Really old boiler...not sure if I can get spares

captainhindsight_2

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

It is not covered by the warranty, the loan term and the warranty are at odds. The product is clearly inferior if the lifespan of the product is only a warranted 5 years.



Most GD has a 5 year, but the repayment term is 10+ years...... So if your boiler breaks at year 6 its warranty will be worthless and even though you have to pay for repairs or a replacement boiler yourself you will still be paying for the loan for the non-functioning product each month and will have no protection. Then there's the fact that the MTBF is about 10 years at best so you will need to pay for a whole new boiler yourself at 10 years.

Fake Nigerian scams and the Green deal have a lot in common, entice the stupid victim into paying a relatively small amount of money upfront as an 'arrangement fee' in exchange for the promise of a much bigger [non-existent] payoff later. GOV promise a big lump of [non-existent] money if you pay a non-refundable 'arrangement fee' first. The £100-£150 green deal assessment paid by over 200,000 poor sods is the 'arrangement fee', this has already led to £25 mi££ion being pick-pocketed from the general public, very few [about 5%] have got any return and have lost their £100-£150.

Are you mad? What are you on about.

If you get a decent boiler and an approved installer typical warrants are 7-10 years.

And what has green deal finance got anything to do with what I mentioned?

And while we are are the subject seeing as you have bought it up your comments about the green deal are complete rubbish see this link

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/376601/Monthly_Statistical_Release_-_Green_Deal_and_ECO_in_GB_20_Nov_FINAL.pdf

As you can see almost 400,000 assessments carried out and almost 1,000,000 measures installed under the green deal scheme. I will let you do the math.

This is typical on Mse, ill informed comments about something you know nothing about.

teabelly

Loose pipe work can cause noise. Might just be a pipe clip that is missing.

Also check the pump speed. Pump is probably a grundfos one for gravity fed installations.

If it is a back boiler style then it is probably about 50% efficient. For this reason I'd think about replacing it.

Lots of energy companies have one off offers to replace boilers or scrappage schemes. Worth looking into those. You'll need somewhere to have the condensate drain and if it is indoors you won't get the freezing up problems.

TheLookingGlass

Hi all, thanks for your input. My boiler is going strong so far

Just a few points:

-I really have no idea how old it is. I said 15-20 years but it may be 30 or even 40 years old...I've got no idea how to tell.

-I'm going to have a good look around the noisy pump, secure any loose pipes and probably put some insulation around the pump. I'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work then I'll just get the pump changed; I'll get a couple more quotes because the initial quote is quite high, as mentioned in the thread.

-I'm hoping to do some conversion work in the house next year (add another bathroom, etc.) and will look at getting larger diameter pipes put in place behind the new wall (which I've been told a combi boiler would need? If I replace it with a traditional boiler then maybe not?), just so that if the boiler does give out and can't be repaired, the new pipes are already in place .

-Richie, you mentioned uk-plumbing.com for spares..I'll give them a call but I spoke to gas-spares.co.uk, and they said that the [FONT=&quot]electrode, gas valve, pilot assembly and overheat thermostat[/FONT] are now all obsolete...so I'm not sure about that!

-captainhindsight, you mentioned boiler scrappage schemes, please can you point me in the right direction. I don't quality for boilergrants.org.uk. According to another site I might be able to get £400 off, minus a fee...so maybe £200 off. I can't find anywhere that is £1000-£1500 like you mentioned.

Thanks everyone

captainhindsight_2

TheLookingGlass wrote: »

captainhindsight, you mentioned boiler scrappage schemes, please can you point me in the right direction. I don't quality for boilergrants.org.uk. According to another site I might be able to get £400 off, minus a fee...so maybe £200 off. I can't find anywhere that is £1000-£1500 like you mentioned.

It is a cashback scheme, and is called the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund Vs 2.

This should have been released/opened last month but still waiting....

TheLookingGlass

Thanks I'll keep a lookout.

HUMBUG

TheLookingGlass wrote: »

Hi all,

I've just bought my first home

The boiler is working fine but it is really old, 15-20 years maybe, I really don't know.

It's a "Triancogas 30/40s" and spare parts seem to be almost non-existent. I've seen the ignitor on one website but that's it. I had a plumber come and have a look today and he's never heard of the manufacturer!

Here's my predicament -

Next to the water tank is a pump which is pretty noisy and sometimes resonates into the pipes, making it even noisier around the house.

To replace the pump is about £200, but there's a valve next to it which should probably be changed at the same time, so adds another £120 roughly. And if I add another valve at that point it apparently gives much better control over the hot water. So total for all three would be £440.

But then...if the boiler breaks down and I can't get spares, all those parts are redundant and would go in the bin! And then I'd have to spend around £2000 on a combi boiler install.

What do you think I should do?

A friend suggested I just get the pump changed and forget about the rest. My sister suggested boiler insurance cover but I don't know if they'll cover a boiler this old? And if they do and it breaks down and they can't get spares, what happens?

Thanks for your help,

Jeremy

There is a Trianco.co.uk website so maybe its worth you contacting them for advice. My old boiler lasted 40 years but when I got it serviced this month there were lots of new checks and rules the Gas Safe engineers must abide with. It obviously failed some of these checks and he closed it down (was without heating and hot water for 2 weeks while I got quotes for a new boiler). I budgeted for 1.5k awhile back just in case a new boiler was required but the cost has now escalated to over 3.3k because of new building regulation compliance issues . This involved a new Glow-worm condensing boiler, Hot Water Cylinder, Hot Water Thermostat, New 3 port valve, mandatory powerflushing, sealed vessel and pressure monitoring kit, inhibitor, New Programmer, drilling big hole through wall for new Flue position to meet building regulation rules, new Fernox TF1 clean device to capture ferrous/non-ferrous debris getting into boiler heat exchanger. So the costs do escalate and will probably get even more expensive if more new building regulations get created (which they do all the time- money making racket). I was also lucky that my kitchen unit partitions were not too close to the boiler (hidden under the kitchen unit cupboards ) and met all the mandatory clearance rules that might invalidate the warranty on the new boiler.

Note that many old boilers also contain friable asbestos and I suspect there will be future health and safety issues that Gas engineers may decide is too risky for them to service the boiler. When my old boiler was being dismantled, the asbestos cement around the flue just crumbled and fell apart when the engineer slightly touched it (this is very dangerous indeed). A new 3 port valve cost me £113 quid but beware that there will normally be lots of surprising problems that may emerge when new installs are done. If something can go wrong, believe me when I say they will go wrong.

Forgot to add that I was lucky that my Gas meter was only about 6 ft from the boiler and this meant little impact on the gas pressure drop . So new 22mm gas pipes were not required - saved me £300. But if your gas meter is a distance away , many new boilers require specific gas pressure to work . So you may have to pay a fair whack to get new gas pipes installed from meter to new boiler.

Best of luck in your new home.