Life expectancy of a condensing boiler

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Drivel, I'm interested.

Tell me about the boilers you know of that are condensing and were put in in 1997 without needing a part since.

I know of one make and I have a few chaps on the road........ which makes/models?
 
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Hi,

we're currently getting quotes for a replacement boiler system, and we are told by one of the potential installers that the life expectancy of a condensing boiler is only a mere 7 years. This seems a bit on the shy side!!! Other installers have not mentioned this, or made any comment on life expectancy.

Dornfield
This is just another example of how trying to be honest in this game is the quickest way to bankruptcy...
Seems you got to treat customers like mushrooms. Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em ****. ;)
 
Hi,

we're currently getting quotes for a replacement boiler system, and we are told by one of the potential installers that the life expectancy of a condensing boiler is only a mere 7 years. This seems a bit on the shy side!!! Other installers have not mentioned this, or made any comment on life expectancy.

Dornfield
This is just another example of how trying to be honest in this game is the quickest way to bankruptcy...

Are you saying condensing boilers only last 10 years? Is so, cowboy is apt.
 
Can some one tell me at what point is classed as unfixable? How many parts need to be changed before you don’t have the same boiler you started with?

My rule of thumb is the main heat exchanger, if that goes it is a new boiler. But even that rule is not hard and fast, if changed the main hx of a biasi m90 the other day :confused:

Btw the average break down is once every 6 years. A number which if belie is going to decrease as older (more reliable) boilers go out of service.

If I was designing a combi boiler today I would take something like the biasi m96 (b rated) as a base then separate the transformer and spark gen off the pcb. Dump the clock (should have externel controls anyway) and expanded the boiler to make every thing easier to get too. Also build in a filter of some sort in too the return. Then put a much much better trap that you can get to from the front in....all that as a start anyway
 
Cost has to be taken into account Mehran, and that is the where it falls down.

Is there any point in throwing £6-700 quid on an 7 year old boiler that we know damn well is going to break down again.
 
Can some one tell me at what point is classed as unfixable? How many parts need to be changed before you don’t have the same boiler you started with?

Its classed as unfixable when a boiler installer goes there and is short of work!

Tony
 
If I was designing a combi boiler today I would take something like the biasi m96 (b rated) as a base then separate the transformer and spark gen off the pcb. Dump the clock (should have externel controls anyway) and expanded the boiler to make every thing easier to get too. Also build in a filter of some sort in too the return. Then put a much much better trap that you can get to from the front in....all that as a start anyway

The makers haven't got it right. Only two have it right in the Amtos Multi and ACV HeatMaster. These have large heat exchanger water jackets, so large they become thermal stores. I'm nor sure what the water content is of an Archie Kidd. Older boilers had large content heat exchanger water jackets. Oil boilers still do.

The large water content, large thermals mass of water, means boiler cycling is down to minimum. The larger the better. The water jacket in some oil boilers is so large you can just slap on the side a plate heat exchanger, pump, flow switch and blending valve and an instant high flow combi emerges. I once put in a 100kW oil boiler and made a combi out of it because of the large water jacket - no restrictions on meter sizing with oil. The house only needed 21kW of heat. The flow rate was phenomenal all from just one box and no bulky cylinders.

One way to get around the problem of no water jacket is make your own - a thermal store. This is a detached water jacket in which the boiler only heats the cylinder of water. Boiler cycling is eliminated.

So it is clear, boilers, and combis in particular, work better with larger water jackets.

I would go back to the old ways. Have a heat exchanger with a 60 litre insulated high efficiency water jacket. Boiler cycling is reduced, and eliminated with proper control and high flow rates.

Using the whole of the boiler casing, making the heat exchanger square taking up all space is the way. Good packaging. It may not require an inefficient auto by-pass, as the heat exchanger requires no minimum flow through it. Then the flowrates would be superb, just by going back in time and integrating a thermal store into the heat exchanger.

Then a modulating burner of course, anti-cycle control, OpenTherm compatible, weather compensator with room influence, an auto speed Smart pump so TRVs are all around too.
 
Cost has to be taken into account Mehran, and that is the where it falls down.

Is there any point in throwing £6-700 quid on an 7 year old boiler that we know damn well is going to break down again.

What boiler cost £700 to fix? Even a new heat exchanger doesn't cost that much - and if you have a Buderus, the heat exchanger clips in and out in 10 minutes.
 
Cost has to be taken into account Mehran, and that is the where it falls down.

Is there any point in throwing £6-700 quid on an 7 year old boiler that we know damn well is going to break down again.

What boiler cost £700 to fix? Even a new heat exchanger doesn't cost that much - and if you have a Buderus, the heat exchanger clips in and out in 10 minutes.

You read about it all the time in the forums Drivel if you bother to read it.

This little gem you just posted is about the only truth you have spouted.

The makers haven't got it right.
 

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