Caravan Servicing Costs

Being non EHU, the fridge running on gas is vital and we had noticed that our Dometic Fridge was having difficulty not only in lighting but staying lit. We had it serviced today with new thermo couple, jet etc-£174! Never had one serviced before - Does that seem reasonable?

 I've nothing to compare it to, to know if it's reasonable, but it sounds expensive 😞

I can't believe a thermocouple is is "that" expensive, even allowing for a call-out charge and a bit of labour.

About ten years ago we had to have a Dometic engineer out to sort out the burners on our fridge and that cost just over the £100 so perhaps what you paid, whilst expensive, is not out of the ordinary? 

David

a Dometic thermocouple seems to be around £35 but the fridge/freezer? may have needed to be removed to get access?

servicing costs are what they are because the dealers have a captive audience....tying a 'franchise' service to the warranty conditions just makes it so easy.....customers clamouring for the rare spaces in the servicing diary...

add in 'damp warenty' which usually extends beyond the normal warrenty covered by 'servicing' and you have an even longer 'grip' on that customer.

So if you had an issue at home with say your fridge, washing machine, boiler etc. you would probably pay £80-£90 call out which would cover some labour, add parts and time to fit and as you say a service  its probably about right.  A service on a CH boiler at home is probably about £90 plus any parts isn't it and that;s the same sort of concept as a fridge in a MH and as BB says he would have to remove and reseal the fridge again so there may have been sealing parts to be used.

Sounds a lot to me, but everything caravan/MH related seems to be OTT.

We had to have an Alde PCB replaced last year, nobody repairs them of course, that was over £200 including labour.

The fault turned out to be the failure of a component costing a couple of pounds max,  now I know what the failure was I have replaced the component and now have a spare PCB

£19.99 to £26.99 for the part for a Dometic fridge on ebay - and whatever the engineer who replaced it chose to charge.

Last Christmas Eve my oven packed up and OH diagnosed that it was a thermostat which needed replacement.  An 'Appliances Engineer' quoted us £50 call-out plus a half-hourly rate or nearly that (because it's Christmas Eve) plus the price of the part or parts  He said it was undoubtedly the element (it wasn't) and that it would be replaced anyway, and an extra parts charged for. My Oh found the part was available in Leeds for £14.99 - drove over and bought one, and replaced it himself.

If you can do it yourself it can cost very little - if you  pay someone to replace it, the price can be either reasonable or extortionate.

That is quite expensive, £234.  We had a hab service plus dampcheck done last week at Spinney (didn't buy from them) and the cost was £150 inc VAT.  Thought that was quite reasonable.

Have had dealings with Marquis in the past, and not impressed, but I guess you're stuck with them under the terms of the warranty.  Seems odd you have to have it done there, I'd have thought any AS dealer would qualify to carry out a service and the warranty would still be valid.

At this time of year a number of dealers start to offer cheaper servicing I have noticed. Presumably a slacker time.