Lynford Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 Evening all, I’ve got British Gas coming round tomorrow to quote me for a new boiler (getting them to quote first as a ballpark figure as I assume they’ll be expensive, then I’ll get local firms in to compare) We currently have a boiler that heats the hot water and stores it in a tank with an immersion heater in it, and are looking to have a Combi fitted. Is there anything in particular I need to look out for ? ie should the system be flushed, power or chemical ? Should there be a filter inline ? Anything else I should ask or be aware of ? Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexphd1 Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 have a large glass of whisky ready for when you receive your quote!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nod Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 We had a service contract with BG Very good value for service and repair But after several years they started a relentless hard sell ans told us the boiler needed to be replaced ASAP They quoted for a power flush prior to replacing our boiler £900 That was ten years ago Our boiler is running fine and has only had the pump replaced since they said it was knackered It will be interesting to hear there quote Make sure you are sat down when they give it to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nod Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 4 hours ago, nod said: We had a service contract with BG Very good value for service and repair But after several years they started a relentless hard sell ans told us the boiler needed to be replaced ASAP They quoted for a power flush prior to replacing our boiler £900 That was ten years ago Our boiler is running fine and has only had the pump relaxed since they said it was knackered It will be interesting to hear there quote Make sure you are sat down when they give it to you Forgot to say They also insisted we have a magna filter fitted £500 plus. £70 to buy 20 minute fit with all the system drained down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 My experience of fitting a new boiler to an old system is that a magnaclean is not in any way optional. Despite our old system being power flushed for a couple of hours or so before the new boiler was commissioned, and being filled with fernox, the magnaclean always picks up some black iron oxide when I clean it every year. Best £80 and a couple of hours spent fitting it I've ever spent, I reckon. Every time I get the boiler serviced the service bloke reckons they save more boiler problems than any other thing you can fit, and I tend to believe him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexphd1 Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 Worst thing to tell a independent company quote that you have already had a quote from BG.... Magnetic filter are a must. If you can DIY stick on filter before boiler change. Not a fan off power flushing, often mis sold (usually a sticky TRV) to customer. Depending on job repipe often not much more expensive than power flush (i still own a power flushing machine) A lot of boilers come with a 10 year warranty now but you may need to keep your service book (benchmark book) up to date for any warranty work at a later date. Every plumber has their own opinion on a good boiler but hard to go wrong with worcester bosch or vaillant (manufacturer) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 1 hour ago, Lynford said: Evening all, I’ve got British Gas coming round tomorrow to quote me for a new boiler (getting them to quote first as a ballpark figure as I assume they’ll be expensive, then I’ll get local firms in to compare) We currently have a boiler that heats the hot water and stores it in a tank with an immersion heater in it, and are looking to have a Combi fitted. Is there anything in particular I need to look out for ? ie should the system be flushed, power or chemical ? Should there be a filter inline ? Anything else I should ask or be aware of ? Cheers ! Why the change to a combi ..?? First thing to check is water pressure and flow. That will give you an idea if you have a site suitable for combi. How many showers / baths..?? Are you expecting the installer to change the system to a pressurised system ..? How old are the rads..? I would hazard a guess that the BG quote for new WB 30kw or similar combi with a power flush, tank removal and sealed system conversion will be shy of £6k installed. They will insist on power flush and probably replacing all the TRVs. If your controls aren’t up to date then you will probably get £500 added for that... Get the whiskey bottle ready..! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 We changed an old (c. 1986) gas system boiler (so old it still has a cast iron boiler) for a Vaillant Ecotec 831 combi. Made a heck of a difference to our gas bill; reduced it by around 30%. Getting rid of the cold water tank and F&E tanks in the loft, plus the hot water cylinder was a bonus, as was being able to get rid of the old electric shower and fit a proper thermostatic shower (there wasn't enough head to run a shower off the system boiler, it being bungalow, so there was barely a metre or so head above the shower). We have around 4 to 5 bar of water pressure, but the incoming main is only 15mm, as is all the internal pipework. Despite this we get a pretty decent 10 to 11 litres/minute of water at around 38 deg C from the shower, which is a hell of a lot better than the 3 to 4 litres/minute that an electric shower can manage. Add in that we gained a large cupboard where the old cylinder used to sit, and that, once