Well I've been here 19 years now and the old girl was here when I bought the place so quite how old she is I don't know but I think she's gasping her last breaths. A tiny trickle of water on the bathroom floor a few days ago has gradually turned into a considerable puddle and much hissing and steaming whenever she's switched on as water leaks into the gas burner part and then out onto the floor. Can't see anything much externally with the covers removed and the pipework seems fine so I think the cast iron boiler has cracked or rusted through underneath. When she's switched off the leak stops too so it's probably a crack that opens up when it gets hot.
She's had two thermocouples in 19 years, never been serviced and not another thing has ever gone wrong. Probably because there's bugger all inside her to go wrong. Oh, tell a lie. I had to fit a new rubber tap washer to the steam vent valve a couple of years ago. My friendly local Plumb Centre couldn't be bothered to write out an invoice for it so they gave me two in case I needed a spare and said hang on to your money.
Looking at horror stories on here and in other places with modern boilers breaking down - printed circuit boards, fans etc I can't see there being a cat in hell's chance of getting that sort of reliability from anything modern. Not that I'm bothered about the long term because I'm selling the house as soon as humanly possible so the cheaper the fix the better. If I could find a replacement boiler section I bet she'd go another 20 plus years.
I hate combi's because I like baths rather than showers and can't be doing with a bath taking ten minutes to run. The house is a small 3 bed semi and the rated output of the RS50 is between 9 and 13 kW depending on the gas pressure according to the sticker inside it but nothing to say what the actual gas pressure is. I suppose something wall mounted would take up less space though.
If she'll last me through the cold weather I might even be so tight as to pull her apart and see if the crack can be welded but if not what's a good replacement boiler?
What's all this Corgi nonsense these days? Can you install a new boiler yourself and get some eejit with a certificate to check it over or have you got to pay vast sums of money for someone else to do it all? If you do it yourself how would anyone know in future?
-- Dave Baker