Old Back boiler questions

stator

Hi All,

I'm thinking of buying a house with a back boiler. I know they are expensive to replace but I have some questions about how you control them.

It looks like this:



Can anyone tell me how you control them?
Do they have a timer, so you set the times they come on/off?
Do they work with external thermostats?
Do you have to have the front fire turned on for the back boiler to work, or do the two operate independently?
Can you upgrade the controller to a modern digital type?

Thanks

bluelass

Back boilers are very costly to run. My advice would be either don't buy this house, get one with a modern boiler or see if the home owner is willing to take a drop in price so you can update to a modern boiler. I speak from experience because the first house I bought with my hubby had a baxi Bermuda. It was serviced by british gas every year then 8 years later it was condemmed and we had to have a condensing boiler fitted and the old fire ripped out too. This cost over £6000 taking into account we had to buy a new fire and obviously a surround too. Taking out the back boiler and fire and replacing with a new boiler took over a week. Then we had to buy a new fire and surround from a local fireplace shop so the replacement costs do mount up. Good luck but when we decided to sell up and buy another house we made sure it had a modern boiler and fire instead of having to go through the hassle again.

whippetowner

we have a back boiler


we have a timer switch in the kitchen to programme heating and hot water


we have a thermostat at the bottom of the stairs for heating temperatures


we rarely use the fire the heating and hot water operatate from timer switch in kitchen so yes they operate independently


hope that helps

dander

I used to have a back boiler - it worked just like any other heating system - timer switch, thermostat etc. Fire at the front completely indpendent of heating system.
I had it replaced eventually for a modern boiler though - it's not unusually expensive to do as long as you've got an outside wall available for the new boiler - I was surprised how little trouble it was for the installers to reroute pipe work into the new position and surprised how little damage there was left in the room where the back boiler was. I had all the radiators replaced with fresh ones at the same time and it was a good few years ago, so I can't really give you an idea on cost I'm afraid.

andrewf75

We used to have a Baxi bermuda and while we did have it changed as part of some major building work, I think they are thought of fairly highly. All boilers eventually fail so I don't think it should put you off the house. Obviously you bear it in mind as a future cost as with anything else on a house that is old/outdated/inefficient