New boiler

drbukar

Hi, i have a 12 year boiler that has never broken down and is working well except that i was recently quoted £450 to change some servicable parts....should i use the 450 towards a new boiler or just stick to what i have?

Lorian

Which model boiler and what parts and what fault

QrizB

I have a 20-year-old Worcester Bosch gas boiler that's never been serviced. Still works.

tacpot12

Well a new boiler will probably cost you £3000, but if you haggle, you should be able to get 12 years warranty, so you would be paying £2550 for peace of mind for 12 years.

I think I would change the boiler at 20 years old. If you get 20 years out of the next one, that's £150 a year, and I doubt you'll get three more years from the current boiler without having to spend a bit more money. It's quite finely balanced though.  

subjecttocontract

My Potterton boiler was fitted in 1989 and still going strong.
Modern boilers don't seem to last as long do they ?

QrizB

subjecttocontract said:

Modern boilers don't seem to last as long do they ?

Partly it's because modern boilers are more complicated and more fragile, in both cases to improve heat transfer and efficiency.

And partly it's survivor bias. 90%+ of the 1989 Pottertons have already been replaced, yours is an outlier. And there aren't any 35-year-old boilers from the 2000s yet  ...

FreeBear

tacpot12 said: Well a new boiler will probably cost you £3000, but if you haggle, you should be able to get 12 years warranty, so you would be paying £2550 for peace of mind for 12 years.

At the other end of the scale, a budget boiler can be had for around £600. If it is a straight swap without any issues, it might cost another £600 in labour. Downside is you'd only get one maybe two year warranty.

If replacing a gas boiler today, I'd be giving serious consideration to fitting a heat pump. The likes of Octopus have been giving out quotes that at times are less than what a decent gas boiler would cost.

subjecttocontract said:

My Potterton boiler was fitted in 1989 and still going strong.
Modern boilers don't seem to last as long do they ?

Some of those old Potterton boilers (the PowerMax in particular) suffer from some inherent defects, and if not serviced regularly, can be death traps.

I had an older Baxi Bermuda back boiler up until recently. Virtually nothing to go wrong with it. Found it increasingly difficult to find someone competent to service it, and even had an "at risk" notice issued once for a missing grommet around a thermocouple well (there was never a grommet there, and Baxi don't show one in the spares list).

Have now got a modern combi (Viessmann 050), and despite running it longer on cold days, I've actually reduced gas consumption. Down from around 4,000kWh to 2,400kWh.

jennifernil

We, 2 and 3 years back, replaced our 2 Potterton Neataheat boilers from 1988, both still working well, but pretty inefficient compared to modern ones.  

One had never had anything wrong with it, the other needed 1 small repair in that time.  Our CH man said to keep them going as long as possible.

However we decided to replace them while fitting a new gas boiler was still permitted, and to use less gas.  

We now have  Viessmann 50 heat only boilers with 12 year warranties,  and tado control systems, gas consumption has dropped by 35% 
We like the ease of controlling things without having to go to where the boilers are to switch things off and on, stairs are becoming more of a problem for us these days!

Mister_G

My LPG Baxi Bermuda back boiler was installed in 1983 and is still going strong.  I've only had to replace a gas valve and a thermocouple in all that time.  I know it's only 65% efficient, but any replacement would have to go elsewhere in the house and would require considerable replumbing.