Need a new boiler

Ayahuasca · 16 Nov 2021 at 10:11

The 11 year old Worcester has popped its clogs over the weekend. Need a new boiler to supply 14 radiators and two full bathrooms. Looking at the Baxi Platinum 40 atm and it was recommended by the gas fitter who came out to have a look at the old one. Any others I should be looking at around the same output?

koolpc · 16 Nov 2021 at 10:15

Usually best to go with what your regular Gas / heating guy recommends as he has probably seen them all!

Jez · 16 Nov 2021 at 10:56

I'd get a 2nd opinion into what is actually wrong with the old one first, 11 years old seems rather young to be uneconomical to repair?

Simon42 · 16 Nov 2021 at 11:04

I had to keep a 30+ year old boiler going until house renovations meant a new location was ready and managed to get several major spares without issue.

Newer boilers aren't designed for such a long life but even so as per the comment above I would want to know why its deemed beyond repair at just 11 years.

robfosters · 16 Nov 2021 at 11:06

Jez said:
I'd get a 2nd opinion into what is actually wrong with the old one first, 11 years old seems rather young to be uneconomical to repair?

Our valiant went after 11 years and had to be replaced

Ayahuasca · 16 Nov 2021 at 11:50

Jez said:
I'd get a 2nd opinion into what is actually wrong with the old one first, 11 years old seems rather young to be uneconomical to repair?

Sorry, should have said in the OP it's been looked over by someone else. Both deemed the repair cost to be £4-500 and I'd rather not pay that on an 11 year old boiler for it to potentially go again in 2-4 years time.

a1ex2001 · 16 Nov 2021 at 19:30

Ayahuasca said:
Sorry, should have said in the OP it's been looked over by someone else. Both deemed the repair cost to be £4-500 and I'd rather not pay that on an 11 year old boiler for it to potentially go again in 2-4 years time.

Have you considered something like the British Gas fix for free option? They will
Come out and fix it in exchange for you signing up to home-care for a year will bring the cost of your repair down to £300. Personally I’d fix your boiler anyway but I hat throwing stuff away when it can be mended.

Dalandius · 16 Nov 2021 at 20:02

From what I've seen anything over 7 years in now consider "old" for a boiler.

glenimp617 · 16 Nov 2021 at 20:16

Yeah, they say these new boilers last around 13 years so you're not too far away. Can understand you wanting a new one rather than pay £500 in repairs.

The british gas thing might be worth considering, especially if you can get a good deal through quidco or black friday. Heard mixed reviews about them though.

also, check iheat.co.uk supposed to be brilliant

dl8860 · 16 Nov 2021 at 20:19

I did that British Gas fix thing and then moved house 6 months later. They let me out of the fixed period and were happy just to cancel it and even refunded me what I'd paid after having moved out as I only called them up about 2 months after we sold up.

Mind you that's about the only positive story I have about British Gas after having been with them for 3.5 years and I have plenty negative.

norm · 16 Nov 2021 at 21:38

Ayahuasca said:
Sorry, should have said in the OP it's been looked over by someone else. Both deemed the repair cost to be £4-500 and I'd rather not pay that on an 11 year old boiler for it to potentially go again in 2-4 years time.

What was the fault out of interest?

Maybe you could source the part yourself and get another plumber to fit if it's cheaper.

Thebug · 17 Nov 2021 at 05:51

Try and ring Worcester bosch if you haven’t already, as most manufacturers do a fixed price repair usually around £275

IvanDobskey · 17 Nov 2021 at 07:39

Just don't buy a vailant. Ours has been nothing but trouble since moving in. Half of its parts have been replaced now. It's only about six years old too. My cheapo ravenheat at my old house was trouble free for seventeen years before dying.

IvanDobskey · 17 Nov 2021 at 07:43

Thebug said:
Try and ring Worcester bosch if you haven’t already, as most manufacturers do a fixed price repair usually around £275

This definitely. I phoned vailant and signed up for a six month service plan at £50 a month. They carried out well over £700 worth of repairs before the plan ran out.

Ayahuasca · 17 Nov 2021 at 08:52

We're definitely going down the new boiler route as we want something a bit more powerful. The WB is a 28kw and doesn't heat a couple of the radiators at the other end of the house upstairs very well.

Just looking at makes and specific models to avoid for the most part.

Simon42 · 17 Nov 2021 at 09:18

Ayahuasca said:
We're definitely going down the new boiler route as we want something a bit more powerful. The WB is a 28kw and doesn't heat a couple of the radiators at the other end of the house upstairs very well

That's often a flow/balance/pump issue than boiler output. We have a 30kw running 18 rads and a hot water cylinder for 3 bathrooms and in our case I calculated 26kw max. However I did have our entire central heating pipework redone to my own layout because we previously had poor flow to several radiators down to having too many rads off smaller (15mm) pipes, only 22mm primaries and a poor CH pipework layout generally due to house extensions.

My revised layout is 28mm primaries from the boiler split to 22mm HW and CH zone per floor. On each floor the 22mm CH pipes split to 22mm again with separate runs towards the front and rear of the house. These finally drop down to 15mm for the last leg but only for 1 to 3 rads max depending on size.

Before the upgrade our system had its pump running on max speed and failed to heat everywhere (and the boiler wasn't maxed out), but now we're running a new but similar spec pump on medium speed and have hot rads everywhere and even low speed works fine.

Ayahuasca · 17 Nov 2021 at 09:21

I mean time will tell but redoing the pipework isn't an option, if a more powerful boiler doesn't improve it then we can look into getting it addressed at some point.

Simon42 · 17 Nov 2021 at 10:01

Ayahuasca said:
I mean time will tell but redoing the pipework isn't an option, if a more powerful boiler doesn't improve it then we can look into getting it addressed at some point.

If your current system is well balanced, rads bled/not gunked up and your current boiler isn't running continuously and failing to heat all rads then the issue isn't the boiler. A more powerful pump could also help if pipework is part of the issue and even in my house a few minor pipework modifications would have made a big difference.

It's worth looking into the other causes before committing to a larger boiler as the cost saving could go elsewhere such as the pump (unless incorporated in the boiler), a power flush if needed, new rad etc.

Ayahuasca · 17 Nov 2021 at 10:16

Simon42 said:
cost saving could go elsewhere such as the pump (unless incorporated in the boiler), a power flush if needed, new rad etc.

The Baxi we're looking at is a fair price and as far as I'm aware has a pump incorporated. The radiators are relatively new and were checked over not long back but we will be getting a power flush done in the process. The three who've looked at it so far have said whoever fitted the filter to the current system put it on the wrong side i.e. not on the return :/

ahar · 17 Nov 2021 at 11:51

Ayahuasca said:
The 11 year old Worcester has popped its clogs over the weekend. Need a new boiler to supply 14 radiators and two full bathrooms. Looking at the Baxi Platinum 40 atm and it was recommended by the gas fitter who came out to have a look at the old one. Any others I should be looking at around the same output?

A Gas boiler? You climate killer. Limit your search to heat pumps immediately and say 'I love Greta' 100 times while hugging a tree for penance.

(On a more serious note, I've always been told by every fitter I've asked that Worcester tend to be reliable. We had a Valiant and it was great, however I've mostly had no-name cheapies and they've done the job fine. They've needed a bit more maintenance over time, but more than made up for in the lower purchase price).