Should I replace my 30 year old boiler?

MWT

spot1034 wrote: »

As I said in another thread earlier, my boiler is 30 years old this year (Glow Worm) and my plumber who services it every year has told me many of the parts which might fail are in fact still available. I intend to keep it until I have a problem and then I will be guided by him as to whether a repair is worthwhile. He is a reliable tradesman with many regular customers who give him quite enough work to keep him going without trying to persuade people to have things done which aren't necessary.

Totally reasonable approach.


My comment above simply relates to not depending on one of the many insurance based schemes to cover the cost of fixing a 30 year old boiler as they all have get-out clauses.


Doesn't mean they are not fixable or not worth fixing, just expect to pay what it costs at the time and don't trust an insurance service to do much other than wash their hands of it...

FreeBear

spot1034 wrote: »

my boiler is 30 years old this year (Glow Worm) and my plumber who services it every year has told me many of the parts which might fail are in fact still available.

I've got a Baxi back boiler here and had a similar discussion with the engineer at the last service. There are very few parts in there, and about the only thing that might be difficult to replace would be the heat exchanger - A quick look on the internet found a couple of sources.
His recommendation - Whilst it is still working, no point in replacing. The added cost of plumbing, gas pipes, electrical, and flue would make it very expensive, and the saving on gas would be minimal. I might save £100 per year (at current gas prices).

Streaky_Bacon

I bought a house which had a boiler (can't remember the make) that was roughly 30 years old. I had it for 5 years without a problem. I then decided that rather than wait for it to fail, I would replace it with an Ideal combi boiler.

It had two failed parts in the first three years. All dealt with, under warranty, very efficiently by Ideal.

It has four more years to run on the warranty, and it certainly won't be running for another 30.

GarethSutherland

Thanks for all the replies!

It seems like the best approach is to keep my current boiler and, instead of paying for boiler cover (that may turn out to be useless), find a reliable plumber / engineer.

Should it break down then I get said plumber to give me a quote then decide between repairing or replacing.

The downside is I'll be without hot water for a period of time, but I'll get maximum use out of my current boiler.

Edit: Just read some threads about 24/7 Home Rescue. So many unhappy customers!

MWT

Streaky_Bacon wrote: »

I bought a house which had a boiler (can't remember the make) that was roughly 30 years old. I had it for 5 years without a problem. I then decided that rather than wait for it to fail, I would replace it with an Ideal combi boiler.

It had two failed parts in the first three years. All dealt with, under warranty, very efficiently by Ideal.

It has four more years to run on the warranty, and it certainly won't be running for another 30.

I get the feeling that getting 30 years out of the older boilers was a lot easier than getting 10 years out of the new ones...

matelodave

It will probably cost you at least £2k to replace the boiler which would take around 10 or more years to recover on efficiency.grounds You'd also probably have a fair amount of disruption as it would have to be replaced with a condensing boiler and probably additional controls.A boiler of that age probably has very few parts all of which are probably quite cheap so I'd put what ever it costs for insurance into a piggy bank in anticipation of having to pay for it to be fixed or towards a new one. As others have said a shiny new boiler is unlikely to last even 10 years without at least one or two faults, so keep the one you've got for as long as you can