WARNING - Long!!
Hi, 1st time poster here.
This concerns my Dad's boiler/heating system - house was built 1974, 4-bed detached.
He has a conventional GRAVITY-FED system:
- tank in loft
- cylinder + immersion heater in airing cupboard (upstairs)
- boiler is in the kitchen, a floor-standing "IDEAL MEXICO 24" installed only 5 years ago.
- radiators:
-- 6 downstairs: 3 large, 3 small
-- 5 upstairs: 2 large, 2 medium, 1 small
The boiler is not working at present - requires a new mother-board apparently.
Background:
Dad (now aged 83 & house-bound, living on his own) was hospitalised 5 yrs ago for 8 weeks and my bro was living at home then. It was November, cold and the boiler (a v old Thomson) just happened to fail. We were advised to replace it.
Hospital wouldnt let Dad out without the house being warm, so we needed to do get it sorted. I guess you should always be a tad suspicious of any central heating engineer who can install a new boiler "next week... I really should have checked if they were CORGI-registered, but i didn't . I ummed and ahhed as to whether or not we should convert to a combi system. I decided that the combi system was too much hassle and insisted we stick with a floor-standing conventional boiler - a like-for-like swap.
The (dodgy) engineers took about 5 days to replace the boiler with an Ideal Mexico 24 and put thermostatic valves on all the rads. The main issue with the job was the need to install a water pump at the base of the hot-water cylinder in the airing cupboard.
Bottom-line: the system has NEVER worked properly since. The rads upstairs NEVER get hot and downstairs the rads get warm, but nowhere near enough to actually heat the house. My Dad relies on 2 electric rads in his lounge (where he sits all day) to keep him warm and they work v well (running cost is not much an issue - Dad's quite well off).
A variety of engineers have looked at the system and have diagnosed the fault: the way the pump has been installed, it is actually fighting against itself and not delivering the right flow rate to the rads (and has been this way since it was installed). I really don't want to get the "dodgy engineers" back - too much grief and I don't trust them at all.
Back in June, the boiler AND the immersion heater broke down. I had the immersion heater replaced so he at least has hot water. The engineer (from a local company I trust) had a look at the boiler and said:
- it's in that bad a state it looks like it was installed 20 yrs ago, not 5
[ i should add, that my Dad has had the boiler operating for nye-on 24 hours a day for 4-5 yrs and it DID look terrible inside - corrosion and oxidised gunk everywhere - hadnt been serviced of course]
- reckoned it needs a new motherboard, costing in total (supply, fit, VAT) approx £400
- recommended replacing the boiler
- he had a look around at the system and recommended a combi boiler, to go in the airing cupboard (where gas, water and electric can be conveniently brought together).
- this company quoted, on his recommendation:
-- supply/fit: Vaillant Ecotec Pro 28 condensing boiler (+ convert system of course)
-- ditto programmable room stat
£2075 + VAT, approx 3 days
and
-- Mira Element shower unit (dad needs new shower)
£235 + VAT
This would mean running a gas line from the garage into the playroom above it, into the loft space and down into the airing cupboard. And the loss of the airing cupboard as a convenient warm space to air linen.
I'd be happy to do this BUT I have a nagging/worrying concern.
- will the 1974-vintage rads and pipework (untouched since house was built) cope with the pressure of a modern-day combi boiler?
One of his neighbours (same spec house) had a combi fitted and had terrible probs with burst pipes, leaks etc. Floorboards up etc. There's no way my Dad could cope if this happened. He spends all his day sat in his chair in the lounge (alot of heavy furniture, sideboards etc) watching TV - if the floorboards had to come up in there, it would be a nightmare!
So, some questions:
- should I worry about this?
- if yes, what other options are there? (a colleague mentioned a BAXI gravity-fed boiler) - but I assume the water-pump situation would need looking at if we do another like-for-like replacement?
Thanks for your time,
John
PS Can supply some pics if that would help.
