Advice needed for Combi boiler replacement

thechippy

Fair enough, but that still comes out at £290 for a days labour!
You seem like a good bloke and I'm not trying to cause an argument here, but I really do struggle with the charges of plumbing / heating engineers to be honest and I still fail to see how they are justified!

Anyway, I'm cream crackered and going to bed. Look forward to your response....;)

sandhu40

£290 minus the usual expenses every other self employed person has to incur.

Plus I advertise alot because without advertising I wouldn't be as busy as I am.

I also have to factor in the extended warranty that I offer- most others would offer 1 year.

Also, some jobs require pipework modifications as the original set up wasn't correct.

I make a good living but I am a good honest engineer- so I guess I deserve it.

mikey72

sandhu40 wrote: »

Inhibitor £3
Cleanser £15
TRV's around £5 each, £3 if you buy in bulk but may have been present already?

Hot and cold flush is ideal and a magna clean may have been suggested but customers dont want to pay the extra in my experience. We can only advise.

The above does seem a cheap price however. We pay £450 for that boiler inc VAT; but depends on how many you buy I suppose.

mrcentralheating does some amazing heating pack prices if anyone is interested.

That's not the price of Fernox or Sentinel, I wouldn't use anything else.
I don't like cheap TRV's, I can get them for a fiver, but it's a false economy.

Back the quote though, the boiler comes with a built in timer, what about the room stat, if you assume they used the existing one, it'll won't be a low voltage, so with that and the earth bonding, what about the sparkys time? (Assuming it's earth bonded)
Can't come close on the boiler though, I'd be at £450 with another £50 for the flue on top.

mymoneywish

Hi, not sure if anyone is looking at this anymore or not, but interested to see if anyone has any recommendations that are a bit more current with regards to boiler replacement? I see that most of this discussion took place in 2007/2008 and with the new grant that has just been released by the government (£400 to replace boilers) I would be definitely interested in getting the work done on mine.

The link and details for the Boiler Scrappage Scheme are available on this site (sorry as a newbie I cannot post links directly so please do a search for those interested who might not have heard) ... On the Energy Saving Trust website and its called the Boiler Scrappage Scheme.

ipvaid

yummymummyofthree wrote: »

Hi everyone and Happy Christmas,
The quote was broken down like this:

Glowworm Betacom 24 HE Combi Boiler £395
Labour- boiler £290
Chemicals for hot and cold flush £20
Copper pipe 15mm and fittings £40
Labour- copper run from meter to boiler £50
Other- certificate, building control, balancing system, commissioning, all work to best practice.

Total £795.

So I looked at this quote on the website mentioned and it is actually quite impossible even with using same parts as per their website.

Can someone suggest if £2900 including VAT is good, it includes following :-

- Replacing conventional system with Worcester Bosch combi 27CDi.
- Dispose old boiler, tanks from loft, etc.
- Around 3 meter copper pipe for Gar to make it 22mm from 15mm.
- 3 TRV's for bedrooms
- Power flush whole system (8 Radiators)
- Install heated rail in Bathroom (Heated Raid supplied by me).
- Install Magna Clean
- Install Magnetic Scale reducer
- Connect pipe work to work with combi and remove Gas shower system which I have as it won't work with Combi
- Horstmann AS2 RF wire free room thermostat (with z wave technology) for managing heating via web in future.


I have been quoted £ 2500 by another person for "Vitodens 100-W (WB)" but I am not sure if they are good boilers or not.

Currently, I have Potterton Netaheat MK2f 10-16 which is working but BG came around when I took cover and said they cannot cover it as they don't have parts so I am kinda worried. It is nearly 25+ yrs old as per them as Potterton stopped making it in 1980's.

Anyone has any advise/thought, will really appreciate.

Thanks.

marcs_2

£1500 is a good price.

When you get a Gas Safe installer around to quote, ask for a break down on labour and materials.

I got a local engineer to replace a combi boiler for £500 in a rental property and brought a Biasi boiler (£460) from Discounted Heating .co.uk good prices and service. Total cost - £960.

