replacement boiler

[donmaico]

hi
I am not a plumber myself but a punter looking for advice for the best replacement boilers available .Currently i use an Alpha CB28 which has given me a fair amount of trouble during the 6 yrs i had it.I have a 4 bed house with 10 rads all bar two are also 6 yrs old .Much of the pipework is stainless steel from when there was a copper shortage and although i dont think i have any leaks as yet in the pipework, they may have contributed t o the sludge build up .
The boiler itself has had 3 diverters fitted and a new pcb plus it still leaks slightly after a repair I had done( washer i think).The engineer told me there was quite a bit of corrosion in the form of whit deposits present and recommended having the system flushed out which i subsequently had done.
Anyway i am now wondering what the best course of action is - replace pipework for copper, add a magnaclean , replace boiler? The current one is working ok at the moment but I envisage replacing it one day , the question is to which one?No one as yet has pointed at a particular make and said "thats the kiddy" all the engineers I spoke to have their preferences but then point out the pitfalls( eg too much plastic in a Worcester Bosch).In any case they mostly seem to be made by OEMs so share the same innards.
Any advice please? Thanks

 

[Puddle]

When I read you have had a lot of trouble with the Alpha CB28,thought,thats strange,not a bad boiler,then you proceed to say not the boiler but the system attacking the boiler,any boiler would have a problem with truewell pipe work throughout with no inhibitor and all corroded
This is in no way stainless steel and you are lucky you have not had a lot of leaks,without inhibitor in system you have been sitting on a time bomb,I was ripping this out due to splits and leaking twenty years ago,still come across some,when you cut it out the 22mm pipe work has a inner bore of about 10mm after all the corrosion on inners sides taken into account
Do not think about replacing boiler until you replace all pipe work,this should have been done when rads replaced 6 years ago
As said alfa are a good boiler and maybe has proved that by lasting so long on this system
As regards make of a new boiler,as said there is not one to put on your existing pipe work,magnaclean's are good but not that good to take care of your needs
Once you have sorted that out,lots of good boiler recommended on various other threads

 

[donmaico]

When I read you have had a lot of trouble with the Alpha CB28,thought,thats strange,not a bad boiler,then you proceed to say not the boiler but the system attacking the boiler,any boiler would have a problem with truewell pipe work throughout with no inhibitor and all corroded
This is in no way stainless steel and you are lucky you have not had a lot of leaks,without inhibitor in system you have been sitting on a time bomb,I was ripping this out due to splits and leaking twenty years ago,still come across some,when you cut it out the 22mm pipe work has a inner bore of about 10mm after all the corrosion on inners sides taken into account
Do not think about replacing boiler until you replace all pipe work,this should have been done when rads replaced 6 years ago
As said alfa are a good boiler and maybe has proved that by lasting so long on this system
As regards make of a new boiler,as said there is not one to put on your existing pipe work,magnaclean's are good but not that good to take care of your needs
Once you have sorted that out,lots of good boiler recommended on various other threads

Thank you.
engineer assured me had put inhibitor in when he mounted the boiler but after a few years there were white deposits and i had to have the diverter changed 3 times.I guess its possible he never did add it.
As far as the piework is concerned i was tolds it was stainless steel, no mention was made of truewell pipework.I have never heard of that.Anyway i will look to have the pipework replaced.Thanks

 

[doitmyself]

Engineer assured me had put inhibitor in when he mounted the boiler but after a few years there were white deposits and i had to have the diverter changed 3 times.I guess its possible he never did add it.

White deposits are limescale. You must be in a hard water area.

The standard inhibitor only deals with the problems of sludge due to radiators "rusting" internally; it is not intended to deal with limescale. Your installer should have put in a limescale remover/inhibitor, eg. Sentinel X200, as well as the standard inhibitor.

 

[donmaico]

White deposits are limescale. You must be in a hard water area.

The standard inhibitor only deals with the problems of sludge due to radiators "rusting" internally; it is not intended to deal with limescale. Your installer should have put in a limescale remover/inhibitor, eg. Sentinel X200, as well as the standard inhibitor.

Mmm,ok thanks and that despite me asking different engineers if hard water was a problem with central heating systems(We live in a very hard water area where you can actually taste the chalk in it)I was told it wouldnt be.Would it be to late to add sentinel X200 now?I did have a water conditioner fitted over a year ago above the boiler mainly, as I thought, for the ordinary running water but i was told it that wouldnt affect the central heating so much as its got its own circuit of water.

 

[doitmyself]

Mmm,ok thanks and that despite me asking different engineers if hard water was a problem with central heating systems(We live in a very hard water area where you can actually taste the chalk in it)I was told it wouldn't be.

It shouldn't be a problem as you have a sealed system. In theory, you fill the system once, some limescale is deposited (but not a significant amount) and that's that. But every time you drain down and refill or top up the pressure you are introducing more water onto the system, so more limescale will get deposited.

Would it be to late to add sentinel X200 now?I did have a water conditioner fitted over a year ago above the boiler mainly, as I thought, for the ordinary running water but i was told it that wouldnt affect the central heating so much as its got its own circuit of water.

Where are the white deposits?

If they are on the heating circuit, then adding a can or two of X200 will help.

 

[migoplumber]

stainless steel pipework ? you sure you dont mean screwed iron ?

 

[donmaico]

stainless steel pipework ? you sure you dont mean screwed iron ?

i think the mains pipe is either screwed iron or , maybe,galvanised steel.Its much thicker than the others and probably there since the house was built in 1896.
The pipework i speak of, though, has the colour of steel not iron and was apparently used in the seventies during a copper shortage

 

[Plouasne]

This rings a bell with me, around this time late '60's early '70' they brought out copper tube replacement tube, some of it was passivated iron tube and some of it was stainless steel tube

The passivated steel tube was ####, and stainless steel tube suffered from corrosive chloride based fluxes if the flux was not thoroughly cleaned off with hot water, after soldering

 

[donmaico]

This rings a bell with me, around this time late '60's early '70' they brought out copper tube replacement tube, some of it was passivated iron tube and some of it was stainless steel tube

The passivated steel tube was ####, and stainless steel tube suffered from corrosive chloride based fluxes if the flux was not thoroughly cleaned off with hot water, after soldering

could be the latter i guess .What i do know is when the last repair men came round they took a sample of water away for testing and told me it had too much acid in it so needed flushing out

 

[oldplumber]

sounds like my first house 25 yrs back, mixture of copper, galvanised steel, stainless steal and early plastic pipework. The old floor standing boiler finally died having been thoroughly choked with limescale and corrosion. Didnt have power flushing back then thank god as it would have done no good anyway as the mild steel was totally clogged and all the rads shot. Still replaced the lot and started off in plumbing the hard way ( my poor old cousin a qualified plumber had to mentor me) still finished the lot in less than 12 weeks (i had to earn a living) probaly learnt as much as one of the quick training courses, but by no means enough to do the job properly on my own! Never learnt my lesson and im still at it know, less mistakes i hope