Hi guys – our gas heating boiler started pi**ing water everywhere – was still working oddly but the electrics were getting wet. its 12 yrs old and has rusted out.
Heating engineer we use says that we possibly could repair it but considering it was a 'cheapy' originally, 12yrs is a good run/life-span.
A consideration is that we have an old house with a mixture of copper & old iron pipes – heating engineer recommending we get something decent due to this.
He is talking about a Vaillant boiler which he can hold of quickly (surprise,surprise) that is one of only a few that can handle the mixed iron/copper system.
Quote coming saturday (guessing min £1500 all in) – does this info sound a load of bull or sound advice – I guess we could go for a cheapy but we know that the old boiler was never man enough for our system anyways.
any advice??
appreciate it,
cheers,
dave

I'm not a plumber but a mildly compenent bodger. I thought that the potential risk of galvonic corrosion would be mitigated by inhibitor. I'm guessing that the boiler itself isn't all copper so even if you had all copper pipes you'd have the problem of the alu/iron/steel radiotor heat exchanger?

All systems are mixed if you think about it. Radiators made of steel and copper or plastic pipes, brass fittings etc. He most likely suggested vailant as he prefers them and gets a decent price on then so he can mark up.
Nowt wrong with a vailant though, certainly one of the better boilers out there. You need to get some sort of magnaclean fitted though with a new boiler, insist on this. It will catch all the metallic crap floating round in your system and stop it bunging up your heat exchanger. Also get a proper power plush done, not just a drain and refill with sludge remover, again, insist on this. It will probably cost you about 200 quid unfortunately.

Heat exchangers are usually made from either aluminium or stainless steel these days

Cheers – yep, he did recommend the power flush & showed me the demo magnaclean device as well. I guess I'll have to wait for the quote – don't mind him getting a deal on the Vaillants but hope he can also pass on some of the discount.
One thing he did say was that he's would have to fit a new boiler & then check the gas pressure, if its not good enough then that'll mean more work/cost.
thanks, Dave

So, hows about a cheapy boiler (that may last another 12 yrs) with a magnaclean device?? Just as good a solution perhaps?

That's not right at all. You definately don't fit the boiler then check flow rate! The calcs have to be done first to ensure the correct pipe size. What size output is the boiler?
Is it a combi or heating? Most heat boilers can run from a 15mm pipe if it's not a very long run. Combi's nearly always need a 22mm or even bigger sometimes.
Where are you based? I get Ideal, vailant, worcester, glowworm from a mate of mine who works at a distributor in stockport.
Can get a price off him for you, will most likely be less than any merchant can offer as they supply them.
Have a look on the web too, I think cheapboilers.com is a good one.

A glowworm is the cheapest boiler i'd recommend though.
Some of the new ideal ranges come with 5 years parts and labour!

so you have a heating engineer who you have used before so presumably trust – who appears to be giving good advice by recommending quality equipment – has taken into account the weaknesses of your system and is able to install a boiler at short notice

for 1500 quid i would snatch his hand off

Listen to funky! He knows his stuff and is bang on about the gas feed size! Go worcester if you can afford, like buying an Audi over an Austin! 1500 is expensive if it's just a boiler swap as everything is there and ready, most that'll need doing is the odd pipe legnth adjustment! Whatever you do tho, don't buy a Baxi!!!

Oi, wrighty! No swearing!

The 'b' word, that goes for their cousins beginning with 'p' too.

😉

TheFunkyMonkey – think the issue with the gas flow (according to the bloke) is that when the original boiler was fitted by Brit' Gas the flow was set by them – now the supply is 'resold' the flow could be variable OR words to that effect – all this 3rd hand via the Mrs! Sound close enough to reality??
Thanks again,
Dave

a boiler needs an adequately sized gas supply pipe to deliver sufficient gas at the correct inlet pressure and enough volume when the appliance is on full gas rate
this is affected by boiler output ,gas pipe size, length and route of supply, heating load etc
it may be that your existing supply is adequate for your existing boiler and this can be checked
but if as you suggest your boiler is 'not man enough' it may well be necessary to fit a larger supply to a new boiler which has a higher output to suit your house or if its a combi