Morning guys,
My boiler, which I think was rescued from the Titanic, has finally died.
Good old girl she was really, inherited her when we moved into this house
13 years ago and she'd probably been working for around 12 or so prior to that. Been ok, just requiring a service a year and a thermocouple a year but we've known she was on her way out.
Knowing she was on her way out though also coincided with my business going to pot and losing lots of money. SO, we've been dreading the day
she died and thought if (IF!!!) we could get her through this winter we'd have a fighting chance of getting the dosh together during the Spring/Summer.
However, in celebration of my birthday on Monday, I came home to find
a cold house, no pilot and upon checking, leaking from the water casing.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Whilst we have sat around in our thermals for the past two nights, we've pondered the situation. My dear old mum has donated part of my inheritance towards a replacement, so I've 1k towards it.
The old boiler is a floor standing Glow Worm 45-60 and sited in an understairs cupboard (what used to be the larder - it's a 30's semi).
I've been pondering on whether a combi is a good or bad move - there are three of us in the house, all adults. Shower more than bath, cold feed washing machine and water flow seems adequate. However, we love our power shower and I believe we'd have to lose that.
Don't mind a normal condensing boiler - currently it's an open vented system, fully pumped 'S' plan.
Whatever boiler I go for, I'd like to site it in the kitchen. This means a bit of re-routing for the pipes, but basically where they now turn left for the current boiler, they'd have to turn right for the new one. Electricty supply no issue either.
If you've got this far, well, I'm hoping you're serious about my plight, so to get to the point:
As a competent DIY'er - and NO I'm not considering touching the gas supply at all - Could I mount the boiler, run new pipework (again, excluding the gas supply) to the boiler, but not make final connections?
Same with the electricity, I can run cable but wouldn't make the connections.
Then get my friendly neighbourhood plumber to hook it all up, powerflush etc?
I'm assuming that at this point, it'd make sense to fit a new pump, port, controller and get shot of the unlagged cylinder (has a woolly overcoat though) for a lagged one?
Finally, which make of boiler is fairly priced and considered reliable?
I've read about Viessmans being really good, but we can't stretch to that.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
My boiler, which I think was rescued from the Titanic, has finally died.
Good old girl she was really, inherited her when we moved into this house
13 years ago and she'd probably been working for around 12 or so prior to that. Been ok, just requiring a service a year and a thermocouple a year but we've known she was on her way out.
Knowing she was on her way out though also coincided with my business going to pot and losing lots of money. SO, we've been dreading the day
she died and thought if (IF!!!) we could get her through this winter we'd have a fighting chance of getting the dosh together during the Spring/Summer.
However, in celebration of my birthday on Monday, I came home to find
a cold house, no pilot and upon checking, leaking from the water casing.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Whilst we have sat around in our thermals for the past two nights, we've pondered the situation. My dear old mum has donated part of my inheritance towards a replacement, so I've 1k towards it.
The old boiler is a floor standing Glow Worm 45-60 and sited in an understairs cupboard (what used to be the larder - it's a 30's semi).
I've been pondering on whether a combi is a good or bad move - there are three of us in the house, all adults. Shower more than bath, cold feed washing machine and water flow seems adequate. However, we love our power shower and I believe we'd have to lose that.
Don't mind a normal condensing boiler - currently it's an open vented system, fully pumped 'S' plan.
Whatever boiler I go for, I'd like to site it in the kitchen. This means a bit of re-routing for the pipes, but basically where they now turn left for the current boiler, they'd have to turn right for the new one. Electricty supply no issue either.
If you've got this far, well, I'm hoping you're serious about my plight, so to get to the point:
As a competent DIY'er - and NO I'm not considering touching the gas supply at all - Could I mount the boiler, run new pipework (again, excluding the gas supply) to the boiler, but not make final connections?
Same with the electricity, I can run cable but wouldn't make the connections.
Then get my friendly neighbourhood plumber to hook it all up, powerflush etc?
I'm assuming that at this point, it'd make sense to fit a new pump, port, controller and get shot of the unlagged cylinder (has a woolly overcoat though) for a lagged one?
Finally, which make of boiler is fairly priced and considered reliable?
I've read about Viessmans being really good, but we can't stretch to that.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
