Jaguar boiler bust

Hi all,

I have a Jaguar combi boiler which I have been led to believe has a broken diverter valve - central heating works fine but can't get any hot water now at all. I could get water for a few months if I had the heating on but now it is just luke warm. So I got an engineer round and he said that there wasn't any point in replacing the valve as it would be quite expensive and not worth it for a budget boiler so he just quoted me for a new boiler. The boiler itself is now about 8 years old, fitted before I moved in and I have had no problems with it at all up until now. I am aware that it is a very cheap boiler so does this seem reasonable to assume that fixing it would cost too much?

I am female and living alone and I have no clue about boilers so its not something I can do myself and I don't know anyone who would do it for me either so I will be paying full whack for a repair if I go down that route.

So what do people think? Give up on the boiler or try and get it fixed. How long do these sort of boilers usually last?

First site I came across for Jaguar boiler spares:

http://www.halfpriceboilerspares.co.uk/prothermboilerspares.php

So between £40 and £70 for a diverter valve plus fitting which could take between £1 to 2 hours. Depending on the 'health' or state of the boiler generally, the original engineer may be right about simply replacing it.

Sounds like a repair is going to cost you somewhere around the £200 to £300 mark depending on where you live in the UK. Spending this on what was a low end, cheap appliance in the first place especially if the boiler is in poor overall condition (how many times has it been serviced in the last 8 years?) could be throwing good money after bad. The Jaguar boilers were only around the £500 mark when new!

My advice (as an installer and repair engineer for over 20 years) is to get a couple of quotes for replacement boiler, telling them what is actually wrong and asking if a repair is worthwhile and the cost of both repair and replace.

Ask your friends and family for recommendations of good, honest gas engineers in your area to get quotes from. If they all say no, replace the boiler, you will have a better idea of how to spend your money.

Many people dont really know how to repair boiler so still go along and quote for a new one at £1000-£2000.

I will always quote to repair and with that kind of fault would usually expect it to be about £120-£190 to repair.

Tony

Do you know which model your boiler is? For example this site here http://www.allsparesdirect.co.uk/in...d=3435&zenid=d9dd53f5e92b520bea24b28d62608ef5 has a Jaguar valve for £65.00, damn site cheaper than a new boiler, however if you search around the forums you will find these things mentioned everywhere. cheap nasty boiler, BUT if it is only the valve i would have a punt on replacing it and see how long it lasts.

Sounds to me like your plumber does not want to do the job, but like i say after reading about these on other sites, perhaps he is not at fault for recommending a new boiler.

most prob just needs a diverter service kit,

That is what I had in mind when suggesting £120 - £190 to repair.

But then the condition of the water needs to be considered. But that would also need cleaning to fit a new boiler.

Although many cheap installers would not bother and then you could be in the same position with a new boiler in a short time!

Tony

Probably just the diaphragm which is less than a tenner, plus 20mins to replace it. There's no complete diverter kit available, so if you did need a complete DV it is a bit of a pain to change, maybe 2hrs, but as I said, 80% just the diaphragm.

mickyg said:

Probably just the diaphragm which is less than a tenner, plus 20mins to replace it. There's no complete diverter kit available, so if you did need a complete DV it is a bit of a pain to change, maybe 2hrs, but as I said, 80% just the diaphragm.

Click to expand...

+1

i agree with mickyg, diaphragm should be looked at first. diverter valves can usually have a service kit fitted, failing that, some sludge remover could get it going again.

it is a dirty job, but someones gotta do it. (its a song that innit?)