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  2. What is Benchmark

What is Benchmark?

Benchmark is a nationally recognised scheme that gives manufacturers and installers the responsibility for ensuring best practice for the installation, commissioning and servicing of domestic heating and hot water products, in accordance with the Building Regulations in England and Wales.


Benchmark covers:


  • Gas heating and hot water systems
  • Hot water storage cylinders
  • Water treatment products
  • Solar thermal systems


How does Benchmark work?


When the engineer has finished installing your product, they complete the Benchmark commissioning checklist. This is found at the back of the manufacturer's instruction manual.


The checklist provides you with evidence that:


  • The installer is competent, qualified and committed to providing high quality service
  • The installer works to the Benchmark Code of Practice
  • The product has been installed correctly
  • The installer has given you a demonstration of the product and how it works
  • The installer has given you the manufacturer's user instructions
  • You have signed to say that the installer has given you a demonstration and the handover is complete


How Benchmark affects your boiler warranty


The terms and conditions for Baxi's parts and labour warranties include the following requirements:


  • The installer must complete the Benchmark checklist when he finishes installing the boiler
  • We may ask to see the Benchmark checklist if you make a claim while your boiler is under warranty
  • The warranty must be registered within 30 days of installation
  • The boiler must be serviced every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer


What are the benefits of Benchmark?


A completed Benchmark checklist gives you evidence that your product has been installed and commissioned correctly.


If the engineer has not completed the Benchmark checklist correctly for a gas boiler installation, your warranty will not be valid.


This is because the UK's major gas boiler manufacturers, including Baxi, with the support of HHIC, have launched a campaign to rid the industry of incompetent installers. By linking the completion of a commissioning checklist to the warranty of a new boiler, the boiler manufacturers are supporting the large majority of heating engineers who carry out their work competently and professionally. They are also sending a clear message to illegal and cowboy installers that manufacturers will no longer carry the cost for installations that have not been carried out in line with the manufacturers' instructions.