I feel like my boiler is on the slide.....
Discussion
Not enough info, whats the make and model of boiler.Is it fully pumped or gravity? some of the last non condensing boilers are still up 85% efficient if well maintained. so get someone to give it an honest assessment. If you can get another 2-3 years out of it once serviced and any system issues ironed out for the sake of 2-300 quid now then I'd keep it.
ThatGuyWhoDoesStuff said:
If you try and heat up water (hot water tank) and heat the house at the same time you can forget about it.
As it's fully pumped it'll tend to favour the hot water tank as that's the least resistance. If the tank is cold it'll absorb a lot of heat and with some going to the rads as well the water going back to boiler will have lost most of its heat.Our house is like that but with a significantly smaller boiler - takes a long time to get warm but it's fine once it gets there.
It's probably not a modulating boiler so is fixed at 23kW - I think that's quote chunky for a fixed boiler but a newer one will chuck a lot more heat in when cold and will modulate down as it warms up.
ManicMunky said:
It's about double it's service life then! Baxi stuff is crap, unfortunately.
Our Valliant was in the house when we move in 20 years ago to the month, it wasnt new when we moved in, it is still working fine and doesnt even seem that inefficient, it got serviced the other day and was given a clean bill of health, the British Gas guy gave me a really in depth explanation of how the system worked and filled some gaps in my knowledge, he also said that these are probably some of the best made boilers. He said that certain parts are still easy to get but of a logic board goes were are a bit scuppered.Surely a boiler should last more than 7 and a half years ?
Am loathe to change a working boiler for something that may not last as long, and realistically, how much better on gas will it be to justify what, a two grand plus cost ?
J4CKO said:
Our Valliant was in the house when we move in 20 years ago to the month, it wasnt new when we moved in, it is still working fine and doesnt even seem that inefficient, it got serviced the other day and was given a clean bill of health, the British Gas guy gave me a really in depth explanation of how the system worked and filled some gaps in my knowledge, he also said that these are probably some of the best made boilers. He said that certain parts are still easy to get but of a logic board goes were are a bit scuppered.
There's a "pro" plumbing forum and Vaillant is often mentioned in "they don't make 'em like they used to" terms. To be fair pretty well every make has strong supporters and strong detractors - they generally like Worcester Bosch but mainly because factory support is in a different league to everyone else, so I guess there a big comfort factor there for installers.Don't know if they have yours, but if you are ever needing a logic board, try http://www.cetltd.com .
J4CKO said:
Our Valliant was in the house when we move in 20 years ago to the month, it wasnt new when we moved in, it is still working fine and doesnt even seem that inefficient, it got serviced the other day and was given a clean bill of health, the British Gas guy gave me a really in depth explanation of how the system worked and filled some gaps in my knowledge, he also said that these are probably some of the best made boilers. He said that certain parts are still easy to get but of a logic board goes were are a bit scuppered.
Surely a boiler should last more than 7 and a half years ?
Am loathe to change a working boiler for something that may not last as long, and realistically, how much better on gas will it be to justify what, a two grand plus cost ?
A boiler should... some do, some don't. Baxi/Potterton are some of the ones that don't unfortunately (source: I used to handle claims for a home emergency company, Baxi/Potterton were 8/10 calls)Surely a boiler should last more than 7 and a half years ?
Am loathe to change a working boiler for something that may not last as long, and realistically, how much better on gas will it be to justify what, a two grand plus cost ?
I moved into my place about August, the boiler has been working hard to try keep the place warm. I thought it was just the size of boiler vs demand for heat.
Expansion tank went in the boiler, installed an external one, and threw a Magnaclean pro 2 in the return line. Huge difference already, the rads are much hotter to the feel, more even heat all over the rads.
As mentioned above, I will add a flushing additive, and push the full flow through each radiator at a time, as well as adding tails so I can stick a heater into my garage in the (hopefully near) future.
Boiler is a Vokera Mynute 14SE and is at least 10 years old, but so far works fine! (Although the controls could do with some updating)
Expansion tank went in the boiler, installed an external one, and threw a Magnaclean pro 2 in the return line. Huge difference already, the rads are much hotter to the feel, more even heat all over the rads.
