So long story short my boiler has gone, engineer says a new PCB could fix it but no promises. Ive been quote £1630 + vat to replace it. Does anyone know if this is fair/where I could get better in the south east of London area?
Gas Combi? I had an Ariston fitted in N London this time last year for 1500 all in IIRC. I can dig out the details of the chap that did it if you like? He will work SE London as far as I know.
Alpha - have a word with British Gas service. My boiler died a couple of years ago and I contacted them. For a £99 one off fee and minimum 12 months sign up to BG Service (approx £24 per month) they signed me up and fixed the boiler. Really hard to fault them for that. I already had a quote for £450 to fix it from an independent engineer, and I've had them out again when the heat exchanger croaked - no charge. The service contract covers radiators and pipework too.
+1 on British gas. We were having intermittent issue with our hot water last winter, but due to laziness didn't get round to doing anything about it. But took out British Gas's boiler/heating insurance, and when we had to turn the heating on recently the hot water started playing up again so we called 'em out and they fixed it next day One thing to bare in mind is that not all faults are covered, scale isn't for instance. Also, they may be willing to replace your boiler if its less than 7 years old, or 10 if fitted by a British Gas engineer...
This is why I won't change my boiler. It's an old Baxi Bermuda backboiler from the early 90's. We pay a local company £15 (safe heat) a month and they service twice a year and it includes parts and labour. It's not going to win any awards for efficiency but there is no fancy PCB's or other electronics that can go wrong. It's either on or off and that's it. Just a very simple hot water and heating timer.
Our gas use has dropped noticeably since we fitted a wireless thermostat. Ours used to be timer only. The only problem was without a roomstat it was full bore for the given period. Combine with a roomstat you can stick to the timer but it won't come on unless it needs to. And I can access it from my phone and piss the wife off, while I'm at work!
Check a comparison service before signing up! British Gas were one of the most expensive providers for boiler cover when I got cover for my combi. BG were £8/month with £99 callout, whilst HomeServe were £2/month and £95 callout!! I used http://www.uswitch.com/boiler-cover/application/
We tend to not bother with the central heating at all. We only have a small 2 bed house so we just put the gas fire on low in the lounge and it warms the house through just fine. I'm really tight with the hot water setting too, allowing just enough for a couple of showers and some washing up each day. If the wife wants a bath I will pop the electric immersion heater on which takes around 15 minutes to heat up the whole tank. We are looking to move soon and I'm dreading having a super modern boiler. I will definately be putting it on a full cover package of sorts.
I had a problem with my boiler a few years ago and a local engineer diagnosed it as a PCB fault and gave me a quote to fit a replacement. I looked up the boiler model number on the internet and found a trade forum where it was being discussed by engineers. I discovered that PCB failure was a common fault with that model and the symptoms matched what I was experiencing. I also found out how much a replacement PCB cost so by factoring in labour costs I could tell how realistic the quote I'd been given was.
