What's a ballpark price for replacing a small combi?

[Chris Green]

Our rented flat in North London needs its gas combi boiler replaced. It's a two bedroom duplex flat so not tiny but not enormous.

What sort of price should one expect for replacing the boiler? (rememeber it's in London so will be more than most places I guess).

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

It happens that Chris Green formulated :

I would guess at £1800 to £2200.

[Chris Green]

I've just discovered the existing (failed) boiler is a Volkera Compact

25 so that tells us the size at least.

What's a recommended replacement?

[spuorgelgoog]

I don't know if the 25A would be a direct replacement.

In a flat, flueing may be more awkward to change so anything that will fit the same flue hole (or for elevated locations have a push-from-inside flue terminal) may be easier.

Owain

[Chris Green]

Thanks Owain, I'm *really* not at all knowledgeable about boilers and such. Looking at the picture from the above link it does look similar.

Given that the boiler is about £500, does a total of £2000 for installing it in place of an existing boiler seem reasonable?

Also are Vokera any good?

[spuorgelgoog]

Depends on the range and supplier / fitter, but the Vokera Vision boilers have a 7 year warranty from Mr Central Heating subject to conditions.

I think that's about as good as it gets, unless you can find something with a 10 year g'tee.

Owain

[spuorgelgoog]

I'd expect it to be a /bit/ less than that if it's a straight swap and the condensate drain, controls, etc are all already in place, and external ladder work isn't needed.

But then London prices ...

Owain

[RJH]

I've taken a look at mine (Ideal Logic combi), expecting it to fail some time soon.

A direct replacement doesn't look too difficult judging by the installation manual. Has anyone tried it, and left the commissioning and gas connection to somebody qualified?

And how much might the commissioning be?

[Brian Gaff]

Yeah most of it labour costs. grin. Brian

[GB]

I fitted one from scratch, on the promise that a local fitter would commission it. But, he was always too busy, and it was getting cold.

In the end, I connected it up and it ran okay. Next step, I had a standard landlord's gas safety check done. That checks for leaks and CO, but not efficiency.

That boiler (Vaillant) ran beautifully for the next ten years, until we replaced it during a major conversion.

Not enough to interest the fitter, apparently. I guess he's used to fitting a £500 boiler and charging £2k+ for the job. I suppose he didn't have the cheek to charge the £1k super-profit just for commissioning, so felt aggrieved.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Given it's about a day's work for a man and boy, what do you think?

Do you earn £1000+ a day?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I changed mine. From an old BE floor stander to a wall mounted system unit. Assuming you have decent plumbing skills, a simple enough job. And certainly well worth it cost wise. Not only do you save on the labour costs, but on the cost of the boiler too, since you can shop around.