Advice needed on baxi boiler repair and cover!

[pb2012]

Hi All,

I have a leak from what seems to be the Heat exchanger in my baxi solo boiler, and a heating guy confirmed this. The boiler is only approx 3 years old.

A new exchanger and the cost to take the boiler to bits, reassemble and re-fit probably makes a new one not a whole lot more expensive. I could get a replacement for £600, then £150 for the labour to do the swap.

I rang baxi and they have a repair and cover plan, which is £24.99 per month. A guy will comes out asap and repair the fault, then I'm tied in for 12 months at the above cost which is about £300 for the year. All parts and labour are covered. If he cant fix it and a new boiler is needed then there is no cost and I'm back to square one.

So it seems my options are this:

A) spend money to get the fault investigated and hopefully fixed. This will likely cost a lot and there are no guarentees the problem will be fixed.

B) get a whole new boiler at approx £750 fitted. get 2 years warranty on it

C) spread a cost of £300 over 12 months to get it fixed/working. Get 1 year parts and labour warranty on future problems.


Option C seems a little too good and one that appeals. Has anyone has a baxi repair and cover plan, or have experience with it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[linkyplumb]

get a replacement for £600, then £150 for the labour to do the swap.

you'll be lucky.
Cant see anyone worth their salt doing a boiler swap for £150

 

[simond]

I don't know much about the later Baxi boilers, we won't fit them. But for a boiler heat exchanger to fail within 3 years suggests one of two things;

- manufacturing defect
- incredibly sludgy radiator system

If it is the former, then I suggest you write to Baxi saying the fault makes the boiler unfit for purpose and any resonable man would expect the major component to last longer than 3 years.

If it is the latter, then your new boiler (and I too express huge doubts over the price you have mentioned) is unlikely to last any longer than the first one.

£1600 for a replacement boiler with proper preparation (powerflush etc) sounds more plausible.

 

[richw]

Out of interest, why won't you fix Baxi boilers? My father in law is after a new boiler, and has his eye on them.

 

[dcawkwell]

I do boiler replacement from £900 for a 30kW combi.
If you are near Doncaster send me a personal message.

 

[gas112]

If the system was clean etc and the leak was purely a dodgy heat ex this job could be possibly done in couple of hours without draining changing it for another solo but the backplate may possibly need changing as well as they had an alteration a couple of years back.
600 for a solo is slighty on the cheap side they are a bit more expensive including

 

[pb2012]

Thanks for the input guys.

A gas safe guy I know said he'd do a swap for £150. I think he feels sorry for me... the price would prob creep up with a flush and inhibitor topup.

A swap would be the solo 15HE, at £595 delivered:

http://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/baxi-solo-15-he-regular-boiler-natural-gas/

The current boiler is a 24HE but seems overkill.

I'm only in a small 2-bed terrace with 5 rads. My hot water needs are virtual nill. I wash a few plates at the end of the day maybe. The shower is electric. The hot water cylinder is a small one but a full load lasts me ages, until it just goes cold.

I could perhaps even get the 12HE for a tad less, but that might be more suited to a 1/2-bed flat or something?


So faced with a new boiler fitted at approx £800+ Vs paying £25 per month for 12 months for a fix and 12 months cover, what do you think you'd lean towards?

It seems like I could effectively have a covered boiler for 2 years with the baxi scheme, spreading it out at £25 per month installments totalling £600, or get a whole new one which is also covered/warrantied for 2 years for £800 in lump sum paid now...

It seems like there must be a catch with the baxi scheme?

 

[pb2012]

If the system was clean etc and the leak was purely a dodgy heat ex this job could be possibly done in couple of hours without draining changing it for another solo but the backplate may possibly need changing as well as they had an alteration a couple of years back.
600 for a solo is slighty on the cheap side they are a bit more expensive including

I'd be more than happy to get a repair done if it isnt too much trouble and is an economical repair. It seems to me though that we could get the boiler taken apart and patched up but not have any guarentees it would be trouble free when fired back up? I don't want to pour good money after bad then just end up having to replace it, so that's my concern with trying to fix.
If someone who knows there way around these things could have a look at it that would be ideal...

 

[pb2012]

Another question for anyone who might know. To get the heat exchanger and it's manifold out to inspect the seals etc, would it involve the system and boiler being drained, removing the flue and/or cutting feed pipes to get the gubbins out in the open?

It looks all pretty well bolted down just from initial inspection under the heat exchanged cover.

Access from either side of the boiler is heavily restricted, so I can only get a front view of things.