Should I replace my (possibly 20 y/o) Ideal Mexico 2 boiler with a modern combi?

pinkshoes

My boiler was fitted in 1981 and still works just fine so no plans to change it unless it dies!

We also have to have the heating on to have hot water and we don't even have a house thermostat!

Slinky

Is fitting an electric immersion heater in your HW tank an option?


We've got the same boiler as you in our new to us house built in the 1960s. Don't know how old it is, probably the second boiler. The plumber who serviced it said they go on for years and years and are generally a lot more reliable than the new boilers. He was trying to discourage my OH from replacing it!

teamgb

Replaced my 27 year old Ideal boiler and cylinder with an Intergas Xtreme Xclusive 36 Combi with a 10year guarantee this month at a cost of £2600. Price included a Magnaclean system and Honeywell T6R smart thermostat. It took the engineer two days work. He did comment that the Ideal was a very reliable boiler and he was amazed at how clean the system was.



My wife is happy to have instant hot water without having to think about heating the hot water cylinder.


Got the quote through OVO energy.

Igol

Back in 1981 my mother got a Baxi Bermuda fitted, about 10 years back I looked at getting it swapped out for a new boiler to save money. I worked out the payback time was about 20 years so decided to wait til it died and then it'd have to be done.

Problem is the boiler is pretty bomb proof and now I own the house with no plans to replace it.

cluelesscitizen

We already have an immersion heater. I have not used it in years though as it was fantastically expensive to run it.


Thanks for all the responses people

sebloak

My house had a back boiler that was fitted in 1967 and still worked, although it was noisy and starting to scale up. Since replacing 4 years ago with a combi the bills have reduced by about a third.

SuzieSue

If you've got an immersion heater, then I wouldn't replace your boiler until it becomes unrepairable as you will always have back up hot water. Just make sure that you have plenty of electric heaters in case it breaks down in winter.

I would just get some quotes now so that you are ready to instruct an installer when necessary.

I have a 22 year old Ideal Classic which everyone says is bomb proof so I am not going to replace it until it starts causing me problems (I haven't had any issues at all for the last 8 years). I have it serviced every 2 or 3 years.

SuzieSue

Also, I don't understand why the heating is coming on if the thermostat is set to zero. Are you sure that you don't have a fault?

ButtersUK

teamgb wrote: »

Replaced my 27 year old Ideal boiler and cylinder with an Intergas Xtreme Xclusive 36 Combi with a 10year guarantee this month at a cost of £2600. Price included a Magnaclean system and Honeywell T6R smart thermostat. It took the engineer two days work. He did comment that the Ideal was a very reliable boiler and he was amazed at how clean the system was.



My wife is happy to have instant hot water without having to think about heating the hot water cylinder.


Got the quote through OVO energy.

Regarding your reply which says that you fitted an Xtreme Xclusive 36 .... it might be a bit picky but you cant fit an Xtreme Xclusive ... you can fit an Xtreme or you can fit an Xclusive but an Xtreme Xclusive doesn't exist - they're different models.


I suspect you have an Xclusive judging by your reference to 10 yr warranty - the Xtreme has a 7 yr warranty. The Xtreme has an additional facility built in to it to recover what would otherwise be lost energy ... but whether it will recover enough energy to compensate for it's higher price and lower warranty is debatable.



If you happen to see this, can I ask how you're geting on with it? I'm looking closely at Intergas as we speak. In fact I just wrote to Intergas asking if they might contemplate increasing the Xtreme warranty to 10 yrs ... particularly given it's higher cost to buy.

ButtersUK

Following on from the above ...I also have an old Ideal Classic (23 yrs old) which still works, but won't last for ever. I also have a conventional HW cylinder etc.


I'm a bit concerned about the hot water side of the combi mentioned .... I would get 36kw and have superb cold water pressure and flow and have just had a 28mm gas supply fitted to the boiler site.


But remain concerned what happens during showering when another tap is opened elsewhere in the house. (I would fit a 22mm cold supply direct to the boiler, bypassing the 15mm rising main to the rest of the house and would also tee off the aforementioned 22mm supply off to feed the [two] Mira thermostatic shower mixers.)


My other concern is pressurising the existing microbore heating pipework feeding the (13) rads .... it's currently gravity (obviously) and I'm afraid I might create the odd leak in the microbore if I pressurise it.