@adrian I think that the company might argue that if the pump isn’t ‘serviced’ so the mechanism may be checked for wear and tear with a view to carrying out any required preventative maintenance, you have not complied. But, Wot Do I No? Regards, Toodles.

I'm at the riskier end of things.. with 2 heat pumps at different properties. Both installed 2020.

Recognising the risk to warranty but also somewhat sceptical of whether a warranty pays out several years down the line or finds an escape one way or another. And less than impressed with what a "service" does in many cases.

So effectively have chosen to self-insure and self maintain. Not ideal but also not impressed with idea of £500+ annual cost for 2 pumps.

I definitely would prefer to pay someone if cost was reasonable and had confidence in what they actually do!

Not recommending this strategy as everyone needs to assess risk tolerance, willingness to clean filters etc

@tim441 

My ‘riskier end of things’ is I lose my warranty and RHI payments if the ASHP isn’t serviced.

@morgan ‘They’ do rather appear to have a grasp of our ‘short and curlies’ don’t they? I really feel that a pound a day for an engineer to make a ~60 minute visit once a year is very steep. I realise (and this is the main reason as the Service Companies would tell you) that I am insuring against a hefty charge for a mechanical breakdown that might involve a great deal of expense otherwise but, at least, in the early years of the heat pumps life, the chances of such a catastrophic failure should be minimum … shouldn’t they?! Regards, Toodles.

The one thing that’s clear from the comments so far is that most of us are addressing risk. Let’s be honest, what’s often called “servicing” isn’t really servicing at all. Checking a few settings, beeping around on the control panel and maybe glancing at filters or glycol levels isn’t worth £250+.

The truth is, many homeowners aren’t paying for a genuine service. They’re paying for an insurance policy to keep their warranty intact. Maybe I’m being overly cynical, but I’m not impressed with where this industry is heading. It feels like we’re being pushed into a forced annuity income model for installers, and that’s not right.

The warranty on our heat pump was only three years, and we’ve not had it professionally serviced for three years, since the warranty ended. I do all the checks myself (barring the glycol levels).

@editor Mars, totally agree. I think when I responded to the how did your install go section I outlined my frustration on this issue. British Gas were my installer and when I signed up for the pump I was told there would be a maintenance contract offer , but they were working on the details. Fast forward 2 years and they say they will not be offering one. Yet as everyone has noted we have to have at least an annual service to keep the warranty up. BG say they will do a one off service visit for £200 + vat, £240!

I notice that Octopus at least have a fair offer , a contract for £109pa.

I complained to Which magazine, because their report on heat pumps failed to mention the extortionate maintenance pricing, which throws a big cloud over the economics of heat pump ownership. I further wrote to my MP about this, raising the issue that if ofgem is setting targets for heat pumps to be installed they should also be ensuing customers were not abandoned after install. (I mentioned previously, in a post on this site , how  useless BG are in their after sales support.) Moreover I pointed out to my MP that if the government are serious about heat pumps and they don’t want a complete and utter disaster they must ensure manufacturers and installers are under obligation to have affordable maintenance arrangements. I did urge him to raise the issue with Ed Milliband and his department. 

I got the usual anodyne reply from my MP. 

So if you can get some leverage behind this it would be good. And I would urge everyone to write to their MP, if we make enough noise maybe we will get heard. Also we could use petitions government and the change U.K. websites to create petitions to raise these issues and also to find more people and their experiences. I suspect there are a lot of inefficient heat pumps out there because of the poor installations , poor post sales/post install support and frankly what appears to me to be a very poor understanding by installing companies and manufacturers of their devices.

Just finally to add, I had a completely new heating system installed, that’s to say a complete repipe, all new rads, cylinder etc. YET BG offer no maintenance on anything other than the heat pump. Not the cylinder , not the pipework.YET AGAIN if I were a gas boiler system cover, everything would be covered! And an affordable annual maintenance contract would be offered.

@terry1812 oh I dodged a bullet there! I had the BG surveyor  come round and I started with saying that their policy is to replace all piping! I send him straight on his way. 
The only explanation I can think of was that there are people in BG that wanted to prove that heat pumps are terrible.

@adrian Not sure what your point is Adrian. I feel I was lucky with the install team, who did a really good job. The problem lies with BG management and their lack of commitment to supporting heat pumps. There is a core failure too in installers and manufacturers not having help desks or those that do not having them staffed with people able to assist the customer with resolving some basic issues rather than being just a recording point.ie They ought to have a proper triage help desk.

As a bye the way I needed and wanted a complete repipe, so was very happy that BG did that, whereas Octopus would not. Though I am obviously very disappointed with the post install support. 

@editor No, I don’t think you are being cynical Mars, just realistic! We don’t have glycol to check but, I don’t know that with my poor vision, I would feel confident (or even competent) to carry out anything beyond cleaning out the ‘Y’ filter.

Having said that, competence to carry out the servicing work requires a certain skill but should those with that skill be so well rewarded for carrying out the job*? Would I go as far as to say it is blackmail I wonder - I don’t know, but I would certainly say it is exploitation.

*I doubt that the peripatetic plumber receives that much of the ‘service charge’ as I suspect the ‘office’ swallows a fair proportion of the total paid. 

We need fairness - more power to your keyboard Mars! Regards, Toodles.

@terry1812 sorry didn’t mean to offend. That’s lucky their policy did overlap with your requirement. For me there was no need for repipe (22 & 15mm copper pipes throughout), so it seemed like insanity to insist on it. The surveyor was nice and understanding that’s that was a no go for me. Definitely the problem is management and their probable inability to let go of the gas in the company name.

@adrian No offence. I just wanted to balance the discussion. What I find interesting though is how it seems often to depend on the surveyor and who you talk to. While Octopus told me they didn’t do full re-pipes, I have seen many people who did get a full repipe from Octopus. At the same time, your surveyor said it was their standard to do a full repipe, but there are many people who did not have a full repipe from BG. A very mixed picture, which seems to be par for the course with everything heat pump related!

I had a Daikin 8kw installed by Octopus in September.

I took out their £9 a month plan which covers warranty and an annual service for 5 years.

The 1st year is free.

I also took out the optional plan for a one off cost of £221 which increases the warranty for a further 2 years, 7 years in total.

Reading the charges on here for an annual service cost  I think the octopus deal is quite cheap.