Boiler kaputt, looking for advice

Sixense

Sixense

Sixense

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28 Aug 2014
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177
Location
Lancs
Righto, long story short, our Ideal Eco Esprit 24 finally died completely, no power to it, Water Heater fuse in the fusebox popped. Well okay then, turned it back on, changed the 13A fuses in the insane loop that we have for our boiler from previous houseowners, still no power, lights on the socket switches show that sockets themselves are actually getting power.

We had already called for an engineer to check why it stopped working around 2.5 year ago, we had to change the PCB as the old one apparently fried. This Ideal has been in the house since no idea what times, and the boiler installation spot (maybe including previous boilers, or this alone) has been moved at least twice (hence the insane loop, which is 3 different switches on walls where we can turn the boiler on/off).

Now, we thought if we have to put down another £250 for yet another PCB, plus the boiler was leaking slightly past few days (not counting the pressure dropping slightly past 6 months, had to top up the water every 3-10 days) (yes we know we should have serviced it annualy, dire financial situation, manure happens) we might as well get a new boiler installed, possibly move the spot from bathroom to kitchen or at least lift it 30 cm higher as I can't stand up from the throne without bumping my head every couple days.

I was wondering, have any of you been through anything similar, and how much did it cost you to install a new boiler (boiler and installation costs), what boilers to avoid if possible (can't say I want another Ideal, in the property we rented before buying this place there was an Ideal, heat exchanger gone holey).

I am located in Lancashire if that helps, any advice is welcome :) Also, feel free to call me an idiot for not servicing the boiler properly, lesson learnt :D
 
If it's a straight boiler swap (no need to re position it by much), it shouldn't be too bad.
I think good ones start at about £800-1000 not including fitting, but it'll depend in part on how big a boiler you need and if any additional works need to be done (new flue, larger gas pipe etc).

IIRC my parents had a new one for about 2.5k but that included moving the boiler to the other side of the house (which involved running a gas pipe a long way) and taking out the old hot water cylinder so was a fairly large job compared to putting a new one in a few inches from where the old one went.

If you are on certain benefits* or below a certain income level I think there are, or were schemes to help people move to more efficient/newer boilers which depending on income could help with either partial or full funding of the replacement (partly I suspect it's a cheat to help the government meet co2 targets in the same way all the energy companies used to send out low energy bulbs**).

From what you've described of the problem my gut reaction is you're probably got a leak that has shorted out something inside it.


*I think Pension Credit and higher rate ISA support/PIP were qualifiers among others.. **I still have dozens of them in the shed as my parents kept getting boxes of 4-6 every year from about 3 different energy companies for years.
 
We had a new boiler fitted last be year cost us around 3.3, we had it slightly moved (bigger unit) which required some new brick work and pipes being moved. The guys where done in a day.
 
Had a boiler fitted 6 months or so ago, same place but they tidied up all of pipework etc...cost me 2.2k all in, I had a quote from British gas who wanted 3.4k (that was after some discount!) To fit the same boiler and give us less warranty (10 years vs 5).

Get some quotes from local installers.

E: Took them just over 4 hours to take the old one out, fit and test the new one, even scrapped my old one for me.
 
We bought a house recently and there was no evidence the boiler had ever been serviced. The plumber took one look and said i haven't seen one of these in a few years :eek: It was a cheap Ariston one at the time and it was old. The previous owners did little maintenance to anything.

Its cracked, leaks, no insulation on outside pipes, has 0 bar of pressure, doesn't meet regulation as the flue venting isn't sufficient distance from the house, gas supply may not be sufficient pressure, water pressure is too high and the previous owners boxed everything in. They also had 2 young children as well :(

We are having a new boiler and the additional work carried out in the next 2 weeks. Looking at £3k-3.5k
 
we moved in to our place about 5 years ago now. the ancient boiler was in the master bedroom, for some weird reason.

We had it moved into the airing cupboard, got rid of the gravity fed hot water system, and went with an unvented tank, pressurized hot water system. The plumber said a combi boiler would have been ok, but i ready so many people complain about them, i thought id go for the extra. as its not something you can say "this is crap, can i swap it out a something else?"

I also split the upstairs and downstairs heating, which was quite easy to do in my house. I was all set to go with Vailant, but the plumber recommended the new Ideal logic plus range. I did my research (lots of it) and concluded that the "logic plus" (not the logic) was a fresh new design and was proving to be very good. It came with a 7 year warranty if serviced every year. I seem to remember the cost was about 5 grand, but it our case, money well spent, as the old system was awful.

Its been perfect (touches wood). programmable thermostats (the proper fitted ones rather than wireless ones) are proper handy and make heating the house very easy and having it split is great. The hot water is much better than with the gravity system.
 
Stretch said:
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Anything involving a gas safe engineer is a rip off imo.
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Yeah, aren't we silly for spending thousands on training, qualifications and regular reassessments then charging people the going rate for work :rolleyes:

Back to op, my mum had a new Viesmann fitted with 10 year warranty by a reputable local firm, including the running of a new gas supply from the meter to the bathroom for £2k. Viesmann generally a better boiler than Worcester these days.
 
panthro said:
Stop talking BS.

There are plenty of makes out there, WB and Vaillant are widely touted because they're the most marketed by companies like British Gas.

You should get at least 3 quotes for a new install and see what each one recommends.
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Was going to say we have a Vokera HE 35kw jobbie and its been solid for the last 6 years. Vokera engineers also carry enough bits to basically build a new boiler from spares in the van. I had a problem once where I got significant amounts of plaster dust into the flue and they came round and basically replaced the whole thing. Brilliant service so far and glad I inherited this Vokera.
 
Telecaster said:
Yeah, aren't we silly for spending thousands on training, qualifications and regular reassessments then charging people the going rate for work :rolleyes:
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I don't blame anyone for charging what they can get away with. It doesn't make it good value though.

Typical combi boiler is £700-900. A £2k install includes a hefty slice of labour.

People pay it because they assume boilers are expensive.

£2k is at the lower end of some of the prices I've been given. Some people want £3-4k
 
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I have an Ideal Logic 18 system boiler. Got it installed in December and the plumber who installed it (friend of my brother who's also a plumber) said they're his favourite brand at the moment. After all the issues they had with the Icos, they invested heavily in R&D and the new Logic and Vogue boilers are really well made and designed. Apparently on the rare occasions they do go wrong, they are very easy to work on. Also they have stainless steel heat exchangers, which have a much slower rate of corrosion vs the aluminium exchangers found in most WB and Vaillant.
 
For me, it was important that the expansion vessel in the combi was accessible from the front, so the entire boiler doesn't need to come off the wall should it break.
 
PiKe said:
For me, it was important that the expansion vessel in the combi was accessible from the front, so the entire boiler doesn't need to come off the wall should it break.
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Out if interest why do you think that it's the expansion vessel you'll have trouble with?
Something is always going to be behind something else, its always going to involve a bit of work getting to a certain part.
 
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