Boiler

timeism0ney

Bought a house which is a bit of a project and in need of renovation, this will include installing new kitchen. Boiler which is in the kitchen was installed in 2010, Glow Worm 30cxi combination boiler. Nothing exciting but seems to work fine at the moment. Builder suggests to replace it as it won't last for much longer in his opinion. What do you think? Or where would you go to get advice on this? Thanks.

Alter_ego

Why change a boiler that's working fine?

need_an_answer

I wouldnt change it until you need to...plan your kitchen with it in situ its an expense that doesnt need to be justified at present unless you just want to change it for the sake of changing it.

Ecstatically most boilers look the same to a point....white and box like... 

AdrianC

Will the kitchen refurb include moving the boiler? If not, leave it alone for now.

Has there been any clue that it's about to curl its toes up, or is it just a case of "10yo Glowworm? Good luck, you'll need it..."

moneysavinghero

If your plumber told you that you needed a new roof would you get one?

another_casualty

I moved into my flat just over 3 years ago . I had the exact same boiler . Had many problems , and spent a fair bit until I got lucky with the affordable warmth scheme earlier this year , and now have a Worcester boiler . 

If you can afford to get a new boiler , I advise you to do so . 

I could go on, but I have had other threads about my woes in the in my home section about that boiler . 

The only problem I have about the Worcester boiler is that a cat never came with it 😼

Carrot007

timeism0ney said:

Bought a house which is a bit of a project and in need of renovation, this will include installing new kitchen. Boiler which is in the kitchen was installed in 2010, Glow Worm 30cxi combination boiler. Nothing exciting but seems to work fine at the moment. Builder suggests to replace it as it won't last for much longer in his opinion. What do you think? Or where would you go to get advice on this? Thanks.

Builder want the job? (or for people he knows?)

I moved to my house 5 years ago. The boiler has a sticker on it for some work in 2006 but I think it was fitted 2001 if I remember from the manual. It was drained and not in use as I think the people here though it did not work!

I refilled, tighened a few radiator joint (and added ptfe on two bleed valves). Has worked since. Yes it does lose water in the heating circut, though just out the emergency release pipe to outside (I checked with tissue on a dry day). And more recently it stops detecting hot water flow probably (like goes on and off repeatedly), but a reset fixes that.

Think it has managed fine! Unless you have a reason to change it, eg move it while refurb is occuring, then why bother. I would want mine moving if I replaced it which is why I have put it off as it would be a pain.

Jeepers_Creepers

A GlowWorm 30CXi?! That's a beaut! And yours is only 10 years old - you lucky, lucky b....

If it works fine, leave it until it packs up. When it packs up, get a local plumber to see how much it'll cost to fix. If you think it might pack up, take out a Homeserve-type warranty

Mine is 15 years old and has regularly gone wrong. Having said that, most of the faults were due to residual sludge in my old system which would block the P2P exchanger (which I can now pick up for around £30 and swap in 30 minutes...)

We were lucky a few years back when I took out a HS warranty which was on special offer - the boiler dutifully packed in and the guy pretty much replaced the whole innards. It recently went faulty again - a leak - so I called on the Vaillant fixed-price repair. This time, however, by the time they'd tallied up the total cost of all the parts they felt they should replace (including currently working parts) they deemed my 15-year ol' beauty 'beyond economic repair'. 

I got the parts on eBay and swapped them myself - so it's still going strong.

Bottom line, if it works ok, then why swap it? It'll likely go on for a few more years. When it does go faulty, get a local reputable guy out to tell you what's wrong (unless you can work it out for yourself) and then make a judgement on having it fixed or replacing it. I was given a local quote of only £1400 for a new Ideal.

greatcrested

need_an_answer said:

Ecstatically most boilers look the same to a point....white and box like... 

I know different people get turned on by different things, but..... boilers.....?!

timeism0ney

@AdrianC It's the latter, there are no specific signs of failure, the builder just thinks that a lifetime of a boiler is about 10-15 years so it's easier to change it now and not have to worry about it then having to come back to it when you don't expect it. So I wonder - is there a way to validate this? Would a gas check identify issues, if there are some? Does it make sense to get some sort of boiler specialist to look into it (but then again, can I trust them lol?) 

One thing I noticed is the timer is off showing 1am when it's 6pm and I couldn't find a way to change it. I'm ok working around that and doing a bit of maths to put the correct program in, but it's probably worth checking that the timer is consistently off by a certain number of hours rather than off in some random unpredictable way every day.

No plans to move the location of the boiler, it's in the corner in a 'cupboard' so I might just hold off with replacing it. If it can last for another 2-3 years it would make my life a lot easier actually from financial point of view.

davidmcn

If the boiler works then it doesn't need sorting. It could have years of life left in it, I don't see that it's remotely money-saving to replace it for no reason.

If you want to find out how to change the time on the timer then I'm sure you can find advice on that elsewhere - or just turn the power off for 7 hours!