Is the gas front necessary for Baxi Bermuda SL3 backboiler?

ed110220

Hi all, does anyone familiar with a Baxi Bermuda SL3 back boiler know if it is possible to remove the gas fire front while leaving the boiler in operation?

My issue is that I use the back boiler as it fires my central heating and hot water, but rarely used the gas fire in front of it, which is ugly and sticks out into the room, getting in the way.

I don't know if the two things are physically one unit and obviously where gas is involved don't want anything unsafe. I would get someone qualified into remove it, if it seems possible.

moonpenny

Hi!, I have a Baxi Bermuda and have recently had a Combi Boiler fitted, so have done the opposite to what you want.

I have kept the actual fire but have had the back boiler "capped off" so would imagine it can be done the other way round though I am no expert.

rustyboy21

ed110220 wrote: »

Hi all, does anyone familiar with a Baxi Bermuda SL3 back boiler know if it is possible to remove the gas fire front while leaving the boiler in operation?

My issue is that I use the back boiler as it fires my central heating and hot water, but rarely used the gas fire in front of it, which is ugly and sticks out into the room, getting in the way.

I don't know if the two things are physically one unit and obviously where gas is involved don't want anything unsafe. I would get someone qualified into remove it, if it seems possible.

Unfortunately, you cannot take of the fire and still use the back boiler unit, they are not designed to work independantly I'm afraid.

The flue for the fire sits into the top of the boiler unit and then both of them use the same 5'' flue liner to exhaust all the harmful gases. If you were to take the fire away, you could not seal up the exhaust opening and you also need it open to give oxygen to make the flames for the boiler.

Poster #2 has an easier situation, as they want their fire but not the BBU. They have had the water pipes and CH pipes capped off, but the boiler is still in situ, so is using the port into the boiler and then the liner to get rid of fumes. This can be done safely

I know it's ugly ( The SL3 was one of the better looking, in fact ! ) but unless you swop to a wall mounted boiler and get rid of the BBU, you are stuck with it . You also cannot get any replacementfirefronts now either as they were finsihed off over 2 years ago.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Anyone who says it can be done, keep well away from, as they will kill you.

southcoastrgi

rustyboy is correct if you take the fire front off & use the boiler you WILL kill yourself

ed110220

That's a pity as I have no plans to replace the boiler at the moment. The engineer who looked at it when I bought the house advised me to keep it as he said they are very reliable and inexpensive to maintain.

After using little gas this last winter I thought there wouldn't be much point in investing in a new boiler as it would take a long time to repay the cost through reduced bills.

I still don't really understand why the boiler won't work without the gas fire and simply draw air in from the room and expel exhaust gases up the flue as it does now, just without the fire in front of it.

You can see my problem in the photos that the fireplace is already big (which I can live with) but the gas fire is in front of it rather than inside it, where you would expect it to be.

southcoastrgi

Please tell me that isn't the boiler I can see in that pic it's abit difficult to see on my phone

ed110220

No, that's a concrete firebox, the boiler is inside it, I have just removed the side panel of the fireplace for redecorating (I have not actually seen the boiler itself as I don't want to tinker with that).

Here's an identical firebox in another house with the fireplace and boiler removed:-

southcoastrgi

the fire is on front of the boiler with the flue spigot going from the back of the fire & into the boiler, if you remove the fire the boiler flue will be open to the room or the inside of the chimney & whenever you use the boiler fumes will pour out of the open spigot, please don't come back & say but what if i do this, the simple answer is you can't do it you will kill yourself, end of, if you really don't want the fire then you will need to get a new boiler..

Ben84

Although you can buy gas fires independently of boilers, the one you have is not an extra, it's part of the boiler. You're effectively asking why you can't run your boiler with the case off forever more, or why you can't make a replacement case for it even though it wouldn't be tested to work safely. The existing fire front is designed and well proved through testing to allow the correct amount of air to the boiler (at the right location) from the room when it's running (it also probably contains controls for lighting the pilot light?) and it's designed to withstand any heat the boiler generates, even during hours and hours of use on the coldest days. As others have also said, it does share a flue with the boiler too, so if you remove it you'll have a big hole in the boiler flue.

polybear

Don't worry about spares. Both me and my OH have Baxi Bermuda Gas Fires and Back Boilers; the OH has (had) a service contract with BG and they were forever saying that it should be replaced "....as you can't get spares anymore...."

So I contacted Baxi and asked. The man told me that they've sold so many over the years that the supply of spares for them was practically their pension fund....

And modern boilers may well be more efficient, but they do seem to break down far more often, with frightening repair bills too....

Brian

TimBuckTeeth

I would rip the whole lot out, the fireplace box that encloses the boiler takes up a lot of space and is ugly and the flue enclosure looks poorly constructed.