Only went for the Biasi due to the price. Personally I have a Worcester Bosch boiler in my own home.

Good luck.

AndrewFirth

does anyone know of a good plumber in the midlands area? thank you.

truckerjohn

Hi All.. I live in Northamptonshire.. i am looking to have a combi boiler replaced in my house .. it will be a strait swap as i have a Vokera linea 28 in there at the min.. i have been told that i can have a couple of different makes fitted at no real extra cost as they will go where the old one is fitted just a bit of pipe work to change.. i have had few quotes and the difference is between 1500 to 3000 for the same work I can understand some companys can buy the good a bit cheaper but how can you justify labour chages of a 1000 for a days work.. if any knows of any decent companys that want the work please let me know ..thank you

Bigjay_2

yummymummyofthree wrote: »

My boiler was fitted around 2 months ago. The company, based in the west midlands charged £795 including parts and labour for the whole job.

The reason I am posting a reply to this message is that I am sick of tired of PEOPLE GETTING RIPPED OFF BY PLUMBERS.

We originally got 4 quotes for this job. The gas supply pipe also needed to be re-run as it was in 15mm and this is appaerently, while other companies were charging £250 for this alone, this company charged just £50 (it was only 2 meters and we actually supplied the copper pipe for this.

We paid just £750 for the whole work.

The quote was broken down like this:

Glowworm Betacom 24 HE Combi Boiler £395
Labour- boiler £290
Chemicals for hot and cold flush £20
Copper pipe 15mm and fittings £40
Labour- copper run from meter to boiler £50
Other- certificate, building control, balancing system, commissioning, all work to best practice.

Total £795.


This was around half of what other companies were charging.

When I quizzed the engineer who had been working with that company for around 8 years he told me that it was simple. They buy big and sell cheap. He said they got that particular boiler for around £320 including flue, timer and clock. It would be available to the average person for over £500 inc VAT. They also buy fittings cheaper than most companies and pass the savings on. He said most weeks they fitted between 40 and 70 boilers per week.

The cost some companies supposedly claim and actually have must differ greatly. This company said it relied soley on customer referals and word of mouth. Please be aware of companies that charge more than double what other companies charge and ask for a complete breakdown of costs.

A combi boiler swap should typically not cost you over £900 and thats if you want it re-sited!

If you are in the birmingham and surrounding area its possible to get a boiler swap for under £900 and thats with additional work included (including changing a washer on a shower head and tightening two taps and replacing one- although I did pay for the tap)


Quote 1 (accepted) £795
www newboiler co uk

Quote 2 (declined) £1790
heat247.co.uk

Quote 3 (declined) £1627
combidocheatingandgas.co.uk

Quote 4 (declined) £2400
British Gas


It just makes me so angry that plumbers can abuse the good nature or the vulnerability of customers, especially in the midlands. A friend of mine recently had her boiler serviced at a cost of £110 +VAT. I know its a good idea to do these kind of things but to pay that much?

Get as many quotes as you can and dont pay ANY money up front. If its a good, decent and reliable company that you get to work for you they wont ask for any money up front.

Always ask for an ID card and make sure you dont get someone illegal working in your house!

I know this website is about saving money so good luck to everyone.

RANT OVER.

Merry Christmas everybody and a Happy New Year.

Byeeeeeeeee!

I checked out their website, what I found is shocking to say the least. Their prices are actually about 50% more expensive than whatever I have seen so far. Example they are charging £1050 for a Worcester B 28i Junior whereas same boiler from www wholesaleheating co uk costs about £685. am I missing anything? shocking indeed !!!

snarffie

Bigjay wrote: »

I checked out their website, what I found is shocking to say the least. Their prices are actually about 50% more expensive than whatever I have seen so far. Example they are charging £1050 for a Worcester B 28i Junior whereas same boiler from www wholesaleheating co uk costs about £685. am I missing anything? shocking indeed !!!

I just checked that website and they are charging £849 for the 28i and not £685 as you suggest! :think: