Adsibob Posted October 3 Share Posted October 3 My mum has a Vaillant EcoTec Pro 24 combi boiler, which has been serving a one bedroom one bathroom flat well over the past 10 years. There are two zones, one outputting to radiators and one outputting to UFH. She has serviced it almost every year - she thinks - she missed one annual service a few years ago. Recently, it had started to need replacement parts: Two months ago, the motherboard (I think it might be called a PCB) went and was replaced by a refurbished one. That cost about £150, plus a hefty call out charge plus a service charge which happened at the same time. Yesterday, the boiler lost pressure and stopped working and today the engineer who serviced it two months ago identified that the Pressure Release Valve was leaking and replaced that at a cost of £50 plus another hefty call-out charge. How does one identify the point at which it is no longer economical to keep an old boiler going? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 3 Share Posted October 3 (edited) Take out boiler cover . Around 500 a year ish but will ‘stretch’ the life of the boiler … Or - lease one which includes cover Edited October 3 by Pocster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted October 4 Author Share Posted October 4 20 hours ago, Pocster said: Around 500 a year That’s quite a lot. Does that include the annual service? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 4 Share Posted October 4 22 minutes ago, Adsibob said: That’s quite a lot. Does that include the annual service? Yep . And of course all parts and labour should it fail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpener Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 I wonder if the motherboard failure was caused by leaking water and the plumber did not spot the failing valve at the time. (We will never know.) On 03/10/2024 at 10:47, Adsibob said: How does one identify the point at which it is no longer economical to keep an old boiler going? Insurance cover is useful to give peace of mind for an AP, otherwise self-insure. Put the £500/year into a sinking fund. When the annual outgoings look like they will exceed the £500 it is time to get a new boiler. These things are warning messages, ignore at your peril. (When my previous car had a rear spring fail and I didn't get it back for a week I knew its days were numbered. The one before that also needed a rear suspension repair, the actual cost was only a few £100s but in both cases the hassle was considerable and I was mucked about by the (different) repairers. One of them also put 80 miles on the clock at my expense supposedly as a "test drive".) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 Firstly, what’s a hefty call-out fee? The PCB is usually a prime candidate at 10+ years with a combi, so nothing terrifying there. Why was a refurbished board fitted?! Usually not cost-effective tbh. The PRV started passing for a reason, so did they check the pre-charge pressure in the expansion tank when they replaced that part to be sure it’s not just put a band-aid on it? Any grants for a free boiler replacement in that area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 39 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said: Firstly, what’s a hefty call-out fee? An agent I have panicked and called out an official Worcester boiler engineer. He couldn’t fix the fault so just charged the call out fee of ….. £350 !!! Which is insane ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpener Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said: The PCB is usually a prime candidate at 10+ years with a combi, so nothing terrifying there. Why was a refurbished board fitted?! Usually not cost-effective tbh. Good for the environment! When I was doing consultancy work for Baxi they said the pcb was the first thing that got changed irrespective of symptoms. Also there was a perverse incentive to change them bc the service operation were rewarded for value of spares fitted. Nearly all of them were No Fault Found when tested back at the works but there was no mechanism to return them to service(!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bramco Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 1 hour ago, Pocster said: An agent I have panicked and called out an official Worcester boiler engineer. He couldn’t fix the fault so just charged the call out fee of ….. £350 !!! Which is insane ! There's a trick you can play with Worcester - or at least there was a while ago - you could take out a service contract which could be cancelled after 6 months and wasn't that expensive - certainly less than al the call outs, replacing random parts and never fixing the problem. The service contract meant that Worcester had to fix any fault and if they couldn't, I think they had to replace the boiler. We took one out on the boiler in a rental property that several local plumbers had tried to fix but had never succeeded in really getting the bottom of the problem. After a couple of Worcester visits on the service contract, it was finally sorted and we duly cancelled the contract at the end of the term. Simon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 3 hours ago, sharpener said: Good for the environment! When I was doing consultancy work for Baxi they said the pcb was the first thing that got changed irrespective of symptoms. Also there was a perverse incentive to change them bc the service operation were rewarded for value of spares fitted. Nearly all of them were No Fault Found when tested back at the works but there was no mechanism to return them to service(!) 9/10 it was the £2 relay that opened the gas valve, but even though I could go get one from Maplin I just couldn't take the risk of a secondary fault at (then) my expense for the same PCB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 4 hours ago, Pocster said: An agent I have panicked and called out an official Worcester boiler engineer. He couldn’t fix the fault so just charged the call out fee of ….. £350 !!! Which is insane ! I'd have told him to Go FHS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 14 Share Posted October 14 12 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said: I'd have told him to Go FHS Too late ! Agent called him; turned up - then I pay ! . This was ontop my 5k new boiler and flue job …. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpener Posted October 15 Share Posted October 15 (edited) 13 hours ago, Nickfromwales said: 9/10 it was the £2 relay that opened the gas valve, but even though I could go get one from Maplin I just couldn't take the risk of a secondary fault at (then) my expense for the same PCB. Funnily enough there was a recent thread about relays on the FB Heating Design page. Bought several from Maplin. Very handy source of all kinds of generic parts. RIP. Someone has bought the name now, they operate two near-identical web sites, one theirs, one Maplin. Recently bought a relay and some 230V LED panel indicators from them in various colours, all the orange ones blew up with a big flash, same for replacements. Whole batch had wrong dropper resistors inside. 0/10 for Quality Control. Avoid. Eventually they sent different yellow neons which I re-built in the LED cases to match the appearance. Nightmare. But I can finally see at a glance which valves on my HP system are open and why. Edited October 15 by sharpener 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted October 21 Author Share Posted October 21 On 14/10/2024 at 15:42, Pocster said: An agent I have panicked and called out an official Worcester boiler engineer. He couldn’t fix the fault so just charged the call out fee of ….. £350 !!! Which is insane ! Not that much. My guy charges £100 plus VAT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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