L
longdogs
...that the general public will sl*g off the cost of getting a plumber in to do a professional job but will quite happily buy a £400 phone so that they can tweet what they had for dinner.
With a lot of owners of smart phones, the only thing smart is the phone.
Present company excluded of course.
Present company excluded of course.
Will sit there with a clapped out boiler but buy a big TV or replace the car.
They wouldn't dream of running around in a 20year old car.
They wouldn't dream of running around in a 20year old car.
I thought I was the only one who thought this! I did have one customer who didn't want a new nozzle on her oil boiler service as she "was only a pensioner and couldn't afford it" but then told me later about the three different foreign holidays she had booked for that year 
You can get a spark for forty five quid. Why should the punter pay double for a lesser qualified plumber?
awww Joe, you made a good post the other day about the idiot towel rail, why'd ya have to go and spoil it with more generalized crap.
You got to see the point of consumers though. So many plumbers have told me that generally boilers are crap today and if a punter has to fork out couple of hundred quid or more every year to repair the thing it can get quite disheartening and then they are told to buy a new boiler and expect it to last ten years. Why can the old potterton netaheats last 25 years and todays boilers have shorter life expectancy. Parts a really expensive too!,
They'll be the ones on the HSE watch list for releasing dangerous fumes into the property when the rear of the case corrodes.
Nice
.
The Netaheat will save you money on repairs, but you may spend the savings on extra gas. Still rather have the old Potty though. Reliability is worth the extra. Even if it does gas your family!
Only the other day a mate was saying how economical his recent plate van was. Then the fuel pump went and cost him 600 notes. Years ago, his petrol Transit's fuel pump would cost £40, but not be so economical. Often what you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts.
Less moving parts and no electronics v much greater efficiency on the whole. We live in a throw away society, and no one seems to complain that TV sets and computers won't last 25 years any more. Whats the difference ?
The actual efficiency of the Netaheat is probably now about 55%.
The latest condensing boilers about 93%.
With an annual gas bill of say £1000 then the Netaheat being replaced could save about £400 a year!
If the replacement cost say £1600 then the return on the capital would be 25%
Tony
The latest condensing boilers about 93%.
With an annual gas bill of say £1000 then the Netaheat being replaced could save about £400 a year!
If the replacement cost say £1600 then the return on the capital would be 25%
Tony
R
roberta1000
Hmm - my Ideal CF is 35+ years old and doing fine. Only ever needed 2 or 3 thermocouples in all its life.
Oh and I had to blow through the pilot jet a couple of years or so ago.
But noone ever really measures these old things do they? My Ideal is quoted as 55% in the doom-monger's lists but its manufacturer's data suggests more like 70%+.
Under ideal conditions in the manufacturer's carefully designed test bed maybe but when retrofitted into a 20-30 year old system needing high radiator temperatures and under real everyday operating conditions?
Then knock off the cost of repair every 2 or 3 years, more expensive servicing schedules, bear in mind that your capital outlay may last only 10 years and you may be lucky to more than break even on top of the mess and disruption of the retrofit. (And £1600 is way less than I've been quoted once the replumbing and system cleaning etc. is accounted for!).
Add to this the likelihood of failures in the coldest parts of the year when service guys are hard to get and it isn't so hard to understand the general public's (or at least my) reluctance to invest in this wondrous new technology. </cynic_mode>
Only a humble spark
A balanced and informed opinion based on the installation, service and maintenance of how many modern boilers?
Where?
Apart from the usual shoite from Joe this was quite an interesting post, Joe log back in and take some pointers from the OP, who put his point across in a proper debateable manner it is possible to offer some usefull advice on here without being a twot, the debate between old reliable boilers and new steamers will always come up, there are some boilers that I would never advise on replacing if they are still operating safely, but that is because I always give best customer service, to just come on here all the time and slag everything and everyone off doesnt do any one any favours, cheers OP no doubt the usuall crap will follow but thank you for a genuine comment from a Gas user without which we would not exist
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