Help! Refurb or replace old boiler!

CK2_Helen

Hi we have just bought a house and are doing it up right through ... the boiler is quite old the surveyor reported the following:

Heating
Central heating is provided by a Glow worm floor standing boiler in the hall cupboard.
The system was not operating at the time of inspection and no comment can be made on its effectiveness.
The boiler is an old unit and will therefore, require more frequent repair than a modern one. There may also be difficulty in obtaining spares.
The central heating pipes are laid within the concrete floor and unless these are properly protected against corrosion, they may suffer early failure and leak. Whilst no obvious signs of damp were found, regular checks of the pipework should be made.
The radiators are also dated which may affect the efficiency of the system.
Hot water is provided by an Elson tank located on the first floor. This will be an expensive form of providing hot water and you may wish to consider upgrading this.In view of our findings we recommend that you arrange for a local plumbing and heating contractor to carry out full operational tests in order to advise you of the efficiency of domestic plumbing and heating systems together with an assessment of the costs and any repairs, modifications or improvements.

Based on this we had a corgi registered man come in and he said to save money etc we could just refurbish the current boiler for around £200 ... obviously a lot cheaper than putting in a combi - however we are worried it is a false economy??

Can anyone advise if this is a sensible option and safe etc?! Any advice at all would be greatly welcomed!

Thanks

Helen

EnergyMan_3

Replace the boiler!!!

Even though the current boiler can be fixed, if it is very old it will be very in-efficient and cause high gas bills!

My advice would be to install a new A-rated energy efficient boiler. you will save money in the long run.

you never know when an old boiler will break down. you could get the current one fixed for £200 then 2 years later it breaks completely and is in-repairable. so you will be out of pocket £200 quid eventually!

If you had a combi you also being saving more money as the water will be heated as soon as you turn the tap, a lot more efficient than heating water and storing it in a hot water cylinder.

Cardew

All surveyor's reports tend to be 'pessimistic' as they need to cover themselves against any comebacks.

For the boiler, how old is 'old'? What is the efficiency?

It could make sense to carry on with it untill something serious goes wrong; £200 isn't a huge amount of money when you may be talking a couple of thousand pounds or more.

Personally I much prefer to have a Hot Water tank than a Combi.

There are many factors to consider.

Cost of new boiler and plumbing(loss of interest on capital) - with all the new regulations on flue/ventilation/drains fitting a new boiler these days involves a lot more than just the cost of a boiler.

I would certainly get some estimates - start with BG who will be the most expensive to give you an idea of what needs to be done, then get some Corgi fitters to give an estimate for the same amount of work.

Lots of experts believe you will be lucky to get 10 years from a new boiler as there is so much more to go wrong with all the electronics.

If you have a combi supplying direct HW(and no tank) you will need to modify plumbing.

Without knowing all of the factors certainly nobody here can make a firm recommendation, but just put up some points to consider.

MarkyMarkD

I think the arguments for replacing, rather than maintaining, old boilers are very weak indeed.

If your £200 spend gets you a few years' usage, that's better value than spending £2,000 on a new system which might last only 10 years.

Whilst newer boilers are more efficient, the actual cost saving resulting from the increased efficiency isn't going to be that great unless your bills are huge in the first place.

We have a 25 year old traditional boiler and our gas bills are under £500 per annum. In our previous house we had a 30+ year old back boiler and our gas consumption was even lower. Old boilers are actually significantly more reliable than more modern ones.

Canucklehead

Good morning: The OP has a duplicate thread running on Gas and Electricity as well as diynot ... http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=781037

HTH

Canucklehead

MarkyMarkD

Strangely, those companies operating service contracts find it very hard to obtain spares even when they are readily available from specialist suppliers.

One would almost think their engineers were incentivised to condemn central heating systems and to gain sales leads for the installation of new systems. :rolleyes:

Cardew

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Strangely, those companies operating service contracts find it very hard to obtain spares even when they are readily available from specialist suppliers.

One would almost think their engineers were incentivised to condemn central heating systems and to gain sales leads for the installation of new systems. :rolleyes:

I am certain this is the case; or to give them a ready made excuse for not repairing.

I was on the BG Homecare scheme and had a letter 'warning' me that they had been advised by the manufacturer they were no longer manufacturing parts for my Ideal Mexico - which is one of the easiest to find spare parts for.

The letter also contained a paragraph suggesting that I might like a Heating sales advisor to visit.

I was getting fed up with the ever increasing cost of the Homecare scheme so that provided me with the incentive to leave.

MarkyMarkD

Well done, Cardew.

We have a 25 year old boiler; our old house had one over 30 years old.

The 30 year old one never broke down. The 25 year old one has broken down 3 times and has cost under £70 to repair each time. The local central heating engineer has had no problem obtaining the thermocouples required each time.

Somehow I expect that BG would have claimed parts unavailability in both cases, had we had 3 star service cover from them.

We never have had any form of central heating cover - it is simply not good value.