Central Heating Question .

I posted the other day about having got a first quote for new CH .It was £2750 for an A Class Condensing Combi-make as yet unknown- ,6 Barlo Rads and TRV's and a digital timeswitch and room thermostat ....fitted to 15mm piping .

I got another quote today .For the boiler alone...a Worcester Bosch Greenstar Junior 28i,plus hall thermostat with the existing piping to be flushed .£1800 . I thought this a bit steep but maybe the flushing is expensive .

For the same boiler with 6 Purmo Rads, 6 Danfoss TRV's and 6 Chrome Valves and Timer Hall thermostat. To be piped in microbore . This is £3200

The first guy said they would not fit the boiler to the existing system in case of leaks in unknown places although he was sure other companies would do so .

Other than the connections to the manifold I know the only joins are where I soldered chrome tails to a new rad in the bathroom recently .and all the Rad valves are recently replaced .

Anyone got any helpful comments . Is fitting a new boiler to an existing (old) microbore setup likely to cause any real problems.

I also noted that the second company have in their T+C a para that says " allowance has been made in the price for any old fittings and materials and these will be removed by the contractor " . I'm not quite sure if that means that they are saying the price is lower because of the value of the old fittings or if it is higher because they need to dispose of it .? .He certainly said when he was here that they would take away the old boiler and rads . Unless they have any scrap value I'm happy with that but if I get the complete system I'd want the copper pipe and the copper cylinder as I know I can get something for that .

Stuart

"Stuart" wrote

Yes, because it can be time consuming if done properly, power flushing tends to be expensive (but plumbers inflate the price as well of course).

Depends on location of new boiler and amount of hassle associated. Don't know much about microbore, but traditionalists tend not to like it due to higher flow rates and associated noise.

If he is talking about converting the existing system from vented to sealed, then this is a possibility. Most here would say go sealed anyway and then look for/fix leaks.

If you have good access to all joints in the system then going sealed and re-using the old piping shouldn't be a huge issue. Just be prepared for extra cost if a drain down and leak fix operation is required.

In addition to the above, I would suggest that the condition of the system is all important. If it has been well maintained with inhibitor added etc and there is no history of serious sludge or blockage, then fitting a new boiler will be much less of a gamble.

This means that they expect to take away all scrap and cash in the copper. These will obviously be their standard terms. If you want them to do the job, say that their costs are a little high by comparison to other quotes, but you have more confidence in them and, if they will leave all copper scrap, you will accept their price.

Hanging on to the scrap copper work is useful because you can inspect the condition. I had some major(ish) re-work done this year and kept the scrap for examination. Showed up a significant partial blockage and led to a better understanding of issues with vented sytems.

HTH

Phil