Home Oil boiler servicing Preston
Oil boiler servicing in Preston
Yearly servicing for oil-fired boilers by OFTEC registered technicians. Send your postcode and we pass it to technicians who cover Preston and the surrounding villages.
Oil heating is more common around Preston than in most North West towns. The 2021 Census counted 688 households in the city heating with oil alone, 1.2% of the total, against 0.1% in Manchester and Liverpool. Oil tends to survive outside the built-up area, in farms and hamlets north of the M55 and out towards Goosnargh, Barton and Woodplumpton, where the gas main never arrived.
Another 338 Preston homes use LPG from a tank or bottles, and 112 burn wood only. If that's you, the advice below on switching applies too.
Preston at a glance
- Oil and off-gas homes
- 688 Preston households (1.2%) heated with oil only in 2021, more than double the share in Warrington and over ten times that in Manchester or Liverpool. Another 338 used tank or bottled gas and 112 used wood only. Source
- Training
- Preston College runs a 42-month Level 3 Plumbing and Domestic Heating Technician apprenticeship covering gas, oil and solid fuel boilers, with one day a week at college. Source
Book before the first frost
OFTEC technicians covering rural Lancashire get busy once the clocks go back. A service in late summer leaves time to order a nozzle, pump or control box if the technician finds a worn part.
A full service cleans the burner, baffles and combustion chamber, replaces the nozzle and oil filter, checks pump pressure, and tests the flue gases for carbon monoxide and efficiency. Ask for a printed record of the readings.
Your tank and supply line
The technician should check the tank, its base or bund, the fire valve and the oil line into the house. Single-skin plastic tanks become brittle with age, and steel ones rust from the inside. On farmland near watercourses, a leak can become an environmental incident as well as a large bill.
Time your next order using our heating oil prices guide, and avoid running the tank right down, which can draw sludge into the filter.
Moving off oil
For an oil-fired Preston farmhouse, the national heat pump grant is worth more than for a gas home. On top of the usual £7,500, homes heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection get an extra £1,500, so £9,000 in total. Detached rural homes usually have the space for the outdoor unit.
Older stone farmhouses may need insulation first. An MCS installer's heat loss survey will show whether the house is ready.
Oil heating in Preston homes
Modern estates on the north-west edge
New estates around Cottam and Broughton were built with mains gas, so oil here is rare. Older farmhouses swallowed by new development may still have a tank in the garden.
Suburban semis in Fulwood, Ashton and Penwortham
Suburban streets are on the gas network. If you've bought a semi with a disused oil tank, have it drained and removed by a specialist.
Areas covered
Engineers who cover Preston work across areas including Fulwood, Ashton-on-Ribble, Deepdale, Penwortham, Ribbleton, Ingol, Cottam, Broughton, Walton-le-Dale and Lostock Hall.
Questions people in Preston ask
Can my gas engineer service my oil boiler?
Only if they hold OFTEC qualifications as well as Gas Safe registration. The two cover different fuels.
Who trains oil technicians locally?
Preston College's plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship covers oil as well as gas boilers, and OFTEC lists its own approved courses.
Sources
Also nearby: Oil boiler servicing in Bolton, Oil boiler servicing in Liverpool, Oil boiler servicing in Manchester, Oil boiler servicing in Warrington