Time to replace boiler?

mikemaple

Our gas boiler is about 20 years old. A Baxi WM513RS which I have been told is 65% efficient. We live in a 1912 large brick and slate roof semi with three bedrooms. The radiators are of the same date. Our gas bill for the last 12 months was £750. Should we be replacing the boiler or should we keep it until it stops working? We would appreciate advice.

aboard_epsilon

it will still outlive the new fangled one you replace it with .

start looking at ebay and collecting spares for it..look for months ..and buy cheap

have them ready to replace by the plumber ..you may get it to outlive a new one by a factor of two.

a new condensing boiler will not save you any money if you have to replace it every 5 years at great cost ..and once you do replace there is no going back to the good old reliable ones of yesteryear

all the best.markj

leveller2911

mikemaple wrote: »

Our gas boiler is about 20 years old. A Baxi WM513RS which I have been told is 65% efficient.


Thats 65% efficient when it was new, its more like 50% now.We have a 20 yr old Baxi back boiler and they are so inefficient Its worth buying a new one every 5 years as we would still save money.Thruth is most new A rated boilers will last much longer than 5 years and you will always get duff products.

We are getting a friend to replace ours during the summer and he has suggested getting an Alfa boiler and getting one with larger capacity than we need as a boiler working at 80% of capacity should last longer than one working at its maximum..

Remember if its working at 50% efficiency your losing £50-00 straight up the chimney for every £100 you spend.....;)


I don't know anyone who has had to replace their boiler after just 5 years .........Like I said you can always get a duff product...

aboard_epsilon

I didn't realise it was one of those back boilers ..

you got some choices to make and it ain't going to be cheap if you go from your back boiler to a wall hung one .

as regards the lifespan of the condensing ones ..there is plenty of evidence in these forums that it ain't great .

from reading here ..some have lasted as little as 4 years ..

and if you look at the which report ..sept 09........something like 26 percent of the "best" on test broke down in the first 4 years ..with others scoring abysmally.

note the first column example vaillant ..26 percent of them experienced problems in the the four years of the test ...

a lot of the problems may have been just condensate pipe frozen..owner should be able to resolve this him/herself



from here
worth reading ..make sure you save it before its taken down

http://www.247services.co.uk/UltimateEditorInclude/UserFiles/PDF'S/Which%20Report.pdf

all the best.markj

Welsh_Totster

If it aint conking out then dont change it! In our last house we had an old 25+ year old boiler which did a great job, however we were rennovating the house (basically gutting it) and decided to replace it with a new fangled Baxi super duper condensing combi. We had it serviced every year on its anniversary and 5 years later just as we were about to complete on selling the house it conked out, 2 days before completion. We told the chap who was buying it that we had called our bopiler blokie out to fix it, and he basically couldnt do a thing with it, totally dead, 5 years old.

The house we bought and currently live in now just over a year ago has a 13 year old Ferroli combi boiler, we had a minor hiccup a few months ago and a part needed replacing at little cost and its running like a dream. Im not replacing it til it really does conk out. My advice, KEEP IT!

leveller2911

I'm not a heating engineer and happy to be corrected but if the OP 's gas bill is currently £750-00 per year from a boiler which is around 50% efficient then £375-00 is going up the flue where as an A rated boiler which is at least 90% efficient is only losing £100-00 per year so even if it did only last 4 years thats still a saving of £1,100-00.

It seems posters are basing their views on the asumption the new boiler will conk out, what if it doesn't?..My point is their current boiler won't get any more efficient it will just get worse each year..


Glad to see Alfa boilers aren't the worse ones........:D

aboard_epsilon

leveller2911 wrote: »

I'm not a heating engineer and happy to be corrected but if the OP 's gas bill is currently £750-00 per year from a boiler which is around 50% efficient then £375-00 is going up the flue where as an A rated boiler which is at least 90% efficient is only losing £100-00 per year so even if it did only last 4 years thats still a saving of £1,100-00.

It seems posters are basing their views on the asumption the new boiler will conk out, what if it doesn't?..My point is their current boiler won't get any more efficient it will just get worse each year..

my assumptions are based on other boilers ..not back boilers ..

bet you could get it back up to 65 percent if you stripped it cleaned it and descaled it ..

but that may be costly ..

its up to the OP

All I'm saying to him is do a lot of research ...and take out insurance / maintenance ..

which will be about £180 a year

so do your calculations on the fact that one of these boilers needs a insurance /maintenance plan as well

and a flush every so many years that can also cost extra ..plus a magnetic filter ..plus inhibitor ..

all the best.markj

leveller2911

Cracking Link Espilon cheers.......

keystone

You can't measure it by the cost. OP might be on the most expensive tariff from the most expensive supplier or the other end of the scale entirely. You have to measure it by usage and once you know your consumption you can work out the payback period for getting a new boiler and whether its actually worth it.

Average annual gas consumption is 20,500kWh. This translates into an average cost which is between £600 and £700 for most people.

Cheers

leveller2911

keystone wrote: »

You can't measure it by the cost. OP might be on the most expensive tariff from the most expensive supplier or the other end of the scale entirely. You have to measure it by usage and once you know your consumption you can work out the payback period for getting a new boiler and whether its actually worth it.

Average annual gas consumption is 20,500kWh. This translates into an average cost which is between £600 and £700 for most people.

Cheers

As long as the price of the OP's gas remains the same they can still measure the costs ratios.The cost savings can differ but the consumption can be measured.If the OP had 2 houses in different parts of the country ,on different tariffs and different boilers they can't be compared but if the price of gas remains the same it can at least me measured....


If like you say the average consumption is around £700-00 then they are losing around £350-00 a year compared to losing £70-00 on an A rated boiler. The % of efficiency remains the same....If they were on the most expensive tariff the costs savings in % terms would remain the same..Or have I got it wrong?

keystone

Actually you can't get a meaningful understanding of the implications of switching from one supplier to another by entering the price you pay into a price comparison engine.

You have to use your actual consumption.

The same applies here.

Cheers