Any gas heating engineers on the forum? Advice needed.

[ey_tony]

Hi guys, last week my gas boiler finally gave up the ghost after 27 years of service. The boiler an IDEAL Classic RS250.
I called someone out today to give me a price and a more or less 'modern like for like swap was quoted as £2900.00 for the swap (equivalent modern Ideal boiler) including Hive smart thermostat.
The brickwork around the new small diameter flue will need doing but other than that it's virtually a straight swap. The house is a compact 4 bed detached just over 25 years old.
To be honest I haven't a clue with regard to pricing these days so if there are any heating engineers reading this, is this a fair price?

 

[Spectric]

Get more quotes and also make sure the price includes a system flush and a filter is included as you may not have one on the old system. Also the new boiler will be a condensing type and require a condensate pipe to a drain which will all be new so a little more work. So get more quotes and make sure they are listing what that entails so you have no surprises and can do fair comparisons between the quotes.

 

[ey_tony]

Get more quotes and also make sure the price includes a system flush and a filter is included as you may not have one on the old system. Also the new boiler will be a condensing type and require a condensate pipe to a drain which will all be new so a little more work. So get more quotes and make sure they are listing what that entails so you have no surprises and can do fair comparisons between the quotes.

Thanks Spectric...will do that.

 

[Ed209]

Is it definitely beyond repair?

 

[Bingy man]

My experience of ideal classics is they were good system boilers , cast iron heat exchanger etc but they were prone to condensation and rotted from the inside to out - parts are limited and expensive so new boiler is the best solution. As per @Spectric system flush. and filter is essential. And get several quotes insist on a valiant or Worcester Bosch as imo these are the best . Usually the cheaper the quote the cheaper the cheaper boilers will be fitted ( ferrolli biasi etc ) also they tend to just drain fit new boiler and fill up and Fxxk off leaving your new boiler to circulate old , sludged and contaminated water through equally sludged radiators. Try this - apply a magnet to any copper pipe in the airing cupboard and if it is attracted to the pipe then the pipe contains sludge ( iron oxide ) hope this helps ..

 

[Pedronicus]

It would be helpful to know what symptoms/fault caused the Classic to 'give up the ghost'.

 

[Duncan A]

Typically, around here (Northampton) quotes are £3.5k to £4k, but that would be for a Vaillant or Worcester Bosch and include a flush, fitment of magnetic filter and the aforementioned condensate drain.
If replacing a standard boiler with a combi, there may well be additional costs such as removal of the hot water cylinder and fixing any leaks in the now - pressurised hot water pipework

 

[Spectric]

If replacing a standard boiler with a combi,

If you have a system boiler with hot water tank then keep that system, combi's are not as efficient and can have higher maintenance cost over there lifetime but some might try and push you down that route, either way modern boilers will be hard pushed to give 27 years of service.

 

[Sideways]

If you are having new components fitted, radiators, boiler, whatever, a good flush out should come first.

To make the point, this is what I found flushing my own.
I did this myself by feeding mains water into the filling loop and opening and closing radiator valves etc around the house to concentrate the flow through different pipes.
It's a poor man's DIY flush after running the system with cleaning additive in for a few weeks and before fitting some nice new vertical radiators.

A magnetic filter is an absolute must for your central heating. I mismanged my own CH for a while some years ago and the price was a long run of 15mm plastic pipe that totally blocked with black magnetite flakes. I had to replace the pipe run and I've been much more dilligent about it since then including fitting a filter.

I ran many buckets of water through our system until it came out clear. You have to be careful with the taps so that you never leave main pressure water pushing into the system unless there's an open tap for it to get out of. That way pressure doesn't build up.

The pump is just to empty the bucket. When full it's too heavy to carry to the drain and pour out.

Your boiler fitters should do this with a machine made for the job.