Condensing boilers "multi-billion-pound con-trick"

amcluesent

Did your central heating break down in the big freeze? Here's why...

The recent cold snap has revealed a major problem with condensing boilers. Tens of thousands of people found themselves shivering as their shiny new boilers cut out without warning. In cold weather, the pipe that takes waste water from the back of the condensing boiler — which isn’t there in a normal boiler — freezes solid, shutting down the system and in many cases causing permanent damage.

British Gas is understood to have had 60,000 call-outs in Yorkshire alone. And the cost to call out a plumber? It can be between £200 to £300 on a bank holiday. And don’t forget about VAT.

You might get 20 years out of one of the old ones, but it is more like three to six years out of one of these new ones. In fact, if it goes wrong after four years, you are better off replacing a condensing boiler altogether because of the horrendous cost of the parts.

So the message is clear: 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. Parts will be cheaper, it will be less likely to break down and there is no danger of it stalling on the coldest night of the year.

honeyD

We have one of these and have resorted to keeping the heating on low 24/7 just so it doesnt freeze up again. My husbnad has to go take apart the pipe outside and run hot water through it to melt the ice, then it goes inside the house pipe too so have to try and get that out. He got through 16 inches of ice last time. Its ridiculous, and all because the landlord didnt lag the pipe!

maryotuam

Oh how I wish we had our 25 year old bolier back! It never caused us any problems unlike the new combi which we were fooledi nto purchasing when upgrading our kitchen 6 years ago. My OH is a qualified fitter which saved us hundreds of pounds in repair bills when it froze last week. Apparantly these combis are only supposed to last 4-6 years before needing to be scrapped unlike the old ones which are repaired easily and don't have an outside waste pipe to freeze.

The lesson is DON'T TRUST WHAT ANY GOVERNMENT SAYS as they are often stupid or dishonest.

roddydogs

When I posted this some time ago, I was "Flayed" by a Gas fitter.

jcorbygas

OP - these are the exact reasons that we dissuade (or try to) our customers from changing their old reliable boilers to new combi condensing ones - but they are so brainwashed into thinking that they are going to save money that they go ahead and wish they hadnt -and then they get upset when their lovely new boiler needs replacing sometimes after 5 years, when their old one was happily carrying on when it was 25 years old or more.

alanobrien

They were sold to the public as more fuel efficient which is true. However, the real problem with them is the lack of reliability, durability, high maintanance need and cost.

It only takes a tiny leak on a typical pressurised condensing system to shut it down, by comparison and old unpressurised standard boiler was far more fault tolorant.

Then there's the "need" for power flushing a modern invention for making even more money out of the public.

When they talk about efficiency they seem to conveniently focus on running cost and leave out maintenance and replacement cost i.e. they ignore life cycle cost which is the real issue.

I am sure they will become more reliable over time but before that happens people will be forced to spend a lot more money maintaining and replacing units.

So becoming a Gas safe registered heating installer is probably a good career choice for the next 20 years

BaldPlumber

maryotuam wrote: »

Oh how I wish we had our 25 year old bolier back! It never caused us any problems unlike the new combi which we were fooledi nto purchasing when upgrading our kitchen 6 years ago. My OH is a qualified fitter which saved us hundreds of pounds in repair bills when it froze last week. Apparantly these combis are only supposed to last 4-6 years before needing to be scrapped unlike the old ones which are repaired easily and don't have an outside waste pipe to freeze.

The lesson is DON'T TRUST WHAT ANY GOVERNMENT SAYS as they are often stupid or dishonest.

If you don't mind me asking, who fooled you into this?

puddy

we moved here 18 months ago and it has a 'combi' boiler, something i didnt have in my last flat

is this the same as a condensing boiler?

amcluesent

>is this the same as a condensing boiler?<

Nope. Some combis also using a condensing 2nd heat exchanger, some didn't.

Norman_Castle

If your condense pipe freezes surely thats due to the pipe being to narrow or being poorly sited. Isn't that the fault of the installer?

iamcornholio

The simple answer to freezing condensate pipes, is to have them plumbed in internally

As for reliability, there is not actually much to go wrong with a boiler - its just a box, pump, valves and some electronics. However, as it is early days, there does seem to be some learning and design issues to be ironed out

Compare washing machines - similar few things to go wrong, and yet still very unreliable

Same I suppose with some cars, but these seem to be improving

Older boilers were to an extent "over designed" and had more resilient materials. Like many things today, manufacturers are designing things smaller, thinner and cheaper, so inevitably there is less tolerance when things go wrong or when things are used constantly. Admittedly, things should be designed to last and take abuse, but that is the way we are going with everything generally nowadays

Plumbers will tell you which makes/models are more reliable than others

My own boiler, and Ideal Isar, has a basic design flaw in that a common leak drips right onto the main circuit board and blows it. Why this board is not placed somewhere else or a 10p plastic shield is fitted above it, I don't know