Hi all. We have a 12-ish year old combi that is starting to show signs of age. It is largely our fault though as we haven't had it anywhere near regularly serviced or flushed (years and years since it was flushed or even touched by a plumber). Now whereas the heating is fine (radiators can be turned up so they are too hot to touch) the hot water is appallingly bad. If we turn down the tap to an absolute trickle, we can get hot enough water for a bath - it takes twenty minutes to get it half full though! Very occasionally the heating doesn't come on and we find that if we open up a hot tap, the boiler kicks in, then when we turn off the hot tap, the boiler cuts out again, but a second later will fire up again and the heating comes on - that is quite rare though. I don't think that the central heating gets warmed up by the hot water coming on though.
From searching on the forum it seems likely that after many years of neglect, the heat exchanger is probably almost fully clogged up? If so, is this an expensive job to rectify? I seem to recall last time we had trouble many moons ago that it was REALLY hard to find a plumber happy to tackle a Vaillant combi. Any rough ideas of cost - really ballpark so £100/£200/£500? Is it worth repairing or would we be better off looking at getting a more up-to-date replacement that will be more efficient and save us money over a few years in reduced fuel costs, do you think?
Anyone know any Vaillant-competent plumbers in Leicester?
From searching on the forum it seems likely that after many years of neglect, the heat exchanger is probably almost fully clogged up? If so, is this an expensive job to rectify? I seem to recall last time we had trouble many moons ago that it was REALLY hard to find a plumber happy to tackle a Vaillant combi. Any rough ideas of cost - really ballpark so £100/£200/£500? Is it worth repairing or would we be better off looking at getting a more up-to-date replacement that will be more efficient and save us money over a few years in reduced fuel costs, do you think?
Anyone know any Vaillant-competent plumbers in Leicester?
