Typically, the best time to upgrade your boiler is when repairs and collective inefficiencies mean that it costs more money to keep an old boiler running than it would cost to buy a new, more efficient model.
But what happens if you have an older, technically inefficient boiler that is still going strong and shows no signs of needing replacing? This is where it gets a lot trickier, and the answer often depends on your priorities and the specifics of the system being replaced.
If your boiler is working well enough, your energy and water bills are not noticeably expensive, and you have been relatively fortunate with repairs, is it worth replacing what is not broken? Here is the case for and against.
How Long Do Boilers Typically Last?
Most modern boilers will last around 15 years, although they will typically start to show their age if they are not properly serviced by around the eight-year mark.
Boilers almost never completely break irreparably, but instead will gradually cost more and more to use, repair and service until it becomes clear that they are just not worth keeping anymore.
In most cases, a boiler is kept around until it breaks one time too many; a boiler engineer then provides a quote and often suggests that a replacement at this point would save you more money.
If your boiler is still working, however, should you be so hasty to get rid of it?
The Case For Keeping An Old Boiler
Old boiler systems are often very different from the modern systems used today, and replacing the boiler itself often means significant adjustments to the pipework, radiators and overall heating system.
With a boiler that age, it is rarely a like-for-like swap, and this can affect the financial basis that justifies a replacement.
Whilst a straightforward boiler swap often pays for itself after a few years, replacing the entire pipework of a house can take decades to break even on in some cases, and determining whether you are lucky or not requires an expert’s eye.
The Case For Installing A New Boiler
Most boilers running years or decades beyond their expected operational lifespan come with baggage, usually in the form of inefficiencies, unusual quirks of the heating system, odd noises and a lack of modern functionalities expected of a boiler today.
Older boilers are not fitted with smart thermostats, so temperatures have to be adjusted manually, and boilers often need to be carefully switched on and off, a process that becomes increasingly fraught as parts get increasingly worn out.
On the subject of parts, components for older boilers stop being mass-produced beyond a certain point, making them increasingly difficult to come by to the point that a small component failure that would cost less than £100 on a modern boiler could write off an older one.
These failures are also unpredictable, and the biggest danger of keeping an old boiler is the risk that it could break when you need it most, requiring an expensive callout charge in the middle of winter to fix it.
Alongside this, new boilers and heat pumps provide such efficiency benefits and can provide much lower bills that the upgrade often pays for itself more quickly than you might expect.