Hi, 1st time poster here.
This concerns my Dad's boiler/heating system - house was built 1974, 4-bed detached.
He has a conventional GRAVITY-FED system:
- tank in loft
- cylinder + immersion heater in airing cupboard (upstairs)
- boiler is in the kitchen, a floor-standing "IDEAL MEXICO 24" installed only 5 years ago.
- radiators:
-- 6 downstairs: 3 large, 3 small
-- 5 upstairs: 2 large, 2 medium, 1 small
The boiler is not working at present - requires a new mother-board apparently.
Background:
Dad (now aged 83 & house-bound, living on his own) was hospitalised 5 yrs ago for 8 weeks and my bro was living at home then. It was November, cold and the boiler (a v old Thomson) just happened to fail. We were advised to replace it.
Hospital wouldnt let Dad out without the house being warm, so we needed to do get it sorted. I guess you should always be a tad suspicious of any central heating engineer who can install a new boiler "next week... I really should have checked if they were CORGI-registered, but i didn't . I ummed and ahhed as to whether or not we should convert to a combi system. I decided that the combi system was too much hassle and insisted we stick with a floor-standing conventional boiler - a like-for-like swap.
The (dodgy) engineers took about 5 days to replace the boiler with an Ideal Mexico 24 and put thermostatic valves on all the rads. The main issue with the job was the need to install a water pump at the base of the hot-water cylinder in the airing cupboard.
Bottom-line: the system has NEVER worked properly since. The rads upstairs NEVER get hot and downstairs the rads get warm, but nowhere near enough to actually heat the house. My Dad relies on 2 electric rads in his lounge (where he sits all day) to keep him warm and they work v well (running cost is not much an issue - Dad's quite well off).
A variety of engineers have looked at the system and have diagnosed the fault: the way the pump has been installed, it is actually fighting against itself and not delivering the right flow rate to the rads (and has been this way since it was installed). I really don't want to get the "dodgy engineers" back - too much grief and I don't trust them at all.
Back in June, the boiler AND the immersion heater broke down. I had the immersion heater replaced so he at least has hot water. The engineer (from a local company I trust) had a look at the boiler and said:
- it's in that bad a state it looks like it was installed 20 yrs ago, not 5
[ i should add, that my Dad has had the boiler operating for nye-on 24 hours a day for 4-5 yrs and it DID look terrible inside - corrosion and oxidised gunk everywhere - hadnt been serviced of course]
- reckoned it needs a new motherboard, costing in total (supply, fit, VAT) approx £400
- recommended replacing the boiler
- he had a look around at the system and recommended a combi boiler, to go in the airing cupboard (where gas, water and electric can be conveniently brought together).
- this company quoted, on his recommendation:
-- supply/fit: Vaillant Ecotec Pro 28 condensing boiler (+ convert system of course)
-- ditto programmable room stat
£2075 + VAT, approx 3 days
and
-- Mira Element shower unit (dad needs new shower)
£235 + VAT
This would mean running a gas line from the garage into the playroom above it, into the loft space and down into the airing cupboard. And the loss of the airing cupboard as a convenient warm space to air linen.
I'd be happy to do this BUT I have a nagging/worrying concern.
- will the 1974-vintage rads and pipework (untouched since house was built) cope with the pressure of a modern-day combi boiler?
One of his neighbours (same spec house) had a combi fitted and had terrible probs with burst pipes, leaks etc. Floorboards up etc. There's no way my Dad could cope if this happened. He spends all his day sat in his chair in the lounge (alot of heavy furniture, sideboards etc) watching TV - if the floorboards had to come up in there, it would be a nightmare!
So, some questions:
- should I worry about this?
- if yes, what other options are there? (a colleague mentioned a BAXI gravity-fed boiler) - but I assume the water-pump situation would need looking at if we do another like-for-like replacement?
Thanks for your time,
John
PS Can supply some pics if that would help.
