Shall i change my ten year old boiler and for what?

[jon28]

I have a 10 yr old Vokera combi boiler that has just had a new heat exchanger installed. But its pressure keeps rising slowly to about 2.5 bar and the engineer I called thinks it's a problem with the main heat exchanger and advises to change the whole boiler as it is near the end of its life. Could someone pls advise on:
1) whether that makes sense
2) What should I change it to? It's for a small hardly used 1 bedroom flat. He has advised a Worcester junior combi but costs £800 plus £1200 (1.5 days work)to install though has a 5 yr warranty. My reading from your pages is that many don't like this make and is expensive to install. Is the Biasi M69 better/cheaper/more reliable?

thanks, advice would be much appreciated

Jon28

 

[Boilerman2]

Slow rising pressure can be attributed to-
A) Filling loop letting by (disconnect the hose to monitor if letting by replace the valves)

B) The expansion vessel may require charging with air to 1-00bar with the system pressure at "0" and open to atmoshere

C) the Domestic Hot Water Heat Exchanger may be perforated causing mixing of primary & secondary water ways.

I can't think that the fault can be anything else, all of the above should be fixable at a fraction of the cost of a Boiler replacement
Worcester Junior v Biasi? Worcester is the better boiler, butr you could do far better than either of them!!

 

[transam]

If you go to B&Q they still have some old stock Biasi boilers M96 24 SM/B2 combi boilers , (Garda's) with the stainless steel heat exchangers , 2008 models , if you know any one who is an oap 10% discount on a wednesday I think , just bought 2 , they are going to Spain , incidentally in my expirence having installed 364 Biasi's ( not the newer ones ) the product is not bad however Biasi are a lousey company to deal with a total waste of space in my view , I might be of the opinion that the service agents down this way were running some type of scam ,than again I might not be of that opinion

 

[jon28]

Bolierman2 , thanks for your reply. They could not isolate the filing tube (water everywhere), so there must be something wrong with the valve but he said the water was only gushing out of the system not in and the plate heat exc had been changed only a month ago. For some reason I can't remeber, he didn't think it was the expansion vessel. His reason for changing the whole thing was that it has probably reached its useful life anyway and there was no point in replacing the gas/main heat exchanger which would cost over £600 as other parts would start going wrong.

You suggest other better boiler makes, but which one?!

transam, thanks for your tip on Biasi, service is paramount as we might rent out the flat.

Jon28

 

[Servotech]

I've recently been fitting a lot of Baxi Platinum Combi Boilers for a local council and they are pretty good boilers.
Are nice to work on to too for us gas experts when things do eventually go wrong.

 

[nickso]

vokera linea? id so i would keep it.

neither H/E is particularly expensive, certainly not £600, and both take less than an hour to change.

i think the guy is either clueless or shining you on. get someone elses opinion.

 

[petit_pablo]

i think the guy is either clueless or shining you on.

Im hedging my bets on clueless!

 

[gasbanni]

If youve just had a new heat exchanger fitted seems a shame to throw that away by having a new boiler installed, get a proffessional opinion from someone thats trusted !

Older boilers tended to be a bithermic heat exchangers so as already stated probably filling loop or expansion vessel, if its expansion vessel leave existing one in place if awkward access and fit a seperate one somewhere else on the system.

 

[jon28]

thanks for all your help. I will try changing filling loop first and then main exchanger. If it did come down to changing the boiler, does one and a half days labour sound about right? This to remove old boiler, alter pipework to fit new; create new soak and carry out hot and cold flush. To remind it will be a small combi.

thanks
jon28

 

[petit_pablo]

thanks for all your help. I will try changing filling loop first and then main exchanger. If it did come down to changing the boiler, does one and a half days labour sound about right? This to remove old boiler, alter pipework to fit new; create new soak and carry out hot and cold flush. To remind it will be a small combi.

thanks
jon28

The main heat exchanger cannot be the cause of your problem as you have a plate heat exchanger for the HW.

 

[nickso]

he hasn't named the boiler yet. it could be a compact......shudder!

 

[DP]

My option would be a service as described in the manual. Anything from the sheds is going to hit your pocket when it breaks down.

 

[ChrisR]

The main heat exchanger cannot be the cause of your problem as you have a plate heat exchanger for the HW.

Exactly . So the guy's lying or incompetent.
Get someone else.

New boiler? I see no reason for one.

 

[jon28]

so how long should a vokera small combi boiler, not often used last? Now ten years old.

Jon28

 

[Boilerman2]

THe fact that you could not isolate the filling loop tells me that it is the cause of your over pressure problem I do not understand why your so called RGI is making such hard work out of what is one of the most easy of faults to diagnose as I have said there only around Three causes!!!!

from what you have said a £20 filling loop should sort your problem the main heat exchanger cannot on its own cause the pressure to rise!