gets replaced. Ours is 20yrs + and a bit like trigger’s broom. We also use a watchman to monitor it, but as 0 is still 200 or so litres, it’s a bit of guess work or looking in the tank below that. Boilerjuice is a ordering/price comparison place that usually gives the cheapest price locally or you may have a local syndicate that bulk orders oil.

We have a grant boiler.

Use 500 l a year/16 months heating a 3 bed semi + hot taps. – electric shower.

We also burn wood for heat so boiler gets a rest

Mains gas wasn’t an option when we moved to where we are so we got used to oil. I replaced the then 35 year old boiler ~10 years ago with an oil Wallstar. The engineer gets to all the dirty/oily bits from a hatch outside and we don’t have to put a copy of the Telegraph down for him to stand on Margot stylee. It was serviced last week for the second time at ~£100 and he replaced the jet, as they’re a scheduled part. He said the boiler was running perfectly.

We use around 800L p/a and I fill up in Aug/Sept at around £350. We also use 1 x 47kg filthy Propane for a living flame fire for chilly Autumn/Spring evenings.

I haven’t checked the numbers but the man said oil would need to be ~20p per Litre to be cost comparable with gas (it’s currently mid to high 30’s) but the oil boilers are much simpler. Zero electronics in ours so very little to fail which cannot be said for the current crop of gas condenser boilers.

Sod all electronics in ours. It’s so old it uses an analogue clock with little tabs that you slide in and out to set the on/off times! The service guy said if/when it goes that we might as well use a modern digital one remotely wired into it.

We used to be on a top-up service but that company shut down – it was a one man band run by an elderly chap who decided to retire – there’s no-one else locally who does it.

Don’t have a meter on the tank, we have a stick! In fact the tank’s so old it’s nowhere near the current spec/safety level and we probably couldn’t put it where it is now as it’s too close to several windows.

Cost wise you need to compare to a gas tank system rather than mains. Basically it’s just a heat source that just works, until it doesn’t.

Not had oil fired heating, but I have dealt with a large number of claims from domestic heating oil spillages. If you’re looking to buy a house with an oil tank, check whether it meets the current OFTEC recommended spec e.g. double-skinned, bunded etc.

If possible, try and get details of when it was installed by the current owner and what maintenance they’ve done on it. If the answer is ‘don’t know’ and ‘nothing’, then you may want to budget for a replacement sooner rather than later. For example, old steel-skinned tanks can rust, and as the weight of the oil decreases as it’s used, any cracks/splits caused by the rust can open up. That’s fine if it’s bunded (i.e. surrounded by an impermeable surface to prevent spilled oil migrating into the ground) but most older tanks are not, which means very costly and disruptive remediation works and potential claims from neighbours and, on occasion, the EA.

>30 year old boiler here. Runs like clockwork as long as I remember to keep an eye on the oil (see greatapes post above…. that’s how I work also).

Opened up the boiler once to see what a service involved and other than the [external] burner and fan there was nothing other than a few baffles that I cleaned off just to feel like I’d achieved something.

I should look into replacing the jet as it’s not been done for about 5 years – I’m sure it’s pretty easy. I don’t bother with servicing and the only thing that’s gone wrong in 16 years is the blower fan died and servicing wouldn’t have stopped that.

I did think about having a modern boiler fitted but frankly I think they have the same 10 year lifespan as most modern gas boilers and would simply have not been worth it.

Trusted heating engineer told me that unless the old boiler dies [cracked water jacket] it’s not worth replacing.