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Tell me about boilers!

kabbes said:
£15 a year sounds cheap but I bet it’s a moneymaker. Most people forget they have this kind of cover so don’t use it, or it’s already covered anyway under a different insurance product or they don’t really need it etc. So it can be good value for the consumer and yet money making anyway. But honestly, home insurance is the one type of general insurance that I’ve never had anything to do with!
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Yep the first boiler blew and I needed to get it done and didn’t think about the policy as I was flapping. Bought a boiler and got it put in cost 2 grand. I retrospectively claimed and they paid up even despite the heating engineer doing it for cash off the books and me not having any receipt of payment for the 600 quid Labour

It must make the insurance companies loads because they don’t seem to put up much of a fight

It’s the only financial product win I think I’ve ever had
 
danski said:
They buy the boilers in bulk.
Our plumbers were complaining that they were stuck as BG had bought up all available stocks of the model they were fitting on site. Had to wait over a month before they could get any.
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I had to source one online and travel from Cornwall to Bracknell to pick it up.
 
MickiQ said:
I'd recommend BG Engineers to anyone,
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I wouldn't. BG changed the boiler at my parents house. Charged £80 for a £27 timer, similar for a thermostat and god knows what for the boiler. Those prices didn't include fitting as that was charged separately, then there was Vat on top of that. :eek:
 
WouldBe said:
I wouldn't. BG changed the boiler at my parents house. Charged £80 for a £27 timer, similar for a thermostat and god knows what for the boiler. Those prices didn't include fitting as that was charged separately, then there was Vat on top of that. :eek:
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What was the quality of the work? Were you unhappy with that or just feel you were stiffed on price?
 
steveseagull said:
I have a valiant Eco Tech Plus 824 boiler which I think was installed in 2005 Obviously that is pretty old and it is doing the hot water going cold after a couple of minutes trick. The radiators work fine.

Anyone know what this might be?

On getting a new one, I have a studio flat which consists of two rooms (living space and bathroom)

In the bathroom I have a shower and sink and a radiator. in the living area I have a large radiator and two small radiators plus hot water in the kitchen area.

So it is a small place with not many radiators. Anyone know what sort of boiler I should be going for and how much the cost and installation would be (roughly?)

Cheers
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We got a combi boiler of a similar vintage (a Vokera) replaced a few weeks ago. We live in a small 2-bed semi. It was doing exactly the same as yours so we called our long term plumber. He said that, it was fixable but, given its age, it was running less than efficiently and, given running and future maintenance costs, would likely be false economy in the long run. On average, our boilers have lasted for 10 years but we’ve run them into the ground for far longer. We decided to go for a smaller more compact and efficient model (Ideal) - supplied and fitted for £2k with a 7 year parts warranty. He’s quoted £80 for an annual service. No regrets so far.
 
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One thing I’d say is choose your boiler manufacturer and then use their website to search for accredited installers.

Installers who are trained and accredited by the manufacturer are usually allowed to offer longer warranties. For example our Worcester Bosch has a ten year warranty, but the default is only five.
 
So yeah. I have still not got this sorted but did some testing today. If I have the kitchen tap on with a fairly reduced flow (but enough to do the washing up etc) the hot water remains consistent. If I have the tap going at a fast flow it gets hot for a few minutes and then goes cool.

Would I have too much water going into the system and it is overwhelming it?

Looking back it started shortly after I had a burst bathroom tap pipe and I panicked and messed around with a load of stuff under the boiler in an attempt to stop the water, then found the main tap so maybe I fucked something up then?

Any ideas?
 
And then gets hot for a 2nd time? The reason is you first empty out the cold water in the pipe between the tap and the boiler, then the water from the heat exchanger which was already hot, then cool water because the boiler hasn't had time to fully heat the exchanger. Finally you get hot water because the boiler and exchanger are up to temp.
If you reduce the flow you buy time for the exchanger to get hot before you notice especially since the lower flow rate means water moves through the exchanger slower and thus picks up more heat.
 
