Advice on costs of converting conventional boiler to combi

rayudu

Last year we moved into this house(Edinburgh, Scotland), it had 25 years old Potterton suprema conventional boiler and it broke yesterday. The boiler is not firing, and one gas engineer told me it might be fan or aps problem. He estimated around £400, i thought it will be time to move onto combi boiler.

My house has 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, 7 radiators, we might extend in future, that might contain extra bedroom and bathroom.

Today i got a quote of £3100 for Worcester bosch greenstar 30i with following works

• Standard chemical flush
• CO alarm installed
• Flue re cored higher and boiler raised due to larger size
• Old boiler, cylinder, tanks & rubbish removed and disposed off
• Wireless programmable room stat installed
• Magnetic filter installed
• Condensate taken to kitchen sink
• Gas upgraded if necessary to provide sufficient gas pressure
• All water put on to the mains
• Joiner & painter included for any remedial work.!!

Is it reasonable or expensive?

neilmcl

It looks expensive for basically just the boiler, I paid less for a WB Greenstar CDI and 4 new rads plus TRVs and towel rail a number of years back. I suppose it is Edinburgh.

Is this a family home? Is a combi really suitable for you?

rayudu

Yes it is a family home, we liked the idea of instant hot water, need not bother about the setting the timers for hot waters. Do you have any recommendation to replace existing conventional boiler?

In future if we extend we want to have electric shower in the new bathroom.

Browntoa

I've had a combination boiler , if more than one tap was on then the water was never boiling at both taps .

I'd always have a system boiler and a hot water tank like a megaflo for ample hot water everywhere . The megaflo also has a standard immersion heater so if the boiler is faulty you still have hot water

rayudu

That's good advice, it changed my thinking. My requirement is to replace existing boiler, looks like cheapest option might be like by like replacement.

I don't know if anything exist in the market which allows me to wireless control the setting of hot water intervals in a conventional boiler instead of sticking to the same time intervals in a day?

neilmcl

As mentioned, combis are great if you live alone or in a flat/apartment but one of their biggest disadvantages is their inability to meet a high demand for hot water which is what you actually need in a family home with children etc. Imagine what it'll be like in the morning when you've multiple people drawing water at the same time.

neilmcl

rayudu wrote: »

I don't know if anything exist in the market which allows me to wireless control the setting of hot water intervals in a conventional boiler instead of sticking to the same time intervals in a day?

Hot water or central heating? Not sure why you'd need to wirelessly control the hot water in a conventional system but if you're thinking that smart controls only work with combi boilers then think again, there are many that work with either combi or conventional systems.

https://wiser.draytoncontrols.co.uk/

Browntoa

I have a Drayton controller , seperate multiple programs can be added for times of day and days of the week for the heating AND hot water, so seperated weekend times etc.

I could have had a nest timer but decided it wasn't worth it for the Extra money

macman

Unless the tank needs replacing, then you are needlessly spending money to rip out the tank and plumbing to switch to a combi.
Your RGI sounds utterly clueless. He hasn't actually diagnosed the fault, but is nevertheless able to quote you £400 for repairing it? How does that work? Find someone who knows their way round a Potterton. There are many still running after 25 years, as they are built like tanks.
PS: last time I had a fan replaced on a boiler (about 3 years ago), it was about £130.

bris

Nearly everyone of those I have fixed was the PCB, they are pretty notorious for going. There is a new version of this PCB now which irons out the old ones problems. It is however worth fixing if it is in decent condition everywhere else.


Only one I ever ripped out was due to corrosion, if there is no corrosion have it fixed, get a few quotes though or maybe even phone potterton and see if they will do a fixed price repair on it, if they still fix them that is.

rayudu

In potterson website they have One-off repair option

" A single, fixed price repair on your boiler, carried out by one of our expert Baxi engineers from £335.88 one off

Includes:

Engineer call-out, parts, labour and VAT. If we can't fix your boiler, we'll only charge a £90 inspection fee and refund the rest of your payment"