Advice on central heating boiler please.

[Deleted member 1740]

Thanks for the info Stu, very useful. ?

If your unsure where to find tradesmen the 1st place I'd look is www.gassaferegister.co.uk stick your postcode in and it'll bring up the full list of engineers in your area.

 

[PJ87]

Don't let them oversell hive and Alexa as some expensive feature

Hive you can buy yourself for £170-200

Add it to the list for the plumber to do ..

Alexa pfft £50 max

Stu has some the best advise on it. Save yourself a packet
Edit on hive on website £145 with a free Alexa

 

[harpo_72]

Worcester Bosche have a deal on but they will need to really confirm a like for like job .. they were £1400 over that price for my quote.
I would like the others say go to an independent May be a golf club member.. they would not let you down

 

[Oxfordcomma]

Not an expert, just an interested observer.
I've been waiting for my 24 year old conventional gas boiler to pack up for about 15 years. I always thought it would cost about that much just to replace it, like for like. Your post has made me think that maybe I'll look into changing it out for a modern system before it becomes an emergency.

Definitely do this! 5 or 6 years back we had ours condemned by a service engineer, he capped off the pipe and we had no option but to replace. Finding an installer with availability at short notice in October is a challenge, to say the least.

 

[Mandofred]

When I was changing my system a few years back by and far the most expensive quote was from British Gas by a margin of about 30%.
(in the end I bought all the parts did a lot of the pipe work and the local guy did the flush and boiler fitting with some finishing pipe work for £400).


Boiler in the loft or in the garage you have to be wary of the frost stat and it's effects on running cost. The frost stat on my boiler kicks in at 8 Deg C.
My neighbour had his put in the garage and the boiler was running 24/7 in winter when the house was empty whilst it was being renovated.

I would tend to think that the temp in our garage and loft are fairly close to the same. I've never checked though........

 

[harpo_72]

Not sure how efficient putting the boiler in a cold place is .. they need frost protection but really if they are warm then they use less energy. Suggest they be somewhere they are warm and you can use that temperature in your house .. hot garages are a bit pointless

 

[jim8flog]

I would tend to think that the temp in our garage and loft are fairly close to the same. I've never checked though........

The point is that in winter both are likely to be well below the the temperature for a frost setting on a boiler.

 

[Mandofred]

Our boiler was in the loft....issues with the drain freezing a few years ago caused one problem. Nothing major, just irritating and shows the lack of planning for these things (cold weather freezes things...duh). Also, a breakage of a part a year later (boiler guy said it was pretty normal on those boilers) caused leakage down the walls from the loft. Luckily, I heard the drips while in bed and we turned the water off in time to prevent serious damage. Boiler (bigger and better) now in garage on the wall connected to porch. Leakage will not be an issue if it happens again. Inside the house theoretically is nicer, but with the way a lot of homes are planned....the boiler quite often ends up in the way. Do we give up kitchen storage to put a boiler in there? I'm really curious about what is going to happen in the next 10 years regarding heating. I am not an expert (boy, do politicians use that a lot when they want to make an opinion...), but homes here in the UK just aren't very well insulated. I've never looked into it (not an expert...), but is there a way to build all these brick buildings in a manner that would be a LOT better for heat retention? Or....switch to other construction methods.

 

[harpo_72]

Our boiler was in the loft....issues with the drain freezing a few years ago caused one problem. Nothing major, just irritating and shows the lack of planning for these things (cold weather freezes things...duh). Also, a breakage of a part a year later (boiler guy said it was pretty normal on those boilers) caused leakage down the walls from the loft. Luckily, I heard the drips while in bed and we turned the water off in time to prevent serious damage. Boiler (bigger and better) now in garage on the wall connected to porch. Leakage will not be an issue if it happens again. Inside the house theoretically is nicer, but with the way a lot of homes are planned....the boiler quite often ends up in the way. Do we give up kitchen storage to put a boiler in there? I'm really curious about what is going to happen in the next 10 years regarding heating. I am not an expert (boy, do politicians use that a lot when they want to make an opinion...), but homes here in the UK just aren't very well insulated. I've never looked into it (not an expert...), but is there a way to build all these brick buildings in a manner that would be a LOT better for heat retention? Or....switch to other construction methods.

Your right about the insulation and we are really behind. We know about it but I am not sure the mushroom builds will go above and beyond requirements as the profit margin will drop.
I was talking to my Swedish colleagues they are really on the insulation stuff.
Our bedroom is over the garage and the house was built in 2008 .. no insulation whatsoever so it dreadful, just another job that needs doing and the double glazing needs to be updated as well

 

[sunshine]

Our boiler was in the loft....issues with the drain freezing a few years ago caused one problem. Nothing major, just irritating and shows the lack of planning for these things (cold weather freezes things...duh). Also, a breakage of a part a year later (boiler guy said it was pretty normal on those boilers) caused leakage down the walls from the loft. Luckily, I heard the drips while in bed and we turned the water off in time to prevent serious damage. Boiler (bigger and better) now in garage on the wall connected to porch. Leakage will not be an issue if it happens again. Inside the house theoretically is nicer, but with the way a lot of homes are planned....the boiler quite often ends up in the way. Do we give up kitchen storage to put a boiler in there? I'm really curious about what is going to happen in the next 10 years regarding heating. I am not an expert (boy, do politicians use that a lot when they want to make an opinion...), but homes here in the UK just aren't very well insulated. I've never looked into it (not an expert...), but is there a way to build all these brick buildings in a manner that would be a LOT better for heat retention? Or....switch to other construction methods.

