New boiler

fred246

The problem is that in the winter demand for plumbers is very high. So if enough people are willing to pay silly prices you can't get a boiler installation done for a reasonable price. Maybe summer is the time to get a good value installation? If you're boiler is getting old but is still working get some quotes in June rather than waiting for it to break down in December?

Ectophile

fred246 said:

How long does it take to fit a boiler? 4-6 hours. Can easily be done by one engineer in less than a day.
https://idealboilers.com/tips-and-advice/how-long-does-it-take-to-fit-a-boiler

From personal experience of seeing plumbers do it, two days.  4-6 hours is wishful thinking if you want it done properly.

Fitting the boiler may only take one day.  But there's the old boiler to decommission and remove.  Powerflush all the pipework.  Adapt the existing plumbing to match the new boiler, and install the new flue.  Only then you can move on to actually fitting the new boiler.

tim_p

Ectophile said:

fred246 said:

How long does it take to fit a boiler? 4-6 hours. Can easily be done by one engineer in less than a day.
https://idealboilers.com/tips-and-advice/how-long-does-it-take-to-fit-a-boiler

Fitting the boiler may only take one day.  But there's the old boiler to decommission and remove.

Also from personal experience, the old boiler (no, not the wife!) can be ripped out and looking sad on the drive in less than an hour!  We had a new boiler fitted in less than a day (total) which involved moving gas pipe, drilling a new flue hole through a wall, filling the old hole and tapping the condensate drain into the downpipe.  It was spread over two days but had they actually prepared for the installation by procuring the boiler ahead of time it would have been done in a day or less.  Two good workers can do it and it should come in at well under £2K. In my experience. 

Carrot007

fred246 said:

How long does it take to fit a boiler? 4-6 hours. Can easily be done by one engineer in less than a day.
https://idealboilers.com/tips-and-advice/how-long-does-it-take-to-fit-a-boiler

Fark I'm agreeing with Fred here. Somewhat!

I have mine changed and relocated a month or so back.

1 guy (yes not all engineers can do everything and that will put the price up, find someone competent). 8 hours on one day (hey it included a long time of drilling for the flue). And 30 mins the next as he did not bring enough pipe to take the condensate into the downpipe (so it worked fine that night anyway)(and yes it was late so unreasonable to not leave it till the next day since it was a minor point).

Or course instalations can be harder. But if it's a simple repalce in the same place than 6 hours seems very reasonable.

JohnB47

PawelK said:

Thanks both. What's TRV? The difference between these four and Ideal is that most come only with five years warranty and Ideal plus one more (I think glowworm) come with ten years.
Also, every engineer that was around stated this shouldn't take more than a day to complete the job. It's quite straight forward. I will ensure they will do power flush. Thanks again!

Careful. I've heard that some companies don't do powerflushing as it can cause problems ( presumably leaks). Chemical flush seems more gentle. I suggest you take advice on that.

Petriix

You should be paying around £800 for the boiler, £200 for additional parts and £600 labour. Anything more is just profiteering. Unfortunately, the economics of the market dictate that companies can and do charge more. You should look for a local independent installer who is happy to earn £300 per day.

PawelK

Well, this thread developed nicely but mostly about how long it takes to replace it. ;-)
However, mine is very straight forward as most of engineers said as no need to drill for flue and also despite living on first floor, we have a veranda just outside of the kitchen where the boiler is located, where they can get rid of the water and chemicals from flushing the radiators into the drainage down the external pipe. So definitely one day would be enough. But I am thinking now that I may as well take the risk and run this boiler for another winter and get fresh quotes in spring or summer.
Thanks all for your input.

smileguy

Hi there have you heard of this company https://www.boxt.co.uka friend used them for boiler replacement they did a good job.

fred246

What shocked me most was the behaviour of the plumbers. I wanted a boiler repair but exhausted the Yellow Pages. Every plumber was too busy to help. So I got the Yellow Pages and phoned up 3 plumbers and asked for a quote for a new boiler. I thought they might be too busy to quote so I asked 3 hoping at least one would come. A few minutes later I looked out of the window to see 3 vans with them arguing about who got there first. Plumbers will drop anything to do a boiler installation. It's so lucrative. So if you are waiting for a plumber to mend your boiler or a fit a shower and he can't make it because he has COVID or some other excuse, it could mean he has actually found a boiler to install instead.

macman

Decent RGI's don't need to advertise in Yellow Pages, they've got work enough in hand at this time of year.
'AAA Emergency Plumbers' and the like will of course come running...
PS: does anyone really still use YP? The last one I got delivered was only about 64pp...