we solved an odd installation related problem the system has been very reliable. The power wash removed a colossal amount of crud from the system, literally bucket loads of sludge. We took the opportunity to replace all the rad valves with TRVs during the time the system was drained down (it was a two day job, so I replaced all the rad valves in the evening after the guys had gone home). I also supplied and installed the Magnaclean in the return pipe, again whilst they had the system drained down. IIRC, we paid around £2k in 2008 for the boiler change and powerflush, including removal of all the old tanks, pipework, etc, and the new pipework needed to convert the whole house plumbing system so that it was all running at mains water pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hecateh Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 18 years ago when I moved into this house BG quoted me £6k for a central heating system (The house didn't have central heating and had brown bakelite and 3 pin sockets so modernization was definitely in order). Can't fully remember what the actual cost was but it was definitely between 1 and 2k - for all the heating system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynford Posted September 1, 2018 Author Share Posted September 1, 2018 Thanks all. Changing to a combi partly to stop heating water we never use (while still having a good supply of hot water available) Also we have a shower pump right near our bedroom and it’s bloody noisy. A combi should see the end of this. The existing boiler is very old, and while we have the money to change it I’d like to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynford Posted September 1, 2018 Author Share Posted September 1, 2018 Seems very reasonable to be fair. And can have 0% finance over 2 years which I wasn’t expecting (with a 10% deposit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tennentslager Posted September 1, 2018 Share Posted September 1, 2018 £3654...is expensive...I had a boiler replaced ( back boiler in fire place) new combi, new gas fire and an extra radiator added for under £2000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted September 1, 2018 Share Posted September 1, 2018 You can check the retail price of the boiler easily enough, and then work out roughly what it should cost to install based on normal labour rates, plus a bit for any additional pipe and fittings. For example, back in 2008 when we had our old system boiler replaced with a new Vaillant combi, the new boiler cost about £800 at that time. We were converting from a system boiler to a combi, so the labour included removing two water tanks from the loft and the old hot water cylinder, adding new pipe runs, bricking up a fairly large hole in the wall where the old rectangular boiler flue had been, as well as drilling a new hole through the wall for the new flue. The price included a power flush (mandatory in order to get the boiler warranty). Total cost came to a bit over £2k in 2008. Labour involved two blokes for about a day and a half doing the boiler swap and plumbing, plus an electrician for an hour or so to wire things up. Some of that labour time was just hanging around, as the power flush took a couple of hours and there wasn't much they could be getting on with whilst that was going on. If you assumed rates of £200/day, and were generous and said there were four man days, then that comes out at £800 for labour. On top of that there were probably a £100 or so of pipe and fittings, plus VAT, so their price to us back in 2008 was definitely on the high side, but they were a big firm who I thought at the time presented a lower risk of doing a bad job. They were also Vaillant agents, so could give the 5 year warranty. As it turned out I'd have been better using a smaller local firm, as they screwed up and we were faffing around with warranty calls from there for over a year before things got sorted properly.. I've just checked, and a similar boiler today costs around £900, and labour rates around here for decent plumbers/heating engineers are around £220/day now, so the same job today should cost around £1900 +VAT, so around £2,280. I reckon the top whack price for something like this should be around £2,500 for an expensive part of the UK, less for areas where labour costs are lower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hecateh Posted September 1, 2018 Share Posted September 1, 2018 (edited) I'm no expert by any means BUT I am buying boiler, flue and magnaclean for less than £1000. If I wanted a bigger boiler it's about £100 more. It will take about a day to fit by my expensive plumber so around £300. Might be a few extra sundries and this is in a new build so all piping will need to be done to boiler but there is nothing to remove so all in less that £1500 Edited September 1, 2018 by Hecateh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvincentd Posted September 2, 2018 Share Posted September 2, 2018 On 01/09/2018 at 12:54, Tennentslager said: £3654...is expensive...I had a boiler replaced ( back boiler in fire place) new combi, new gas fire and an extra radiator added for under £2000 Precisely the job I have to get a quote on tomorrow for my mother.......was this a recent price you are recalling? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tennentslager Posted September 3, 2018 Share Posted September 3, 2018 8 hours ago, mvincentd said: Precisely the job I have to get a quote on tomorrow for my mother.......was this a recent price you are recalling? thanks 2 years ago... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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