General Chat

OH had our condensing boiler (age 22 thought it had reached its limit) replaced some 5 years ago with a condensing one. Out of 4 heating engineers only 1 advised a combi. Got in touch with a friend (heating engineer) and he advised stay away from combi.

This one is more efficient than the old one - obviously and Oh is very happy with it. I am warm. :-D

I'm puzzled as to why you are changing 10/11 year old boilers..........when we first moved in here we were on a district heating scheme, paid for in the rent...

however that all fell by the wayside (they were having too many leaks in the system pipe work).
and they installed separate boilers in our houses around 1984/5 time..

many HAVE been changed to modern boilers, but there still lots of original boilers in use.

we keep getting mail offering to change ours, but when they find we are not on benefits................
until ours dies we'll keep it.....

in all that time ....A Baxi.....
(cost of parts)
it HAS had A new thermocouple.........couple of quid,
a thermostat.......£15 quid-ish
a gas valve.........around £90-£100
and a
circulating heating pump........

and the advice given was...........stay with it!!

Bob

OH only changed because a) he thought 22 yrs was a good age, b) I was coming out of hospital after 6 mths, c) he did not wish to risk boiler going down in winter and d) he was advised boiler was fine - problem was if parts were needed - harder to get.

Unless you have trouble Ann I would stick - don't change for sake of changing. OH finds the large cupboard so useful for drying clothes.

We would stay with ours if it didn't keep letting us down Bob.

Mine is a condensing boiler,but not a combi...I still have my airing cupboard .
We had a solar panel for hot water...not the electricity ones.And it came with a new bigger cylinder ,well insulated.This was about 8 or so years ago.
From about April till Nov this year I never had my hot water on as had loads of it.Im very happy with the Worcester boiler,and it seems quite economical.

Ah! right,


if its a money pit then

yep
get rid

ours DID get a bit iffy, wouldn't fire up first thing in the morning ,but was ok all day

changed the thermostat,.....no joy, so got a guy in to look at it, and they changed the gas valve.....

When we replaced our boiler 5 years ago, there wa nothing wrong with it as it was only 5yrs old, although sometimes in winter, it did struggle to heat the house.

As we were having a fairly large extension added to the house, we knew that the existing boiler would never cope
The cost of a replacement combi boiler was included in the build from the outset .

We have had Worcester since 1990, and have had very little trouble with it.
I am and have been very pleased with it.
My son has a Valient, and so far, no trouble.

Would advise buying a good quality boiler if you decide on that.

Sue

Bob

Ours is another money pit boiler. It has been caused us trouble for at least half it's life. Our engineer has just ordered a new thingy to replace the same thingy put in about 14 months ago.

It is Worcester and I'm surprised their own advisory engineers answer any telephone call made from our house. It has, in the past, caused everyone to 'tear their hair out'.

Roll on the spring and fingers crossed any new boiler won't be a 'Friday' one.

We,ve just recently ad a Worcester Green Star Installed, seems quite good (The Old one was past its sell by date) it powers 17 rads 2 showers and of course the bath,we still retained the hot water tank in the airing cupboard. its situated in the utilities room which is a good thing.**M**.

Well Bob perhaps he needs to replace your thingy with a whasit or a doberry! :-D

Grrh! The thingy ( circuit board) was replaced. " All working and quiet now" says engineer. He was right - until the heating came on with the timer an hour later. :-|

You CAN keep your hot water cylinder etc from your old boiler system. All new and replacement boilers have to be condensing models. They work just as well just as efficiently in a traditional indirect pressure system with a hot water cylinder and cold water storage cistern. This part of an article in Saturday Daily Telegraph by a builder who writes a column entitled "Property Doctor". Can probably be viewed online by gogglinmg Daily Telegraph. Best of luck

Condensing boilers may not be as efficient as first thought They were heralded as the modern, clean and green way to heat your house. As a result, today there are already eight million in homes across Britain.

Apart from certain exceptioal cases, since 2005 it is illegal to fit any other kind as new or replacements.

At the time, the then-deputy PM John Prescott claimed they would massively reduce your carbon footprint and slash your fuel bills. As a result, every year some 1.2m old-style 'dirty' boilers are scrapped in Britain and replaced by this wondrous new variety.

In fact the government was advised by trhe wrong people, the people who manufactured them, not independent experts. Many plumbers consider them to be little more than a multi-billion pound con-trick.

Many people have seen very little reduction in their fuel bill as they rarely reach optimim efficiency when used to replace conventional boilers. The problems don't stop there either. The condensed water vapour produced in the new boilers is acidic which causes corrosion of the delicate boiler components and leads to breakdowns. Most will need replacing after ten years.

In a well-designed, well-insulated new home that incorporates the latest heating technology, a condensing boiler might be more efficient, but otherwise, if you have an old boiler, provided it is working properly and is serviced regularly, you are almost certainly better off keeping it until it is beyond economic repair.

We moved to a brand new house 8/81991 left 30/8/2005.

17 radiators, 3 showers, 1 bath. Almost instant hot water anywhere in the house, water pressure great.

Worcester Combi boiler, very little trouble. Gas bill smaller than previous house and we were in a much bigger house.

Did have individual thermostats put on our radiators though.

We were delighted with ours. Our next door neighbours from that house replaced theirs' last year so it was 22 years old and have the updated version as they were so pleased with the previous 1.