Equipment Breakdown Insurance

Equipment Breakdown insurance, sometimes referred to as boiler and machinery insurance, covers the costly physical and financial damage that can result from an equipment breakdown.  Equipment Breakdown insurance can pay for:

• Direct Property Loss – the cost to repair or replace damaged equipment;
• Lost business income and costs for temporary replacement equipment;
• Other expenses incurred to limit the loss or speed restoration of operations;
• The loss value of spoiled products or materials caused by a covered breakdown;
• Business recovery expense.

You should pay particular attention to this specialty coverage because standard property forms typically exclude the very losses that equipment breakdown insurance is designed to cover:

• Mechanical breakdown;
• Electrical arcing;
• Artificially generated electrical currents;
• Centrifugal force;
• Boiler overheating, cracking, bulging, sagging;
• Bulging, cracking or collapse of pressure vessels, such as water heaters, compressed air tanks, steam cookers and kettles, expansion tanks and condensate return tanks.

Hartford Steam Boiler’s Equipment Breakdown insurance is among the broadest in the industry.  Not only do we offer a broader range of coverages, we insure many types of equipment that many other companies exclude.  Far from insuring just "boiler and machinery" we cover many kinds of equipment, including:

• Boilers, pressure vessels, water heaters
• Electrical distribution systems
• Heating and cooling systems
• Refrigeration (including lost refrigerant)
• Production equipment
• Office equipment
• Computer technology
• Computer controlled machines such as CNC machines and robotics 
• Communications systems, including phone and voice-mail systems
• Security and fire detection systems
• Ovens, stoves, furnaces
• Elevators, escalators, cranes, hoists and lifts
• Cash registers and inventory control systems
• Diagnostic equipment
• And more

HSB’s Equipment Breakdown policies offer more than just insurance. We provide services to help you meet local inspection requirements and get back into business if you do experience a breakdown. These include:

• Jurisdictional inspections of boilers and pressure vessels, required by virtually all states and municipalities, are a built-in benefit of HSB’s Equipment Breakdown coverage.  Some insurance companies don’t include this service, or they charge extra for it.
• Loss prevention services designed to help business owners improve equipment operation and maintenance programs to prevent losses that can impair production or service capabilities.
• Claim service to help you more swiftly restore business operations following a breakdown.