Johnson & Starley or Radiators? Opinion & Prices?

[crisb]

Hi There Folks, Would be very grateful if you could offer an opinion here! My parents old Barmforth Hot-air unit has packed up (well the hot water unit) and BG say they cannot get spares any longer.

BG are telling my 76yr old parents they have 1 week to decide whether to replace the whole system for 8 grand (!) with a new radiator system .. or go for a Johnson & Starley hot-air unit for 3-something grand.


QUESTION! ..
* Has anyone got any opinion and pricing on the johnson and starley hot air and water units? eg. how much did you pay and for what model??
* Does a new radiator system cost around 8 grand? (it's 3.5k for labour and 5k for boiler and radiators)

Their house is a 2-story, 3 small beds on top floor + bathroom, lounge and front room in middle, 1 small bed on bottom floor and loo.

Many thanks & best regards

ps. Happy to take suggestions of good corgi registered installers that could provide me and them with a quote!

 

[bengasman]

Pushing a couple in their seventies to make a decision now, or "loose the offer" or something like that is in my opinion scandalous.

I would agree it is best to get rid of the Johnson & Starley, though it would be cheaper to replace the unit than to change the system to boiler with radiators.

I have just quoted on doing a very similar job, and the prices they got ranged from £3500 - £5000.

Hard to say exactly, without seeing the situation, but I am pretty sure that £5000 is more than enough to get the old system removed properly, and a whole central heating system installed, all materials and labour and vat included, and using nothing but top quality parts. Could be a bit less, but not a whole lot for a top job.

There is a third option, and that is trying to get a government grant. If approved, it should cost your parents very little, but there is a downside. There is only one organisation that does this, and they are widely known to use the poorest quality materials, and have had thousands upon thousands official complaints. But it is cheap if it is done without personal contribution. Here is another catch as they have been caught ripping pensioners off for several thousand pounds on top of the government money, and still doing a very poor job.

 

[bengasman]

Forgot to mention: corgi is not in charge of gas safety any more, it is now GSR.

www.gassaferegister.co.uk/

Corgi, believe it or not, have become a plumbers merchant and "service provider" in England.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

contact warmfront and they may give your parents a grant upto £3500 towards their heating. Bg are bully boys and prey on vunerable customers and pressure sell them overpriced crap. Almost all BG installation work is done by subcontractors anyway so why not just get a local gas safe registered engineer round for a quote?

Warmfront would be FREE though; not all warmfront installers are bad a small minority give the rest a bad name.

 

[Agile]

To replace the existing warm air would usually be about £4000-£4500 but as always depending on circumstances.

Replacing just the warm air perhaps £3000-£3500.

However, I would always recommend the wet system as that is better for the users and increases the resale value.

As suggested, Warmfront gives grants up to the full cost of providing/replacing a non working system for anyone who is disabled or on any benefit at all.

Tony

 

[bengasman]

..As suggested, Warmfront gives grants up to the full cost of providing/replacing a non working system for anyone who is disabled or on any benefit at all.

Tony

What Tony says is correct, but it does not mean that all the costs are covered; it means that the grant is never more than the quote from the company. It could well be less however.

 

[bengasman]

contact warmfront and they may give your parents a grant upto £3500 towards their heating...

Warmfront would be FREE though...

Many pensioners have been ripped off by these people. An "estimator" comes out, clucks a bit, does the sharp intake of breath and explains that unfortunately in this case the grant alone is not enough.

 

[Kev F]

can do 7 rads an a top line boiler for around £3000-£3500 easy, £3500 labour for roughly 4-5 days work sounds not bad

 

[Biggles..]

Properly removing a warm air system is not cheap and seeing some of the prices being banded about here i dont think that the people arefully appreciating the work involved in removing the ducting making good,getting rid of the asbestos flue then looking to install a wet system.

\that said 8K is over the top also.

Personally i find people who have warm air love it and in those cases their are many pros to it,hot in winter,cooloing in summer.The new J&S's are good,well built, high efficency units.IMHO i'd be looking to keep it as long as all the ducting is in good condition.

 

[palerider45]

i like your use of colour writing in post.. nice touch

 

[palerider45]

contact warmfront and they may give your parents a grant upto £3500 towards their heating. Bg are bully boys and prey on vunerable customers and pressure sell them overpriced crap. Almost all BG installation work is done by subcontractors anyway so why not just get a local gas safe registered engineer round for a quote?

Warmfront would be FREE though; not all warmfront installers are bad a small minority give the rest a bad name.

overpriced crap, b/g fit mainly worcester, baxi, glowworm and now valiant ,,,,,hang on, don't you work for valiant/glowworm...tut tut do they know you think their boilers are crap

 

[Kev F]

took out 3 warm air systems last year and had a plasterer make good all for the prices i put above, and still made enough in my mind

 

[DazzarGaz]

I recently did a job where we removed a J&S warm air unit and put in a wet system. What astounded me was the warm air unit was only ducted to the main living room lounge. There was no ducting going to the upstairs bedrooms/bathroom. The labour involved was huge.

So without seeing the exact current setup of a system it's very difficult to give a price. If you've got ducting running under the floors, these can be reused to run the water pipes in them. Saves time and money on ripping up floors and labour costs. My own preference though is to keep a warm air system and just renew the heater if the ducting is good.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

contact warmfront and they may give your parents a grant upto £3500 towards their heating. Bg are bully boys and prey on vunerable customers and pressure sell them overpriced crap. Almost all BG installation work is done by subcontractors anyway so why not just get a local gas safe registered engineer round for a quote?

Warmfront would be FREE though; not all warmfront installers are bad a small minority give the rest a bad name.

overpriced crap, b/g fit mainly worcester, baxi, glowworm and now valiant ,,,,,hang on, don't you work for valiant/glowworm...tut tut do they know you think their boilers are crap

****ish gas engineers are clowns and muppets and they fit the lower spec boilers from all the manufacturers. They also add a ridiculous markup onto the invoice for example I have seen a £500 boiler invoiced to customer at £1200! It's fraud and deception. Anyone who pays these prices is a mug.

BG are no better than double glazing salesmen with their hard selling tactics; avoid them like the plague!

 

[Paul Barker]

What astounded me was the warm air unit was only ducted to the main living room lounge. There was no ducting going to the upstairs bedrooms/bathroom. .

ents

council property cheap job. Sometimes they have a warm air duct inside the brickwork going to the landing level of the stairway which is sufficient for the upstairs. bear in mind the room heat below rises. Often there was a retrospective wall heater on the landing and a Brittony II in the bathroom.

In the position of the op's parents as long as they don't suffere emphesemia considering how much time they have left new room sealed warm air unit is acceptable.

People with lung defects I don't recommend it because I service them daily and never found one yet that didn't give evidence it's been pumping dust round the house.