Boiler Advice....

[alexbartman]

Hi

It looks as if my boiler is finally giving up the ghost....its 18 year old and the thieves at BG have just written to say they can no longe get parts for it. Whilst it take this warning with a pinch of salt I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I shoudl replace it anyway.

So...the current set up is traditional boiler - cold water tank in th loft and hot water cyliner in the Airing cupboard. I have jus finished two new bathrooms with pump-assisted mixer shower in one and nice Power Shower unit in the other - all the other plumbing is ver standard with the boiler feeding 10 radiators.

So now the question is - what is the most cost efficient way to replac the boiler?? I think I want to avoid a combi system as this wont b compatible with my lovely new showers (??). Anyone got any views o what to buy and where to buy it?????

Very grateful for any advic

-- alexbartman

[Paul Andrews]

BG told us that about 14 years back and we're still using the same boiler, regularly serviced by an independent contractor. I decided that if it wasn't broke we wouldn't fix it. If we had a parts problem we'd have gone for a replacement. It's not happened.

A couple of years after BG turned down our application for a maintenance plan, we had a new leteer saying why don't you put your CH on a maintenance plan. Having been invited, I applied again (after all the nice gas man would at least service the boiler before BG returned our money) and that resulted in a stroppy phone call taken by my wife which apparently implied some deceit on our part. it would have been a very interesting (but polite) call if I'd picked up the phone..

I'd keep with the existing boiler until it's truly broken.

We are now changing our boiler, but only because we're extending the house and moving from a back boiler to a wall-mounted kitchen one.

Paul

[Doctor Drivel]

A combi, well any mains pressure system, will not be compatible with only one of your showers. Your existing cylinder and tanks are probably old by now too, so a rethink is on the cards as you have a major expense and upheaval whether you like it or not. May as well do it all.

Replacing one shower mixer is no big thing. This removes the noisy and potentially troublesome shower pumps. Just because they are newish, doesn't mean you have to keep them. You are now in a position to reassess the whole system, so look objectively. I would consider a mains pressure system, that is if your mains supply can cope. You may be able to uprate the mains supply from the road to the house reasonably cheaply too, and well worth doing.

Then you have a choice of one box solutions, the cylinders and boilers all in one case, matched perfectly for efficiency by expert engineers, instead of some plumber mismatching a cheapo off-the-shelf cylinder: Potterton Powermax, Ideal Istor, Viessmann, Worcester Bosch Greenstar Highflow, Gledhill Gulfstream 2000; all floor mounted, and a wall mounted Alpha CD50.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Replacing header tanks and a storage cylinder is cheap and easy. Assuming they need replacing, which isn't certain anyway.

No - just throw them out and replace with an inferior system.

May. It's a big if. As all your advice. And likely to be very costly.

Good grief. They're designed to be installed by idiots for maximum profits. And you call yourself a heating engineer.

Well, that's how you may go about it, but others will hopefully do better.

Sounds like you've been through the specs again and are just quoting from adverts. Anyone with genuine experience is likely to recommend just one.

[Doctor Drivel]

I wonder if they gave him his proper dinner tonight.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really by now, John, you should realise that such poor snipping and constant repetition of the same phrase results in you losing your ISP account. Again.

What name will you come back with?

[Doctor Drivel]

This senile one is at it again.

When will the caber tossing idiot stop? Never I suppose idiots just keep going.

[Matt]

Dribble, yet more evidence you couldn't even spell professional let alone be one.

Notice how apart from the mention of 10 radiators and 2 bathrooms by the original poster there is absolutely no indication of the size and type of construction of the property. Your recommendations Dribble are therefore utterly worthless and if he is stupid enough to follow them it could leave the original poster with a seriously deficient system.

Just as a bit of a clue, taking as an example 10 radiators in the Stelrad Elite range running at 75/65/20 deg they could span the following outputs.

1900 w (10 x 450mm High x 400mm Wide P1's)

to

60330 w (10 x 700mm High x 3000mm Wide K2's)

To the original poster, more details of your existing boiler and radiators, together with type and size of your property are required before any specific suitable recommendation could be made.

[Doctor Drivel]