Had anyone replaced a back boiler with a normal one recently?

[Mylovelylovelyhorse]

And could give me a rough idea of cost?

I fear we might need new radiators throughout (3 bed semi) too

We're in the south west

Although gas prices are only going one way, so you need to factor in the likely price rise (loads over 12 years)

I have a back boiler and I have chosen not to replace it. We were looking at £3000 plus redecorating costs. MiL has a new build in town with a combi boiler that has been replaced twice in 11 years and ours has never given us any jip and we believe it has been in the house for 30 years maybe??

You would be better off financially and stress wise leaving it in. Nothing worse than on black Friday (the last Friday before christmas) your boiler going and having to spend Christmas at your daughter in laws because you have no hot water or heating in rural Scotland.

We have just taken out a back boiler (this last week) and replaced the whole system with a combi boiler and 7 radiators for £3260 including extended warranty (7 years) on the boiler.

The work included pretty much all new pipe work, removal of back boiler itself, front fire, all water tanks.

If you are going to get this work done then shop around and you will probably find that an independent Gas Safe engineer is your best bet.

Decorating cost will depend on how much you can do yourselves.

I know I know. And that's why it's such a tricky decision.

Gnome, that sounds pretty much exactly what we'd need. We don't have any spare money so essentially if be paying thousands of pounds to get rid of the shit fire. Which is bonkers if the boiler works, which it does and probably will for the next 30 years

I don't think there's any way I can justify it

But I HATE the fire

There is a flicker of hope. We hope to extend in about three years time. I guess then would be the time to to it. I just have to ignore it until then :(

My winter consumption of gas was £25. I don't like combi boilers, I have a condensing boiler with a modern hot water tank, in the summer I only heat the water once every 3 days because showers are shorter and cooler.

Plus if the gas fails (can't think how really) I can heat it using the electric.

A modern gas boiler is a lot more efficient than an old one

I will be surprised if you don't save at least 20%.

Mine went down by more than that, but I also fitted new TRVs to replace the old seized ones, and a programmable room stat, so I can't tell how much was the boiler. I'd recommend you do the same.

The summer usage halved (I have a hot water cylinder).

I am very particular about insulating pipes and tanks.

btw the purchase price of a good boiler from one of the big makers (Worcester-Bosxh or Vaillant, for example) is only a few hundred pounds more than cheap rubbish from B&Q or Joe Bloggs Aluminium Italian Imports.

Chances are it will last ten years longer, and there will be heaps of parts and experienced engineers for the good one.

I have a Viessmann because I am very fond of the stainless steel internals, but they are not very common in the UK (it is a German brand) so you need to be in or near a town where there are at least two experienced installers.

The manufacturer should be able to give a 5-year guarantee (and I have 10 years on my heat exchanger)

Combis are more complicated, have more to go wrong or wear out, and do.

I'm not sure exactly how much ours saved but we carried on paying roughly the same DD the following winter but the winter was much colder and we had a new baby so left the heating on much, much more. We finished the winter slightly in credit whereas with the old boiler on less in a warmer winter we were in debit.

I've never had a problem with a combi boiler in 20 years of having them. Keep them serviced regularly and they've always been fine. Clearly I've just been lucky.

The only combi-boiler which caused us problems was the one fitted in our new-build. The ones fitted by independent gas fitters were no problem.