Is it economic to replace a heat exchanger in 12 year old baxi boiler?

silvercar

Very noisy boiler and hot water not reaching upstairs and only luke warm. Gas safe guy tells me it is the heat exchanger and the whole system could do with a power flush. More than likely the heat exchanger has failed due to limescale build up and age etc and to replace the heat exchanger would be uneconomic. 
Is this true? Or am I being fed a line? The gas guy was recommended to me, but I've not used him before.

Jeepers_Creepers

The main heat exchanger (now often called a 'heat engine'...) will almost certainly be the most expensive part of your boiler.

Just how costly will come down to the model, but expect many £undreds. And replacing it will be labour-intensive, and could cause other parts/connections to leak due to the boiler being 12 years old.

So, if the diagnosis is correct, then I guess your plumber is correct in what he says; this will cost £500 upwards, with another £200 (est) for the powerflush.

At 12 years old, your boiler is probably going to be developing other faults too over the coming few years, before finally going kaput.

What type of boiler is it - combi? Conventional? System? A power-flush will be a standard part of a new install anyway, so in theory this should sort your issues.

If the diagnosis is correct, then I'd personally be looking at a new boiler.

If you have some plumbing competence, you could try installing a magnetic filter and adding system cleaning chemicals and see if you can slowly restore your system yourself? It might get it to a level where it'll go on for another 2 or 3 years, and then you replace it!

Jeepers_Creepers

Check out 'fixed price boiler repairs'. BUT look out for the main exchanger being an exception, or issues caused by 'sludge' - they might refuse to do the job (and still charge you a call-out fee...)