NSTAR heating maintenance plan

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

Anyone use the NSTAR maintenance plan to maintain your boiler in lieu of a plumbing service?  Any comments?   I'm intrigued by the idea of being able to get a plumber of evenings/weekends, which has historically been difficult.  And I'm curious on how much they will cover before they start charging you for an amount above the annual fee.

Comments

[masswich.livejournal.com]

The one time I used it they were good about coming in and dealing with the short term needs (shutting the gas off to the broken item, etc.) but were not helpful about actual replacement. Basically they don't cover when the furnace or heater is "broken", which is usually the problem.

For a couple of years I had the extra plan that paid for a tuneup of the gas furnace as well, but I didn't think they did much to it and a plumber told me once that gas furnaces really don't need to be tuned up the way an oil one does. I stopped paying the premium for that extra service after that.

[aislingk15.livejournal.com]

I've been paying for the plan but I haven't used it yet, and I'm thinking about canceling before the next auto-pay. Something to consider is that the plan covers the boiler but not the radiators. So this winter I had a problem with my radiators which required calling an independent plumber, and while he was here it turned out that some of the banging I was hearing was related to the boiler itself. Since the guy was already here, I just wasn't about to tell him to leave that problem so that I could call NSTAR and find out if they would fix it under my plan.