Boiler Preventive Maintenance Schedule (2021 Updated) | FieldInsight

Do you have a Preventive Maintenance Checklist in your HVAC business? Preventive maintenance in the HVAC industry is a key pillar in creating success and growth for a business.

Preventative maintenance or PM, helps to contribute to asset longevity and balance in your workflow. However keeping track of your maintenance plan in a business can be time consuming and frustrating when you don’t have the right tools. With automation in your HVAC business, you can turn your boiler maintenance into a well oiled machine as a part of your job management system.

Boiler maintenance in a business can generally be composed of a standard checklist, with a few exceptions for different boiler types. Maintenance can also be grouped into daily, monthly, annual or periodic.

How Often Should You Do Maintenance?

When you consider the consistency of your maintenance scheduling, you need to know:

• The type of asset/boiler
• Warranty agreements
• Safety standards
• Performance quality
• Service contractor agreements
• Availability

Your maintenance can be divided into daily, monthly, annual or periodic appointments to meet your standards accordingly.

For the best way to help your technicians with boiler maintenance in the field, check out Top 5 HVAC Apps To Automate Your Workflow (2021 Updated).

Your Boiler Maintenance Checklists

When you are constructing your maintenance checklists, you need to consider your requirements as listed above to ensure that you can meet all your contract agreements. We will divide our boiler preventive maintenance checklist into daily, monthly, periodically and annually.

Checklists for success

Daily Checklist

In your daily inspection of your boiler checklist, you are focusing on smaller changes in your servicing rather than the bigger parts that you will cover in monthly or periodic servicing. As a part of your field service management, you daily checklist should include:

• If applicable blowdown or sweep area to remove debris
• Check for exterior leakages
• Check exhaust temperature
• Check pressure readings – boiler pressure
• Listen for unusual noises, vibrations or rattles
• Ensure vents are not obstructed or blocked
• Check display panel for error codes, service notifications and operating controls
• Check oil level (compressor lube tank)
• Check for low water level
• Check dealkalizer
• Check flame for damageor soot

Monthly Checklist

In your monthly checklist, you will touch on some of your daily checklists while also adding some extra points. Monthly checklists for your boiler maintenance is important for tracking performance and ensuring longevity in your assets.

Your monthly preventive maintenance checklist will comprise of:

• Check for build up of debris on external
• Check external for hot spots or leaks
• Check combustion air
• Check flue gas vent for leaks
• Inspect boiler relief valve
• Inspect burner’s diffusers
• Ensure lights and alarms are working
• Inspect belts
• Check for air leaks around openings
• Blowout water column
• Check relief valve – check for leaks
• Check drain lines and trap for leaks or blockages
• Check gaskets are tight
• Clean surface as required
• Ensure your chemicals are within the correct level

Doing Checklist for Maintenance

Periodic Checklist

A periodic preventive maintenance checklist for your boiler systems will involve more detail and is often scheduled in seasonal or quarterly intervals. When constructing your boiler breakdown maintenance checklist, you need to consider the effects of seasonal weather such as extreme heat, snow or ice. Your checklist may vary slightly from season to season and you may need to review your process based on the climate your boiler system is located in.

When maintaining your boiler, your periodic checklist will look like:

• Check external boiler system for debris, snow or dried leaves
• Check relief valve discharge pipe and hydronic pipe
• Check drain system
• Inspect switches
• Ensure wiring is not frayed- replace if applicable
• Check burner assembly
• Ensure burner flames haven’t changed appearance
• Check water levels and low water cutoff
• Check water pH levels
• Inspect conditions of gaskets – replace if needed
• Inspect pump and base mounts
• Measure oxygen, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide levels with combustion analyzer
• Clean plugs or pipes as needed

Annual Boiler Maintenance Checklist

Your annual maintenance checklist is often a requirement from your contract or warranty agreement and can be vital in extending your boiler system life cycle.

For your annual inspection you should include:

• Check external for corrosion or debris build up
• Inspect burner flame for changes
• Check for blockages in drain valves
• Check condensate system
• Check for internal and external leaking
• Check display for error codes
• Check hydronic piping
• Inspect boiler temperature
• Ensure secure connections and wires
• Check water pH levels
• Check chemical feed system
• Clean burner assembly
• Flush system to remove build up of sediment
• Check gas valves for steam boiler
• Clean tube and tube sheets
• Inspect burner refractory
• Inspect moving parts for easy lubrication
• Inspect quality of insulating material for wear and tear
• Check chemical feeds
• Recalibrateboiler system error codes, service codes and operating controls

While the annual checks cover thoroughly the ins and outs of the boiler system, you will find with your daily checks you will help prevent the most damage as they catch the defects before they can develop.

The Main Benefits Of A Preventive Maintenance Boiler Checklist

When you integrate your boiler preventive maintenance checklist, you can make sure your maintenance team is staying on the right track and introducing more consistency to your company.

With a great preventive maintenance system in your HVAC company, you will:

Boost your customer relationships by improving the quality of your maintenance. When you customers know you are looking after their best interest, you will have longer lasting customer relationships.
Improve your safety by ensuring that there aren’t dangerous hazards or defects on site. When you have daily, monthly, periodic or annual maintenance, you eliminate hazards that can potentially lead to carbon monoxide leaks, short fires or water leaks that can put your technicians and customers at risk.

Reduce your repair costs for your customers with regular maintenance. For your steam boiler maintenance checklist, you can save your customer from spending an arm and a leg in repair costs that have built up over time due to lack of servicing. With the cost savings for your customers, you will also save as a business with a great job estimate template in place.

When you have a regular maintenance system in your workflow, you will find a boost in energy efficiency for your boiler systems.

Your Emergency Checklist

Even when you have a great routine maintenance program in place, emergencies can still happen due to exterior factors or just bad luck.

When you have an emergency boiler repair that needs to be fixed, safety measures need to be considered. Will there be hazards near your technicians? Is there a gas leak? Is there escaping steam or hot water?

Being called out to site for a boiler emergency can result in either repair or replacement of parts and a supplemented boiler may need to be considered.

Your emergency checklist will vary depending on boiler type and location, but important aspects to consider include:

1. Safety
2. Available parts in your warehouse
3. Rental units
4. Manufacturer or warranty guides
5. Customer contracts

How Do You Systemise Your Boiler System?

When you are looking to improve your boiler system and maintenance checklists, you will find with automated job management software, your results will be doubled. With software like FieldInsight you gain the ability to improve your maintenance scheduling without the extra admin and double data entry.

When you neglect your boiler maintenance, your business will be under more pressure to constantly replace assets and handle unplanned downtime. Your equipment life can be prolonged with a great maintenance plan and an inspection boiler checklist.

Don’t leave your boiler maintenance until you get customers calling up at 6am complaining they’ve lost heat in their building. With a structured preventive maintenance checklist and a great software like FieldInsight, you can keep your customers happy without unplanned surprises.