It hasn't just started it's always done it, you've just started noticing it because you are paranoid something is wrong.
I have been in the same circumstances and convinced myself I have bust something I shouldn't have touched.
 
And yet a further edit if the water doesn't get hot for a 2nd time. Either your diverter valve is stuck or the flow sensor is faulty but they are inside the boiler where you can't get at them.
 
MickiQ said:
And then gets hot for a 2nd time? The reason is you first empty out the cold water in the pipe between the tap and the boiler, then the water from the heat exchanger which was already hot, then cool water because the boiler hasn't had time to fully heat the exchanger. Finally you get hot water because the boiler and exchanger are up to temp.
If you reduce the flow you buy time for the exchanger to get hot before you notice especially since the lower flow rate means water moves through the exchanger slower and thus picks up more heat.
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It gets hot then stays hot if the water flow out of the tap is fairly low. Turn the flow up and I get the hot/cold nonsense, it gets hot for a bit then goes cool.
 
steveseagull said:
It gets hot then stays hot if the water flow out of the tap is fairly low. Turn the flow up and I get the hot/cold nonsense, it gets hot for a bit then goes cool.
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If you run the flow up for a while it still doesn't get hot again? In which case I suspect your boiler isn't switching into hot water mode and you're just picking up heat from the CH side of things
You are going to need the services of someone suitably qualified to take a look at it.

Possible causes are flow sensor is faulty and the boiler isn't switching into high when the tap starts running, this is relatively easy and cheap to fix the plumber himself will cost you far more than the part.

Diverter valve is stuck it might be fixable but if it needs replacing they're notably more costly than sensors.

Worse case scenario is that the heat exchanger is dirty and needs removing and cleaning (more likely than replacing) however in this case you will probably need your CH system flushing as well and that is alas also expensive.
 
steveseagull said:
It gets hot then stays hot if the water flow out of the tap is fairly low. Turn the flow up and I get the hot/cold nonsense, it gets hot for a bit then goes cool.
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I had similar on a Glow-worm (which is just a different branded Vaillant). The diverter valve itself was fine, but the bit that turns the valve was made of some perishable material and had failed with the valve stuck halfway.

So if you turned on low and the CH was hot you'd get a decent run of hot water because it wasn't blending too much with the cold HW feed. The moment you turned it up, it went lukewarm (and eventually cold) because the two feeds were mixing. If the CH was cold, you just got freezing water all the time even though the boiler switched on. Very small and simple part to replace, but naturally you can only get said part by purchasing an entire new diverter valve.
 
Quoted £2,300+VAT for a baxi combi and installation with warranty, say it is a day's work.
Prices for a baxi are between £700-£1500 so almost £1k for labour??
Anyone had any recent experiences/quotes?
Thanks
 
ddraig said:
Quoted £2,300+VAT for a baxi combi and installation with warranty, say it is a day's work.
Prices for a baxi are between £700-£1500 so almost £1k for labour??
Anyone had any recent experiences/quotes?
Thanks
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Three boilers in the space of three months

One was 1900, I sourced and bought boiler and 600 quid Labour cash in hand for about four fucking hours work

Other two were 2400 each. Plumber supplied and fitted boilers hence the extra 500 quid tradies tax on the desperate

My sparky mate just did his whole house with solar panels for two and a half grand. Took him a day. If that was someone doing it for him they’d have charged quadruple

Just fucking thieving toe rags, who charge the same hourly rate as a KC in court/neurosurgeons
 
ddraig said:
Quoted £2,300+VAT for a baxi combi and installation with warranty, say it is a day's work.
Prices for a baxi are between £700-£1500 so almost £1k for labour??
Anyone had any recent experiences/quotes?
Thanks
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If you're changing from normal system boiler to a combi there's lots of labour involved to replumb. It'll be more than a day's work to change the piping (possibly about 3 to 4 days depending on your house/flat etc). But if you're doing combi to combi, not much work.

