Good Morning All: I've finally decided that it's time to have my old Ideal-Standard floor standing boiler replaced - it's been working for the past 36 years with very few problems, but I suspect that it's efficiency is not very good compared with the latest condensing boilers. My present system is gravity hot water and pumped heating, and I would like to replace this with a fully pumped system.
My plumber is reccomending the Worcester/Bosch floor standing boiler, but I've heard mixed reports about their reliability. Does anyone have any comments on this?. What about Potterton - are they any better?. All comments gratefully received.
Jim A,
Get your plumber to sniff the flue gases and tell you what the efficiency is.
A new boiler is unlikely to have a life longer than 10 years so while spares are available for the old one if its efficiency is not too bad I would stick with it.
end
your old boiler will be no more that 40% efficient and you have got gravity hot water so every £100 - £60 goes up the chimney a new boiler will be round about 90% efficient
Stoneyboy - You're saying exactly what another plumber told me several years ago. Spares are hard to come by, I had a devil of a job getting a replacement boiler stat recently.
Norwich-plumber - It'a gas boiler, and I don't want to muck up the kitchen too much. I think a replacement floor standing boiler would slot in easily in the space occupied by the present one.
According to the data chart inside the boiler, the original efficiency was 74% (81,000BThU in, 60,000BThU out). It sounds like a scaled up kettle as it warms up, so I suppose it's nowhere near that figure now.
Is there a make of boiler that stands out as being more reliable/has a longer life etc. than other makes?
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