UK housing stock is on average considerably older than other countries in Europe, but even newer houses aren't always built in the most energy efficient manner.

The government has focused on retro-fitting improvements through the green deal scheme, but it's been poorly publicised and not taken off. Things like cavity wall insulation, ground source heat pumps, new boilers etc. They need to chuck more money at it.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Hi mate

BG price is excessively high. They use subbies to do the work so your paying BG prices for contractors to do the work.

I'd be looking around £2.6k tops.

Also I'd go with a Baxi 825 boiler or Vaillant 625. 10yrs parts and labour next day warranty on the baxi for registered baxi installers and 7yr for the Vaillant. For me Worcester boilers are overpriced and usually offer a lesser warranty.

I'd recommend getting a few local traders in to quote, I'd expect you'd be saving the best part of £600+ going this way.

If you need anymore advice give us a pm.

Stu

The central heating engineers we use recommended a Vaillant when our Worcester Bosch Greenstar became more expensive to fix than it's remaining life merited given it was likely to give us ongoing issues. It was only 10 yrs old but apparently these days we shouldn't expect much more life out of a CH boiler than that. Also the engineers said that the Vaillant was much easier to access for servicing - and had the longer warranty. We've had the Vaillant a couple of years and so far no issues - when we were having regular issues with the Greenstar.

I note that I say the above with no understanding of central heating or CH boilers - and we just went with the advice of the CH company - advice that may well have just suited them or was more profitable to them than the Worcester Bosch route.

 

[jim8flog]

The central heating engineers we use recommended a Vaillant when our Worcester Bosch Greenstar became more expensive to fix than it's remaining life merited given it was likely to give us ongoing issues. It was only 10 yrs old but apparently these days we shouldn't expect much more life out of a CH boiler than that. Also the engineers said that the Vaillant was much easier to access for servicing - and had the loner warranty. We've had the Vaillant a couple of years and so far no issues - when we were having regular issues with the Greenstar.

I note that I say the above with no understanding of central heating or CH boilers - and we just went with the advice of the CH company - advice that may well have just suited them or was more profitable to them than the Bosch route.

I had a Vaillant after a similar recommendation (it was a toss up between it and Worcester) 13 years old this year and only 2 faults 2 worn out seals and the plastic taps used to fill it are rubbish (now replaced by me with metal ones) . The plumber who repaired it said that the seals should have been changed every 5 years as part of the service schedule anyway. Annoyingly the guy who serviced it last year said it sound like the seals are going and having since read through the paperwork from the company replacing the seals was supposed to be part of the service.

Price;- was there was not a lot between the 2 manufacturers but the Vaillant came with a 3 year warranty as standard. (I bought the boiler and the plumber fitted it).

 

[Rooter]

Don't let them oversell hive and Alexa as some expensive feature

Hive you can buy yourself for £170-200

Add it to the list for the plumber to do ..

Alexa pfft £50 max

Stu has some the best advise on it. Save yourself a packet
Edit on hive on website £145 with a free Alexa

Smart stat's are not a simple plug and play though, you need to remove and rewire etc, I DIY'd it, but out of 10 in terms of complexity, its an 8. I had to trace wiring, test, rewire etc. Its not like bunging another Echo dot in the house!! I did a google nest. It is excellent and my gas DD bill has already come down through the coldest part of the year.

 

[PJ87]

Smart stat's are not a simple plug and play though, you need to remove and rewire etc, I DIY'd it, but out of 10 in terms of complexity, its an 8. I had to trace wiring, test, rewire etc. Its not like bunging another Echo dot in the house!! I did a google nest. It is excellent and my gas DD bill has already come down through the coldest part of the year.

Like I said get it added to the plumber to add to list

You can pick up the stuff for £150 ATM and then they install with boiler

My point was it's a cheap thing not worth too much to overprice the boiler

 

[drdel]

Got my cheque book ready! Our 25year old Potterton keeps going but the engineers reckons 'let it alone for this year' - thats over 8 years ago!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Got my cheque book ready! Our 25year old Potterton keeps going but the engineers reckons 'let it alone for this year' - thats over 8 years ago!

Hope you've got it somewhere that is not now illegal. Ours (think it was a Potterton) was originally in the kitchen where the range had been - flued up the chimney. When it conked out (it was ancient) the service engineer who came along had to immediately condemn it as it was illegally located. And obviously it couldn't be replaced. We had to find a new location for the boiler and that gave rise to all sorts of plumbing costs.

 

[jim8flog]

Got my cheque book ready! Our 25year old Potterton keeps going but the engineers reckons 'let it alone for this year' - thats over 8 years ago!

If your old boiler is not a condensing boiler--

One of the things about ancient boilers is that if they are flued through the house you will need a complete new flue system because modern condensing boilers have a pipe within the pipe for the condensate to run down in.

Like you I kept my old boiler long after it really should have been changed and the new boiler paid for itself within about 5 years due to reduced running costs. Wish I had done it much earlier.