Back Boiler Casing

gemnjam

Hi all,

My husband and I are currently looking to buy a property and 1 which we are interested in has a back boiler in it. Unfortunately it has a horrid 1970s style gas fire front to it and it seems that replacement fronts for existing boilers are something which is not common anymore so we would hope to replace the boiler. However, as we are investing a lot of money in actually buying the place we may not have funds for a new boiler straight away so I was wondering if it would be possible to cover the front part.

What i was thinking was to use a well aerated radiator cover which would be affixed in such a way that it could be easily removed for purposes such as servicing. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of this and knew whether this would be OK. My dad (a retired plumbing & heating engineer) seems to think it would be fine so long as there were plenty of air holes etc in the radiator cover picked for this use but I was just wondering if anyone could verify this?

Cheers

Canucklehead

gemnjam wrote: »

Hi all,

My husband and I are currently looking to buy a property and 1 which we are interested in has a back boiler in it. Unfortunately it has a horrid 1970s style gas fire front to it and it seems that replacement fronts for existing boilers are something which is not common anymore so we would hope to replace the boiler. However, as we are investing a lot of money in actually buying the place we may not have funds for a new boiler straight away so I was wondering if it would be possible to cover the front part.

What i was thinking was to use a well aerated radiator cover which would be affixed in such a way that it could be easily removed for purposes such as servicing. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of this and knew whether this would be OK. My dad (a retired plumbing & heating engineer) seems to think it would be fine so long as there were plenty of air holes etc in the radiator cover picked for this use but I was just wondering if anyone could verify this?

Cheers

Good afternoon: no....how long has your dad been retired?

Canucklehead

gemnjam

Thanks for answering. Could you (or someone else) please elaborate a bit more as to why not? I thought I'd read elsewhere that this was a no-no and that my dad was wrong but I don't really understand why.

Thanks

Owain_Moneysaver

Absolutely not.

These back boilers depend on free access to the room for combustion ventilation. There is a minimum clear space to all sides and front of the boiler and fire to ensure both adequate ventilation and distance from combustible materials.

You can still get replacement firefronts for some of these boilers - see

Canucklehead

gemnjam wrote: »

Thanks for answering. Could you (or someone else) please elaborate a bit more as to why not? I thought I'd read elsewhere that this was a no-no and that my dad was wrong but I don't really understand why.

Thanks

Good evening: perhaps you saw this thread from 2007.

Canucklehead