As mentioned above, I will add a flushing additive, and push the full flow through each radiator at a time, as well as adding tails so I can stick a heater into my garage in the (hopefully near) future.
Boiler is a Vokera Mynute 14SE and is at least 10 years old, but so far works fine! (Although the controls could do with some updating)
Sheepshanks said:
J4CKO said:
Our Valliant was in the house when we move in 20 years ago to the month, it wasnt new when we moved in, it is still working fine and doesnt even seem that inefficient, it got serviced the other day and was given a clean bill of health, the British Gas guy gave me a really in depth explanation of how the system worked and filled some gaps in my knowledge, he also said that these are probably some of the best made boilers. He said that certain parts are still easy to get but of a logic board goes were are a bit scuppered.
There's a "pro" plumbing forum and Vaillant is often mentioned in "they don't make 'em like they used to" terms. To be fair pretty well every make has strong supporters and strong detractors - they generally like Worcester Bosch but mainly because factory support is in a different league to everyone else, so I guess there a big comfort factor there for installers.Don't know if they have yours, but if you are ever needing a logic board, try http://www.cetltd.com .
As an aside, recently had some plumbing done for the new kitchen and utility, had some thermostats added where there were none fitted, house does seem warmer, like the system being drained, refilled, new pipes and whatever has perked it up ?
ManicMunky said:
A boiler should... some do, some don't. Baxi/Potterton are some of the ones that don't unfortunately (source: I used to handle claims for a home emergency company, Baxi/Potterton were 8/10 calls)
Baxi and Potterton were fine until they joined together. The Profile boiler was prior to this and was as good as anything in that period and serviceable parts can obtained.ManicMunky said:
A boiler should... some do, some don't. Baxi/Potterton are some of the ones that don't unfortunately (source: I used to handle claims for a home emergency company, Baxi/Potterton were 8/10 calls)
Baxi and Potterton were fine until they joined together. The Profile boiler was prior to this and was as good as anything in that period and serviceable parts can obtained.OP if you've got 3 grand or so spare then it's going to be worth getting a new combi boiler and all new radiators throughout. I'm guessing your old rads won't all be the convecting type and some wil have been painted so they'll struggle to get the heat out.
Fit oversized convecting rads throughout and your house will heat up in no time.
I presume you have mixer showers rather than electric? You'd probably need a big combi if you ever wanted to power both at the same time but it also depends on your incoming mains pressure. You could go the whole hog and fit an unvented cylinder with a new system boiler but that's probably overkill.
Fit oversized convecting rads throughout and your house will heat up in no time.
I presume you have mixer showers rather than electric? You'd probably need a big combi if you ever wanted to power both at the same time but it also depends on your incoming mains pressure. You could go the whole hog and fit an unvented cylinder with a new system boiler but that's probably overkill.
Edited by Toyoda on Tuesday 13th February 10:01
Sheepshanks said:
ThatGuyWhoDoesStuff said:
Edit: I should add that we have 20 radiators....
Didn't take this in yesterday, but that's a LOT of radiators! It's been generally pretty cold for the last couple of weeks so a marginal system is going to struggle against all the heat being lost.Toyoda said:
OP if you've got 3 grand or so spare then it's going to be worth getting a new combi boiler and all new radiators throughout.
I know there are constant discussions on here about pricing but I don't think 3 grand is going to cut it for a big combi (especially moving from a conventional set-up) and 20 rads.Sheepshanks said:
I know there are constant discussions on here about pricing but I don't think 3 grand is going to cut it for a big combi (especially moving from a conventional set-up) and 20 rads.
Why, what real world experience do you have?A couple of years ago my system was converted from y plan to combi, with 8 new rads, Drayton trvs, magnacleanse flush and a 30kW boiler for £2200 and that wasn't the cheapest quote I had. There's not much to be changed on the pipework. As for rads if you pick a similar width to what you have then there's little work to do to the tails. Just fit double where there was previously single etc. I know some people take the old rads off and flush through with a hosepipe but for the price of new ones with a much higher output the expense is well worth it.
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