Worcester Bosch Warranty Check: How Long?

How to check your Worcester Bosch guarantee

Worcester Bosch runs its own free guarantee checker, and it is the authoritative source for your boiler. Enter the serial number and it returns your guarantee expiry date. The instruction on the page is exactly this: "Simply enter your 23 digit serial number below to find your guarantee expiry date." Smart Plan is independent and is not affiliated with Worcester Bosch: the checker and the guarantee terms quoted on this page are Worcester Bosch's own.

1. Find the 23 digit serial number on the boiler.
2. Open the Worcester Bosch guarantee checker.
3. Type the serial number in and press check. You get the expiry date back on screen.

Nothing else is asked for. You do not need the installation date, your postcode or an account to run the check. Worcester Bosch does add one caveat on that page: "all dates and guarantee validity of boilers are subject to an annual service being undertaken every year since installation". So the date the checker shows is the date you are entitled to if the yearly service has been done. Miss the services and the date on screen is not the date you can rely on.

Where the serial number is

Worcester Bosch does not publish one fixed location, because "Different products have their serial numbers in different places." It is normally printed on the data label on the boiler. Two safety points come straight from Worcester Bosch: "You should never remove any screws to try and find the serial number", and do not go looking for a data label if the boiler "has been installed with restricted access or requires steps or ladders to reach".

If you cannot get to it safely, the serial number is usually written on the installer's invoice, on the guarantee registration paperwork, or in the service record in the boiler manual. You can also sign in to MyBosch, where Worcester Bosch keeps your boiler details, including the product name and serial number, and lets you download your guarantee certificate.

If the checker does not recognise your boiler

The most common reason is that the boiler was never registered. Registration is a condition of the guarantee and the deadline is tight: "The Product must be registered with us within 30 days of installation." Normally the installer does it. If nobody did, you can still use the Worcester Bosch guarantee registration form, and it is worth contacting Worcester Bosch with the installer's invoice or the Building Regulations compliance certificate to prove the installation date before you assume the cover has gone.

Every manufacturer runs a checker like this one, and each brand asks for its own serial number on its own form.

How long a Worcester Bosch guarantee lasts

Between 2 and 12 years, depending on the range, who fitted it and whether a Greenstar System Filter went in at the same time. The clock starts at installation, not at purchase: "The Guarantee period will commence from the date of installation, provided the Product is installed within six months of the Product's date of manufacture. Otherwise, the Guarantee period will commence six months after the Product's date of manufacture."

These are the lengths Worcester Bosch publishes on its own guarantee length page.

*For the Greenstar 1000 and 2000, Worcester Bosch notes the length is "Fitted with a Worcester Bosch or third-party system filter."

So is the Greenstar 4000 guarantee 7 years or 10?

Both figures are real, and they describe different installations. A Greenstar 4000 carries 7 years as standard, 8 years if any Greenstar System Filter went in with it, and 10 years on the extended guarantee. Worcester Bosch sets out how the extended length is earned: "The extended guarantee length can be achieved when installing the boiler with any Greenstar System Filter by a Worcester Bosch Accredited Installer or Worcester Bosch Accredited Partner." That was a decision your installer made on the day, which is exactly why the checker, and not the brochure, is the answer for your boiler.

One more thing worth knowing before you count on a repair buying you extra time. It does not: Worcester Bosch states "The Guarantee period will not be extended following a repair or replacement under this Guarantee."

What keeps a Worcester Bosch guarantee valid

Worcester Bosch lists its guarantee conditions in clause 4.1 of the terms, and warns that "non-compliance at any time may (in our sole and absolute discretion) reduce, limit or invalidate the Guarantee". In plain English, all of the following have to be true.

• A certified installer fitted it. "The Product must be correctly installed and commissioned by a competent and officially certified installer (e.g. Gas Safe, OFTEC, MCS)".
• It was registered within 30 days of installation.
• It is serviced every year. "The Product must be serviced annually by Bosch or any other competent and officially certified engineer. Service details must be recorded in the service record and be available for inspection by us upon request."
• It is in a domestic home and used for normal household heating and hot water.
• It can be reached safely. Loft installations need a fixed loft ladder, boarding and lighting; cupboard installations need the clearances stated in the installation manual.
• It has not been moved, even within the same property, without written authorisation from Worcester Bosch.

