Whether your house uses a gas or oil fired boiler system for central heating, it used to be easier to tell if you needed a boiler repair. You may even have done some of the troubleshooting yourself. You could expect some knocking and you could probably tell when too much knocking was starting to make a serious problem. You could vent the radiators to purge them of air that would shut down the heat to a room. You could check and see if the pilot light was lit. These older boilers were also heating your basement or garage. That heat was wasted.

Today’s systems are much more complicated for the sake of energy efficiency. Many natural gas boilers are interconnected with your hot water heater. Oil burners have sophisticated fuel pumps, atomizers and ignition systems you might expect to find on a car. The radiators of old may now be baseboard systems or even use radiant heat through the floor. There are combustion fans and and electrical supplies to fans and sensors. There are logic boards that could prevent your boiler from working at all if the sensors detect something has gone haywire. The ignition system is now electronic. What could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately, plenty of things can still go wrong with these updated boilers. Most problems have moved beyond do it yourself boiler repair. You will likely need a licensed heating contractor to determine whether you need preventative maintenance or full blown boiler repair, and here is what you can roughly expect to pay for various repairs:

• To inspect your entire heating system to make sure the central or zone thermostats are correctly communicating with your boiler, and that signals are being properly received by a correctly working boiler system, costs about – $125 to $275
• A lack of heat may indicate that the primary electronic ignition is broken or that perhaps a combustion fan has failed, initiating a shutdown. The replacement of a ignition units, faulty fans, circuit boards, or sensors can range from – $125 to $700
• Inadequate heat usually indicates a problem with the steam or condensate return system, whether from sedimentary blockage or corrosion of critical valves. You might also have insufficient water flow to the boiler. A full purge and check of the water system will cost you about – $125 to $375

The best course for high efficiency boilers is to catch problems before they occur!