Central Heating problems? New system needed?

[grayt]

Hi,

I have recently moved into a new house and we have always suffered with the central heating.

The boiler has always sounded very loud, three radiators have leaky valves and one radiator will not warm up at all even if i switch all the other rads off.

Yesterday the heating would not come one at all, there is a pilot light in the boiler but it just doesn't do anything. We still have hot water but it runs out much quick than it did before.

I live in the South East and would like to know the best course of action to get all this fixed. I probably will need to get someone in but what is a reasonable price for someone just to come in and service the boiler. Would anyone know how much it should cost to get the leaky rads fitted. The boiler at the moment must be at least 15 years old so im hoping that i do not need a new one but what would be the cost of getting a new one installed.

At the moment it seems like the whole system needs ripping out and starting again, is it really that bad?
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Lynda, moderator

please note forum rule 9

 

[EliteHeat]

You will need to pay for someone to come in a diagnose your (many) problems.

They will be able to advise you as to the likely cost but as you can probably appreciate a 15 year old boiler is not in the first flush of youth!

 

[grayt]

ok thanks for that, looks like it time to be nice to the bank manager.

Having a look around it seems most engineers have call out costs, is it best just to phone around to see has the cheapest call out as it seems you can spend quite a bit just getting some qoutes in for the work.

 

[EliteHeat]

I think a lot of customers get confused between quoting for work which is free and diagnosing a problem which is not.

You have no idea of how many people think that it is only appropriate to pay for a fix when neither I or they have the remotest idea of what is wrong with their system and won't have until I have actually done some work to find out what the problem is.

However, I do think that it is only right that a customer is expected to pay for an accurate diagnosis of the problem - as opposed to an educated guess.

 

[Nige F]

I do free educated guesses in E. Sussex

 

[oilman]

I don't see why we should quote for free. I don't expect it from people I want to do work, and what's it worth anyway? It will be high if it's a quote. If it wasn't high enough for the work that needs doing, it will all end in tears.