The annual service is the condition people trip over

This is the one that costs people their cover, for two reasons. First, it has to be recorded. An undocumented service is no use to you if Worcester Bosch asks to inspect the record, so keep the engineer's invoice and get the service record page in the boiler manual signed and dated at every visit. Second, the service is your bill, not theirs. Worcester Bosch is explicit: "The Guarantee does not include the cost or provision of annual servicing."

You can book that service through Worcester Bosch, which prices an in-guarantee boiler service "from £184 Inc. VAT", or through any Gas Safe registered engineer, which is what the guarantee terms allow. The Health and Safety Executive gives the same advice whether or not you are in guarantee: "HSE strongly advises that all gas appliances, flues and pipework should be installed, regularly maintained and serviced at least annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer." Our guide to what a boiler service costs covers what a fair price looks like.

What the guarantee covers, and what it excludes

Inside the guarantee period, Worcester Bosch will "at our sole discretion and free of material and labour charges, repair or replace components of the Product that are faulty or defective in material or manufacture". Parts and labour on the boiler itself, in other words, with no charge for a genuine guarantee visit. Worcester Bosch draws the line between a guarantee and a paid warranty this way: "A guarantee is normally free, and comes directly from the manufacturer", whereas "A warranty is normally bolted on to the purchase, meaning you have to pay for it."

The exclusions are where refused repairs come from. The guarantee does not cover:

• Consumable items replaced through fair wear and tear, "including but not limited to oil nozzles, hoses, oil filters, gaskets and batteries".
• "External system components such as radiators, water, gas and oil pipelines/services, electric wiring, pumps, fire valves, third party filters, third party controls", and water and oil storage tanks.
• Damage "caused by system design, faulty installation, theft, tampering, lack of maintenance, misuse".
• Damage from "accident, fire, flood, explosion, lightning, storms, or other bad weather conditions".
• Damage "as a result of water quality or other external factors causing scale, sludge, blockages or associated costs", and the cost of putting that damage right.
• "Any repairs not authorised in advance and in writing by us."
• Jobs the manual says are yours, "including but not limited to re-pressurising and resetting the Product, bleeding excess system pressure and thawing frozen condensate pipes".

Read that list next to your radiators and pipework and the shape of it is clear. The guarantee protects the boiler, not the heating system around it. We have written up the traps in more detail in what a boiler warranty does not cover. For the jobs that are yours, our Worcester Bosch technical advice pages cover resetting and re-pressurising safely.

Worcester Bosch also states that its guarantee is in addition to, and does not substitute, exclude nor limit, the statutory rights you have. That is separate from your rights against whoever sold or installed the boiler, which come from the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and sit against that trader, not against the manufacturer.

Booking a repair under guarantee

Go through Worcester Bosch rather than calling an independent engineer. Unauthorised repairs are excluded, so a well-meant fix you arrange yourself can cost you the cover you have already paid for. Use the Worcester Bosch appointment request form. It asks for your name and address, your contact details, what the boiler is doing, whether it has been serviced in the last 12 months, and which weekdays you can be in.

Two conditions catch people out. Only the owner of the boiler can claim under the guarantee, and the claim has to be made inside the guarantee period: "Guarantee claims made after expiry of the Guarantee period will not be acknowledged." If your expiry date is close, book rather than wait and see.

Safety comes before paperwork. If you smell gas, do not touch the boiler. Open the doors and windows, shut the gas off at the meter control valve if you know where it is, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. Anyone working on a gas appliance in your home must be a Gas Safe registered engineer.

When the guarantee ends

Nothing happens to the boiler on the day it expires. What changes is who pays. Parts and labour become your bill, and Worcester Bosch no longer arranges the repair for you. From that point you either pay per breakdown or put a cover plan in place. Our guide on what to do when a boiler warranty expires sets out both routes and the age at which each one stops making sense.

Still in guarantee? Then there is nothing you need from us today beyond the reminder to book that annual service, because it is the one condition that protects the cover you already have.