Combi boiler 'scaled up'

ferry · 11 May 2011 at 10:47AM

Any combi boiler specialists on board?
After an annual servce by British Gas we're told there is is scaling in the system and this will require a de-scaling flush through..at a cost of around £700...
We're not expriencing any side effects (like water running hot then cold back to hot etc) but was wondering what your thoughts were on carrying out this work and the of course the price quoted..

Is this work essential?

Cheers as usual
F

manda1205 · 11 May 2011 at 12:11PM

We've had big probs with limescale in our boiler. We live in a very hard water area so when the boiler was fitted they put in a de-scaleing "thing" (its on the pipe as it enters the house, we have an external boiler). Fast forward about 18mnths and we have bother with hot water, running slower then eventually nothing, still had heating though. Worcester came out and said the heat exchanger was toatlly scaled up, he showed me the part and the end where the water came out was more than half full of scale. He said theyd replace the part under guarantee the first time, but second time its up to us as he says we need a water softner. He says the de-scalers they fit are rubbish and dont do no where near enough. Not once did he mention you could flush the system to remove scale, so have no idea if it can be done or not, but sounds fishy to me, especially for £700! To replace the heat exchanger will cost about £200 by worcester, but a softener will be around £400-£500, so we'd rather spend money on a softener than keep forking out for an exchanger every 18mnths. If you have no probs with your water then personally I wouldnt bother. Im sure someone more knowledgeable will be around to help you soon, but thought Id just say what I knew.