My heating engineer told me that all new boilers have parts made in China whether they have a familiar name or not . Even the Which recommended boiler has a life expectancy of ten years.
His motto keep the old boiler and pay the additional gas bill.
Only 10 years? I think you mean it has a 10 year warranty, which is patently not the same as as an economic lifespan. Decent quality combi boilers should last a minimum of 15 years, maybe 20 or more with a good wind, especially if you live in an area that has soft water (failing DWH heat exchangers are a major cause of failures).
That being said, if your existing 'old style' boiler has available a decent and reasonably-priced, quality set of parts and plumbers are OK to maintain it, then unless its well under 65% efficient, then it's worth keep it until it either becomes uneconomic to keep going, the parts drop in quality/are extrememly hard to get hold of or plumbers won't maintain them because the boiler is unusual in design and thus few are trained to maintain them.
I changed my Range (Potterton bought the design) Powermax 140 last autumn because of those problems I noted above - only one plumber in the area was even willing to work on it (the next nearest comes from 75 miles away, though he is an expert) and even then he wasn't trained on it (its a unique design) and due to safety-related issues with this type of unit, most plumbers won't go near it, even servicing.
Just to change such a boiler in an easy-to-work on location would've cost between £2k for an average quality boiler or up to £2.5k for a good'un in a flat or small house (add between £500 and £2k for houses, especially with a non-combi system to change).
Mine was in a very difficult to install area (including no drain nearby) and thus, with the addition of a lengthy pumped condesnsate drain, cost me £3.2k all-in, admitedly including an uprated boiler (probably costing me an extra £250), DHW capacity-wise (I won't bore you with why).
The upshot is that I could've spend best part of £750 just to keep the old (dying) one going, given how expensive the parts were, and they aren't that reliable either. I was lucky that I already had an emergency electric fan heater because the old boiler was out of action for nearly 3 weeks - no hot water and having to go to the local swimming pool for showers (good bit of exercise in the pool though) and huge electric bills.
I was fortunate that my plumber could fit me in to install a new boiler (a Vaillant - German design, assembled up North), especially given the busy time of year and what then followed with COVID-19. It had a number of teething problems in the frist few months of operation (its on its third gas valve - Honeywell units, so they 'should' be good quality [the current one appear to be working fine - the other two only lasted a month each] - and it's on it's second controller [own brand]). Luckily I paid the extra for a 10 year all-inclusive (well, except the controller, which has only a 2 year warranty) warranty, so not costs to me other than a few days using the electric heater when the gas valve failed.
My gas bills (I have a gas hob as well) have dropped from £40pm to £28pm because I've taken full advantage of the very high efficiency mode for DHW production at 40degC and ramping down the heating flow temperature to the minimum needed so it can stay in condensing mode as much as possible.
All that being said, saving £12pm (£144pa) means that, assuming I kept both boilers for another 15 years (unlikely for the old one) and how often/much servicing and maintenenace costs, I might just break even over the life of the new boiler. Where I will save significantly is when that one gets replaced - all the expensive new flue, piping and condensate arrangements can be far more easily replaced (or left, as required/allowed) - the old boiler was a real pain to remove - so I would save best part of £1k on the 3rd gen installation, assuming gas boilers were still being sold in 2034 or so.
It's rather like choosing when to replace your old car with a new one.
Whilst most parts are likely to have been made in China, etc, the design/quality control is more important. There does appear to have been a dip in quality as regards a good few makes nearer the top of late - Worcester (Bosch), Vaillant and Viessmann are still ahed of the rest, but my unit's issues and neighbours' problems with the WB units (Viessmann good but harder to get parts/expensive) mean that if the middle-ranked makes, especially British designed and made like Baxi/Potterton and Ideal can make inroads if they can up their game, as their boilers are often 10-15% cheaper to buy, and are now often matching the warranties of the top brands.
Whether the backlash over COVID-19 against China actually translates into more electronics and mechanical components being made elsewhere (especially in the UK/Europe) is another matter, given it will surely increase the prices for such equipment by some margin.
My parent's 'old' Ideal Mexico boiler is still going strong (no major faults, on its second controller) after nearly 24 years of service - like many others, I recommended they keep it going unless it falls foul of my criteria, even though its nowhere near as efficient as a modern boiler. Most basic type boilers, especially non-condensing ones can, given a fair wind last 25-30 years easily if well maintained. Their previous one lasted 35 years.
As you may have guessed, I am bored today. :-)
Edited by Engineer Andy on 17/05/2020 at 16:17
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