To replace a 20 year old boiler, or not?

krishing

bearing in mind the comments so far, i'd say only get a new boiler if your existing one konks out or gets very temperamental. in one way i still can't believe such a short life expectancy of new ones, but yes, consider the intricacy of new ones compared with the simplicity of a back boiler, add modern day obselecence and 7-10 years could be your lot.
regards
krishing

longforgotten

I've got an Ideal Mexico Super 2 boiler using LPG, it has to be about 20 years old. It has a dial on the boiler itself from 1 to 6, works off a timer. No thermostat within the house and no thermostat valves on the rads. Someone is home all day. I have it serviced annually.

Now it works well. On the few occasions I have turned the dial up the rads blast out heat so I'm well impressed. My question is what is the cheapest way to keep the home warm. Turn the dial down and keep more rads on, keep the rads on for longer at the lower level.... also does anyone know what the settings on the dial equate to eg. is 2 twice the heat of 1. Don't suppose for one minute it is but you get what I mean.

It's so hard to tell off the gauge on the tank. Could test it for a couple of days to find it's cost a bomb !

Would be very grateful for any advice.

mysterons

I have the same Ideal Mexico boiler around 16 years old also on LPG. As I have a wood burner I only ever use the boiler when it's absolutely unavoidable as it costs a fortune in LPG.
This is my experience from a time when I relied on the c/h as the main source of heat. Note that I use cylinders as opposed to a bulk tank but if say I ran the heating for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening with the dial at 1 then I'd use a full 47kg bottle (which I believe equates to 90 something litres in LPG) within 5 days. 10 litres per day then at whatever rate you're being ripped off at for part time heating. Not good is it?
However for the number of occasions I use the boiler it's certainly not going to be worth paying for a new combi.
LPG is horrendously expensive and prices are currently spiralling upwards, up 25% since early December.

macman

longforgotten wrote: »

I've got an Ideal Mexico Super 2 boiler using LPG, it has to be about 20 years old. It has a dial on the boiler itself from 1 to 6, works off a timer. No thermostat within the house and no thermostat valves on the rads. Someone is home all day. I have it serviced annually.

Now it works well. On the few occasions I have turned the dial up the rads blast out heat so I'm well impressed. My question is what is the cheapest way to keep the home warm. Turn the dial down and keep more rads on, keep the rads on for longer at the lower level.... also does anyone know what the settings on the dial equate to eg. is 2 twice the heat of 1. Don't suppose for one minute it is but you get what I mean.

It's so hard to tell off the gauge on the tank. Could test it for a couple of days to find it's cost a bomb !

Would be very grateful for any advice.

The longer your boiler is burning and the higher your TRV's are set, the more it will cost you in LPG.

Cardew

Likewise a Ideal Mexico super boiler 22 years old - not on LPG though!

According to the manual,(which I still have) Setting 1 = 54C, 2 = 60C, 3 = 66C, 4 = 71C, 5 = 77C 6 = 82C.

Personally in winter I always have it set to 5 or 6 as it warms the house quicker after switching on. This is recommended in the manual. Some people get concerned about very hot radiators with young children in the house.

In summer when used for DHW(Domestic Hot Water) it recommends setting 1 or 2.

In practice there is very little difference in efficiency between running older boilers at a high or low temperature.

longforgotten

In practice there is very little difference in efficiency between running older boilers at a high or low temperature.

I've always been too chicken to have the dial switched to 5 or 6. You mention 'efficiency', but surely it must cost more to run the boiler at a higher heat ? I may give it a go for week and check the readings, thanks Cardew. But Cardew do you keep it on 5or6 all day even after its warmed up?

I do wish I had thermostatic radiator valves. When I asked a plumber about them he said they can be more trouble than they're worth, also someone is home all day so can turn heat on and off when needed.

At present we are using about 120 litres of lpg a week.

spinningsheep

Whenever the guy comes to service our boiler once a year he always comments how "they don't make em like this anymore". Nothing really to go wrong on it! Many of my friends over this recent baltic cold spell have had broken down heating and no hot water due to frozen condensate pipes, no problem for me Until the boiler literally dies, my landlady will not even look at replacing it, and why should she? She won't benefit from any gas savings so no incentive to replace it sooner than is absolutelty needed. And I am dubious as to how much gas I would actually save in reality, I have seen some posters on here say how their gas consumption has actually gone up since investing in a new boiler

Cardew

longforgotten wrote: »

I've always been too chicken to have the dial switched to 5 or 6. You mention 'efficiency', but surely it must cost more to run the boiler at a higher heat ? I may give it a go for week and check the readings, thanks Cardew. But Cardew do you keep it on 5or6 all day even after its warmed up?

Yes I keep it on 6 all winter. (as is recommended)

Why would it cost more to run the boiler at a higher heat?

Your running costs are determined by the heat loss of your property. If it loses, say, 10kWh an hour then your boiler has to supply 10kWh an hour.

Supplying very hot water at 82C warms the house quicker and the radiators remain warmer for longer; cooler water takes longer to heat the house etc - it is swings and roundabouts.

If you were heating the house with electricity you could have 10 x 1kW heaters running for an hour to produce the 10kWh required, or 10 x 2kW heaters running for 30 minutes to produce the same 10kWh - swings and roundabouts.

I did check with the manufacturer many years ago and the engineer said that the boiler efficiency was marginally higher with hotter water, but there is no confirmation of this in the manual. Except of course it recommends setting it to 5 or 6 for the winter.

longforgotten

Cardew thank you so much for your advice, very much appreciated. :j:j

Wish I had the manual but the boiler was put in when Dad was alive, and I think he must have taken the manual with him.....

SD-253

Must admit I replaced a Baxi which I was reliable informed by retired gas engineer and others would last forever but was very inefficient. My new one is much more efficiently it is 2 years old and just occasionally gets hump on and makes a load of noise. It always clears up but I am wondering if it is the lack of use. In the winter I use it 2 hours a day. (Put a wood burner in fire place and get free wood for the moment so do not needed it on that much). It get much more use in very cold weather as it is in the attic and it will only allow the temperature to drop so far BUT it only comes on for short bursts. I am just back from 10 days in Spain and it was very noisy at first BUT it must have been running quite regularly as it was very cold. Cannot figure it out. I have not had any servicing nor do I intend on doing so for at least another year. Would I be guessing right that the noise could just be air in the pipes note all the noise comes from boiler not the pipes?? JB
PS got a grant or may not have changed