Not to replace very old boiler?

[Amibeingdaft81]

Sorry Boring!

12 year old Combi boiler.
No problems. Works fine. However it’s so old!

Are boilers one of those things that even if working well - from a safety perspective you don’t keep one going indefinitely?

If replace, any recommendations please?

As already said, 12 years isn't that old. Ours was installed in 1973.

As long as you get it serviced once a year I wouldn't worry. We're having a new boiler installed and it's costing an arm and a leg!

Mines 22 years old. We had a change a part last year (first repair in 5 years of living here) and it works very well. Not need for a new one!

Yes a new boiler might be a little more efficient but you need to factor in the costs - environmental as well as financial of making and installing a new boiler. Regular servicing- ours is included in our boiler insurance, will keep it going.

Have it serviced every year. Build a good relationship with a plumber so that when it breaks beyond economical repair, you'll be able to trust your plumber to get and fit an equally reliable replacement for a fair cost.

12 years isn't old at all. My boiler is over 30 years old and I dread the day it goes, but touch wood it's ok as it's a good make and I won't be
replacing it until it dies.

My last one died at 20; am hoping the new one does 25 years.

Ours is getting on for 30 years old and still going. I have some money put aside to replace it when necessary but I shan't do that until it's beyond help.

We bought our house 12 years ago, and the boiler was reckoned to be 20 years old. We got worried that it would fail, especially as our house is not the warmest of houses, so we replaced it, even though it was working.

The new boiler is an absolute piece of shit that broke down on a weekly basis for about 3 years, until in the end every single working part of it was changed (literally).

I cannot tell you how many times we said “why did we get rid of that old boiler?!!”

We had this dilemma, particularly bearing in mind as said above that when it packs up will be when snow was on the ground. We knew spare parts were no longer available (10 years old but end of range discount when installed by previous owners).

We got a quote for a new system, went through all the options etc. We therefore knew what we wanted and how much to set aside.

The following winter, snow on the ground, it failed catastrophically. We knew what to get, we knew we had the money so it was as pain-free as possible.

I’d do that again.

The following winter, snow on the ground, it failed catastrophically. We knew what to get, we knew we had the money so it was as pain-free as possible.

The new boiler failed catastrophically after a year?

Our 46 year old boiler has needed one new part since 2000. The part cost £12.

Good God. Mine’s 22 years old. Was put in when the house was built. It gets serviced every year and works fine.

Our Potterton was installed in 1990. Still going strong and been much less trouble than the Ideal installed in a different part of the house 8 years ago. They are serviced annually. I admit they are not combi boilers though.

Ours is about 20 years old and still going. We had to have a new part on it a couple of years ago. The plumber/gas man said if we maintain it well it will probably see us out.

RottnestFerry no it was 10 years old and we knew spare parts were no longer available. Like the OP we wondered whether to replace at that point. We decided not to (for all the reasons above, it might have lasted years) but made sure we were in a position to replace it if needed - which we did 9 months later. So the boiler was nearly 11 years old. It was a shit boiler put in on the cheap by previous owners.

Our Potterton is somewhere over 20yo and wields just fine. Our last annual service said we could save around £70 a year on bills with a new more efficient boiler, but on an installed cost of around £2000 it's never worth doing until this one fails completely. So it will stay until it does!

Good lord no. If you have a solid one, you keep it until it goes!!!

@How2Help Ah! I understand.

Incidentally, ours is a Potterton too. Seems to be a recurring theme in this thread.

If it works well and is efficient why replace it, make sure you've got money aside for when it does go though , might be worth exploring your options and seeing what kind of boiler you'd replace it with so when it does eventually go (could be another ten years) , you more exactly what you want

Ours is almost 20 years old, serviced regularly and no problems.

Have to say though, when I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about my MIL ;)

The only thing I would add is that the newer boilers are much more energy efficient
I was paying £140 a month for gas and electric and had my boiler regularly serviced
Changed the boiler and I now pay £84 a month

I'm finally intending replacing my 35 year old (not combi) boiler. It's only failed twice (needed a part that cost a fiver each time) but now it's getting noisy and there's a bit more to it than just adding the silencing compound that the heating engineer has used in the past.

Up until now, heating engineers have said that these boilers are very simple and infinitely more reliable than new ones, so I've stuck with it. It bugs me that whatever I replace it with will be less reliable and not last for as long. But the last two to service it have said it's now comming to the end of its life, and I'd rather replace it at leisure than have it die in the middle of winter and be without heat for weeks.

Get it serviced. The problem tends to be companies will refuse to cover older boilers.

It might well remain safe, but will definitely be less efficient.

12 years old? It's a mere baby.

Mine was installed in the mid 1970s so its 40+ . We get it serviced annually and it's still going strong. No plans to replace it until if/when it finally fails and we can't get the parts for it.

I still think of my boiler as fairly new.

Going on 15 years since it was installed.