Hot Water Cylinder Replacement

alanobrien · 6 November 2005 at 12:13PM

Anyone have any idea of the cost to fit an Indirect Hot water cylinder size about 1050 x 400mm With 27" Immersion?

South East area.

Thanks !

moneysavingplumber · 6 November 2005 at 7:27PM

Hi Alan, fancy seeing you here!

I'm in the SE and a decent (grade 3 and part L compliant, personally I only use Range cylinders) quality 42 x 16 plus all the fittings and immersion heater will cost from £150 to £200 including the VAT, depending on what kind of deal you are getting and will take a decent plumber between 1/2 day and a day to complete, depending on the time to drain down and fill up. Don't forget to allow for inibitor to re-treat the heating system. In theory, even cylinder-only changes are supposed to be certified through Corgi to building control now, or inspected but I'm not sure how many installers are actually doing this, especially non-Corgi plumbers. It may be worthwhile making sure it is certified as this may avoid any problems later on when the home-sellers pack kicks in in 2007.

Total cost should be between £250 and £350, all-being straightforward.

alanobrien · 6 November 2005 at 9:04PM

moneysavingplumber wrote:

Hi Alan, fancy seeing you here!

I'm in the SE and a decent (grade 3 and part L compliant, personally I only use Range cylinders) quality 42 x 16 plus all the fittings and immersion heater will cost from £150 to £200 including the VAT, depending on what kind of deal you are getting and will take a decent plumber between 1/2 day and a day to complete, depending on the time to drain down and fill up. Don't forget to allow for inibitor to re-treat the heating system. In theory, even cylinder-only changes are supposed to be certified through Corgi to building control now, or inspected but I'm not sure how many installers are actually doing this, especially non-Corgi plumbers. It may be worthwhile making sure it is certified as this may avoid any problems later on when the home-sellers pack kicks in in 2007.

Total cost should be between £250 and £350, all-being straightforward.

Thanks for that much appreciated.
If i have time i will DIY it but given the kids and work i will most likely get the corgi engineer who fitted the boiler to do it, he is a decent bloke so no worries there.......i was expecting about 500 for parts and labour so not far off

alanobrien · 7 November 2005 at 7:46PM

He came around this morning and quoted me £430 for the total job inc all parts and labour. Happy with that given how long it would take me to re-pipe it etc.

moneysavingplumber · 8 November 2005 at 1:12AM

For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing, like all these jobs it's easy until unexpected problems arise. Price might seem a little over the odds but if you know him and trust his work it's a worthwhile investment. I've always been too cheap!

alanobrien · 8 November 2005 at 10:21PM

moneysavingplumber wrote:

For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing, like all these jobs it's easy until unexpected problems arise. Price might seem a little over the odds but if you know him and trust his work it's a worthwhile investment. I've always been too cheap!

I tend to abide by the law of diminishing returns with these things. Yes i could do it but never as well, cleanly or quickly as he could.

My version of fitting it goes something like this;

Take off tank jacket
scratch head a bit
Stare at pipes
Put spanner on joint and lean on it
Spend 5 mins finding a plaster coz the spanner slipped off and i scraped my hand
Remember i havent drained the system and am thankful
for the cut on the hand.
Turn off water
Drain the system
Get a bigger set of spanners
Crack the compression joints
Mop up the water and gunk that was airlocked
Cut pipes coz you cant get the tank out otherwise
Spill more gunk on the carpet make a mental note to check cleaning cost
Get tank out whacking the alarm box on the way
Mop up more gunk spilled down the stairs
Cut more pipework coz the fittings on the new tank are in a different place
Try to put new tank in place but it wont fit through the door.
Swear a bit
Remove door frame
Put tank in place mark where new pipework goes
Bend up some 22 mm pipe
Throw away 22 mm bent pipe as i did it wrong and it doesnt fit
Solder pipe
Resolder pipe again as it doesnt look right
Tape up fittings and screw in place
Connect flow and return
Connect inlet and outlet
Disconnect inlet and outlet and go to Band Q to get the valves i forgot to get
Cut back pipes again fit valves and reconnect
Fit immersion trying not to cross thread it
Stare at surrey flange wondering what it was for
Give surrey flange to 3 yr old to play with
Check drain valve is shut
Go to B and q again to get more fittings to connect up various pipes that go somewhere and do something unknown.
Stand back and stare at it
Scratch head
Find dozens of assorted cloths and buckets
Ask her indoors to turn on the water
Madly tighten up various leaking joints
Mop up gunk
Refill heating system not forgetting the new inhibiter
Bleed system
Fire it up making sure the water tank heats up
Tighten up more leaking joints that appeared when it got hot
Mop up gunk
Let system cool down
Tighten up more leaking joints that appeared when it got cold
Mop up gunk
Refit door frame
Make a note to redocarate the area
Pay someone £150 to clean the mess i made of the carpet
Listen to complaints about the mess i made :wall:

Sit back and have a beer thinking about the
savings i made :doh:

£230 quid labour to save me all that grief BARGAIN :dance:

moneysavingplumber · 9 November 2005 at 12:21AM

You've left me in absolutely no doubt you've tried it before :rotfl: . Cheers for that.

robv_3 · 10 November 2005 at 8:05PM

As long as the cylinder is not pressurised anyone can change it.

Days work and parts = 350 quid

basill · 11 November 2005 at 12:47AM

Had to drop you a Thanks for that, it exactly how all my jobs go, I never learn!!

B

Hot Water Cylinder Replacement

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