Dear all,

(Scroll down for actual question if you cba reading the preamble)

Our boiler has been in the house since it was built in the 70s (and I suspect it was in a prehistoric cave dwelling before that!) and as such is totally inefficient. Every time it is serviced it limps through the inspection, but they tell us that there are no parts available…so it is time to bite the bullet and buy a new boiler.

Due to financial management over the last lifetime, I find myself in a permanent state of skintness so would not be able to afford the £X,000 for a new boiler.

British Gas are on the way to tell us about their scheme that allows you to buy a boiler from them and pay them back over a few years – the APR I think is 29.9 😯 but as we are already maxed out on CCs I probably won’t get any more cheap credit.

So the question is….

I have heard from friends that a combi boiler install from British Gas will cost around £2900 – this includes the current £400 discount. Is this massively expensive? (3 bed detached)

Cheers

The quick answer – yes that is expensive. We worked out what size we needed for our place (no. radiators + hot water use) and bought online. We got a 24kW combi for about £775 in 2007 and had it fitted for about £350 by a local fitter. You can thus chose a boiler that you want (e.g. decide whether you want to spend more on a good brand) and as long as you make sure you get the installation certificate for when you sell up, you should easily be able to get a new boiler installed to regs (and the old one disposed of) for less than £1,500.

Depends on the boiler and difficulty of installation. Our boiler alone was well over £1000 at trade and two days at mates rates to fit it

Was in a similar situation as you a month ago.

Our late 80’s boiler failed its inspection back in November, tried to have it repaired but due to it’s age there were no replacement parts.

Just had it replaced in January for a cost of £2800ish (including the boiler buy back scheme).

This was by a local plumber rather than British Gas and everything seems to be running well so far.

Plus a combi boiler is much better than the old one, it also gets rid of the hot water tank and the immersion heater so that means more storage space!

Cheers guys. I guess the British Gas model is for those of us without the disposable readies to buy the boiler upfront.

Thanks….

EDIT – and Andrew…not only is ours old and inefficient, but the timer thing is broken which means we are paying to heat water all the time.

I reckon most of the cost could be met by reduced bills….

Just looked online, our boiler now costs more like £860 inc. VAT. B&Q will sell you a cheap, non-branded boiler from £600 (depending how big you need it). You can save money by buying a wireless controller and the thermostatic radiator valves and fitting them yourselves, so it all meets regs when the plumber comes to fit the boiler.

Having re-read your post, I see your issue really is with credit. You will be much better off going through a local fitter, but obviously that depends if you can muster the cash together…

I had one of these put in: –

Ariston 38kw Combi

The gas fitter charged £180 / day which seems about the norm, took 3 days to install and that included ripping the old heat only boiler and tank out. All in you should be looking upto £1400 including the remote temperature controller, rad flush, spin cleaner and rad rust inhibiter.

Been thinking of getting a combi at home for ages, but the old back baxi boiler has happily been plodding on faultlessly (bar servicing) for the past 22 years (and I bought it second hand too).

Three weeks ago had a combi fitted at work (Ideal Logic+).. Smells of gas (been assured it’s ok).. using about £2 per day to keep just two small offices at 19c and the hot water supply is anything but reliable.

Cost to install combi + 3 rads.. £2k

Think I’ll keep the back boiler a while longer.

I have heard from friends that a combi boiler install from British Gas will cost around £2900 – this includes the current £400 discount. Is this massively expensive? (3 bed detached)

yes

BG quoted me £2400 for a new potterton combi last year, a local gas safe installer would be quoting £1500-£2000 for the same one depending on your location

main benefit of using BG is their flexible payment scheme