In the last few weeks we've changed from a normal system boiler to a combi and have had to pay for the replumb. We weighed the cost of that against lower utilities bills going forward for example hot water on demand rather than heating a tank.
 
Mini-bump ! Talk to me of boilers Combi, cesare mentions replumbing when changing a normal boiler for a combi, is this always the case ? And if so why is it necessary ?

When I last considered a combi boiler it was decades and houses ago, my impression at the time was that they weren't terribly good and although they heated the water there was a trade off between temperature and pressure so basically you had not much water and it was warm rather than hot. I'm hoping technology has improved ?
 
izz said:
Mini-bump ! Talk to me of boilers Combi, cesare mentions replumbing when changing a normal boiler for a combi, is this always the case ? And if so why is it necessary ?
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Yes. With a normal boiler there will be a 3 way valve in the pipes to send the hot water to the hot water cylinder. Neither of these are needed with a combi boiler. Depending on where the boiler will be you will also require new pipes to supply cold mains water to the boiler and also pipes from the boiler to the hot taps.
 
izz said:
Mini-bump ! Talk to me of boilers Combi, cesare mentions replumbing when changing a normal boiler for a combi, is this always the case ? And if so why is it necessary ?

When I last considered a combi boiler it was decades and houses ago, my impression at the time was that they weren't terribly good and although they heated the water there was a trade off between temperature and pressure so basically you had not much water and it was warm rather than hot. I'm hoping technology has improved ?
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WouldBe has explained the why re new plumbing.

As to the effect of a combi (and bearing in mind our home is on three stories), we have found:

1. The power shower is now on normal pressure instead of a pump. But the pressure is fine. Lower, but fine.

2. It's very useful having mains water at each tap.

3. The cold water pressure on the top floor has improved. The hot is about the same, maybe a bit lower. Hot pressure most noticeable in the bath on the top floor which takes longer to fill.

4. The hot water doesn't take long to run hot, and you only heat enough for whatever you're doing, none is stored.

5. The water is as hot as you want it tbh. We tend to alter the temperature upwards when having a bath.

We haven't had the heating on yet but we expect that to be improved as we factored in a complete overhaul as part of the boiler/plumbing changeover.

We haven't noticed any improvement to utilities bills yet but we haven't had a full post-changes quarter to compare it to yet.

Overall, we're very happy but it was a big job.
 
cesare said:
WouldBe has explained the why re new plumbing.

As to the effect of a combi (and bearing in mind our home is on three stories), we have found:

1. The power shower is now on normal pressure instead of a pump. But the pressure is fine. Lower, but fine.

2. It's very useful having mains water at each tap.

3. The cold water pressure on the top floor has improved. The hot is about the same, maybe a bit lower. Hot pressure most noticeable in the bath on the top floor which takes longer to fill.

4. The hot water doesn't take long to run hot, and you only heat enough for whatever you're doing, none is stored.

5. The water is as hot as you want it tbh. We tend to alter the temperature upwards when having a bath.

We haven't had the heating on yet but we expect that to be improved as we factored in a complete overhaul as part of the boiler/plumbing changeover.

We haven't noticed any improvement to utilities bills yet but we haven't had a full post-changes quarter to compare it to yet.

Overall, we're very happy but it was a big job.
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Super information cesare, and thank you for it 👍😊
 
Pressure happiness depends on whether you had a pump previously. Our mains pressure is... adequate for our needs and the boiler oversized enough to heat every mL of it. (combis tend to size on mains flow, which is well above what's needed for radiator heating) You'll probably want a thermostatic shower, unless you like boiling / freezing whenever someone plays with a tap.
 
So I need a new Combi boiler. My old one is on its last legs.

I’m getting sone quotes. Any advice, recommendations or gotchas please hive mind?

(Wanted a heat pump, but the British Association of Heat Pump installers says don’t fit an air source one if you are near the sea (we are 300 meters from the beach ) as the heat exchanger coils will corrode , I don’t trust the salesmen - all men- who say theirs won’t… and a I don’t have the money or inclination for getting boreholes for a ground source one.)
 
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