This is very interesting - I have just had my ASHP split system serviced today by Daikin (actually an agent of theirs). I know the guy took photos of the units, including the interior of the indoor unit, brushed down the outdoor unit but didn't clean it, tested the system water which he said was good, inspected and I assumed cleaned the filter. Other than that I don't know what he did; he was here about an hour. I believe he's going to email me details of what was done. 

This is the first inspection/service on their Gold Service plan.

Now, having read the articles linked above, I realise this was the inspection described. It is an insurance on the Daikin items only. No radiator was looked at, and as my unvented HW cylinder is not a Daikin I suppose that wasn't "serviced" either. I have no idea what that involves, could anyone explain please?

@heat-pump-newbie In my case (also Gold Service contract) the Daikin service was carried out by themselves rather than an agent. I had two service visits a year apart and the monobloc cabinet was never even opened on either occasion.

The ‘Free Special Service’ that was arranged subsequently involved a different engineer removing the monobloc casing, checking tightness of contacts, cleaning the fan, casing and checking the condensate drainage channel plus removing and checking the Y filter.

The whole system was connected to the engineer’s laptop and some proprietary software was run to check the whole system at rest and under load. The secondary circuit from the LLH onwards was not checked, nor was the inhibitor dilution and cleanliness checked. The Magna Clean filter had been opened and cleaned during the second ‘cursory’ service weeks before. I have now contacted my installer about future servicing needs (they also include inhibitor checking in their check list). Up until this point, I had thought that using the manufacturer’s own service scheme would have been a wise decision… Regrets, Toodles.

Sadly my heat pump is a split system so I assume I need an F gas licenced engineer, or at least F gas licenced company, to service it, and they seem to be few and far between. I have no idea if my service engineer did anything with the refrigerant. To my knowledge once it's in it stays in (barring a catastrophe of course, which I shouldn't rule out as it's had one already). 

@heat-pump-newbie Oh Dear! 😳 No one wants a cat a stroph!

Posted by: @morgan

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The last service on my Ecodan in November 2024 cost £333.65, which included a mileage fee of £63.00 (+ VAT). Tell me that isn't extortionate! I am desperately looking for a service agent closer to Derby to at least save some mileage costs, but I can't find one. If anybody can recommend somebody close to Derby, I'd be grateful.

Having made some enquiries locally I have found a company that will service my ASHP for £135 (inc VAT). They get excellent reviews as a company so I will give them a try at the next service which is due in November.

I won't post a link but you can search for a company named 'Henman Dunn' In Ripley, Derbyshire.

Just an example how far our Rae will go to service and diagnose all for less than £180 on a heat pump.

Reported, serviced, diagnosed and super happy customer waiting for a new flow switch thats warn and fails in the pocket but works outside the pipe. 

@ashp-bobba And super happy fish too I expect 😊 Toodles.

For reference, our installer has just contacted us after first year offering service of Heat Pump and cylinder for £250. They mentioned checking and cleaning filters, checking and topping up glycol levels.

@old_scientist Probably okay if they are servicing the heat pump too, often they just service the heating system indoors as not F Gas qualified. We charge £158 plus vat but don't service the cylinder (really just needs the PRV checking but you should be G3 'trained')  We do however fully service the heat pump which includes gas leak checks, yes they can leak, we've seen quite a few, normally the 4WV or any flimsy 1/4" stub.

@morgan They may be good but cannot service the heat pump as they don't appear to be F Gas reg, therefore cannot leak check and limited to what they know and can do. Happy to be proved wrong but the price you quoted normally says it all.

@dgclimatecontrol 

Many thanks for that info. Looks like I will be sticking with the original then.

Posted by: @dgclimatecontrol

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@old_scientist Probably okay if they are servicing the heat pump too, often they just service the heating system indoors as not F Gas qualified. We charge £158 plus vat but don't service the cylinder (really just needs the PRV checking but you should be G3 'trained')  We do however fully service the heat pump which includes gas leak checks, yes they can leak, we've seen quite a few, normally the 4WV or any flimsy 1/4" stub.

@dgclimatecontrol I asked them if they check (and top up) the refrigerant levels during the service and they said no. I said this is specified on the Samsung service schedule, and they said they'd know if there were refrigerant leaks as there would be an error code on the controller. I'm not buying that explanation - I'd appreciate other's thoughts?

I've agreed to the service, mainly to retain the warranty. I'll observe what they do for future reference, but from checking the service schedule, much of it is observation checks and cleaning, all of which I can do myself. The only things I can't easily do is check and top up refrigerant levels and glycol anti-freeze levels (less concerned about these as we have battery backup so the unit is very unlikely to freeze with continuous running of circulation pumps). Only other thing I've not previously done myself is clean a mag filter, but I'm sure it's something I can learn/do in future.