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Replace or keep back boiler

2

Comments

  • ASavvyBuyer
    ASavvyBuyer Posts: 1,737 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 2 January 2019 at 8:55PM
    I would say keep it until it is uneconomical to repair. We had one in our old house, which had been installed when the house was built in the 60's and it was still working fine. Only repair I can recall was a replacement thermostat (less than £50 to get repaired, including labour).
    We added a wireless thermostat to control the pump for the central heating. That saved about 40% of our gas use during the winter months. Regarding the air vent in an outside wall, keep that open otherwise it can get very stuffy, but put a piece of furniture in front of it, so that you don't get a direct draft.

    New condensing boilers, may be more efficient, but have a reputation of being very unreliable. So what you save in efficiency, you pay for in a lot shorter lifetime and repairs.
  • markfj
    markfj Posts: 519 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary
    Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated.

    I'll do as suggested then and keep my back boiler, I am glad I asked as I was doubting myself as my brother in law was so adamant that it should go, and he's in the building trade. But I havent got several thousand spare and to be honest, it seems simple and works well so i'd rather leave it until it dies and then consider replacing

    Maybe If I was to chose to sell, i'd consider installing a combi but that wont be for a while yet, if ever.

    I will look at installing a wireless thermostat if I can, as I am sure it will be pricey to run otherwise, and at the moment theres 2 of us living there so we dont need all 3 bedrooms to be hot.

    Ive not looked but I believe theres a control panel at the bottom of the fireplace which can control the temperature to a point too which might help, as the water is stupidly hot when it comes out
  • gardner1
    gardner1 Posts: 3,154 Forumite
    edited 3 January 2019 at 12:44AM
    Keep it........parents house had one for 20 yrs before they passed away but it was serviced regularly and worked very well
    There is a thermostat dial and you can add TRV and room thermostat,yes you'll save money with a super duper new one being more efficient but it will cost you £2k plus
  • markfj
    markfj Posts: 519 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary
    Thanks, based on the feedback, i'll keep it
  • markfj
    markfj Posts: 519 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary
    Just looking at my house and back boiler today, I pulled the vent off down the bottom of my back boiler to find the dial , it's a baxi 401 if that makes any difference

    It was set to "high" which explains why the water was scolding hit now ��

    What do people tend to have there's on for general day to day? I've set on 1 for now but as I'm.not.living here yet can soon adjust accordingly , it will be some trial and error for me know think.

    Also, curious to those that answered and had or have back boilers I have an EP potteron 2000 control panel for it. I did briefly read the instructions but I wondered the general recommended settings for hot water would be as I've a chooicd of on for 24 hours, once a day, twice a day or off. And I'm not too sure what the norm is for example

    Thanks again
    Mark
  • C_Mababejive
    C_Mababejive Posts: 11,668 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    What model of firefront does it have? Is it the fabulous SP3 ??
    Feudal Britain needs land reform. 70% of the land is "owned" by 1 % of the population and at least 50% is unregistered (inherited by landed gentry). Thats why your slave box costs so much..
  • markfj
    markfj Posts: 519 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary
    edited 4 January 2019 at 10:04PM
    What model of firefront does it have? Is it the fabulous SP3 ??


    I have one of these lovely looking things I believe after a Google it's called the 552

    https://www.gumtree.com/p/heating-fireplaces/baxi-bermuda-back-boiler-gas-fire-salus-controller/1324947332

    That's not my ad, just looks like the same front though dial looks different location
  • I'd go for keep it too!!

    We moved here in 2005 and had a baxi SP back boiler which looked from the 70s..
    No room stat, just a clockwork timer in the kitchen, and a 1-5 dial on front of boiler... I upgraded the timer to an electronic one...
    I always had it set on 1, and the house was always warm enough in heavy winters..

    my gas DD was always round £40pm and annually I was often slightly in credit...
    my brother in law is a plumber and serviced it for us and basically said run it til it dies..
    over the ten years, aside from service, we just needed one thermocouple and that's it...

    In 2015 we had some PPI, so we decided to finally fork out for a combi..
    my BiL fitted it for us, and it was about £1500 all in..

    Since then my gas bill has not dropped at all, its gone up if anything due to rises, my DD is £45 and annually it still balances out, so it wasn't actually that inefficient really...
  • Mister_G
    Mister_G Posts: 1,945 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    markfj wrote: »
    Just looking at my house and back boiler today, I pulled the vent off down the bottom of my back boiler to find the dial , it's a baxi 401 if that makes any difference

    It was set to "high" which explains why the water was scolding hit now ��

    What do people tend to have there's on for general day to day? I've set on 1 for now but as I'm.not.living here yet can soon adjust accordingly , it will be some trial and error for me know think.

    Also, curious to those that answered and had or have back boilers I have an EP potteron 2000 control panel for it. I did briefly read the instructions but I wondered the general recommended settings for hot water would be as I've a chooicd of on for 24 hours, once a day, twice a day or off. And I'm not too sure what the norm is for example

    Thanks again
    Mark

    Yes, that's the same one as I've got (boiler and programmer, but different fire front). Installed in 1983 and still going strong!

    I normally set the temp dial to 4 in the winter and 3 in the summer. As we're home all day, the hot water is set for 8am to 10.30pm. The cylinder stat is set for 50deg C. The heating is set for 8am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 10.30pm.

    HTH
  • markfj
    markfj Posts: 519 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary
    Mister_G wrote: »
    Yes, that's the same one as I've got (boiler and programmer, but different fire front). Installed in 1983 and still going strong!

    I normally set the temp dial to 4 in the winter and 3 in the summer. As we're home all day, the hot water is set for 8am to 10.30pm. The cylinder stat is set for 50deg C. The heating is set for 8am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 10.30pm.

    HTH


    Hi, thanks for the info

    Out of interested is yours set to come on once a day, twice a day ? I have those couple of options and on for 24 hours, but as I'm not living there I've not played around with it too much yet
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