A boiler is one of your home’s most essential appliances. It keeps your temperature at a liveable, comfortable level and needs to be maintained to ensure the safety of your household. That’s why it’s essential to recognise the tell-tale signs that your boiler may need to be repaired—or worse, entirely replaced. If your boiler is old, installed before 2005, and indicates troubleshooting on a daily basis, which leads to costly repair, you must consider replacing it.
Is It Time to Replace Your Boiler?
Replacing your boiler can be difficult, but the UK government has designed an ECO4 free boiler replacement scheme to help low-income households replace their inefficient boilers with new energy-efficient ones.
They aim to provide quality assurance, peace of mind, and the best home possible when the retrofit is complete.
Not only are you reducing your carbon footprint with a home retrofit, but other benefits to your home’s energy efficiency include a cosier, healthier home with a consistent temperature and instant hot water, increasing the property’s value. Future-proofing your home is easier than ever with the significant grant funding available through ECO4.
Let’s discuss signs indicating it may be time to replace the boiler.
Signs Your Boiler Needs Replacing
It’s not always clear when a boiler needs to be replaced. But there are some warning signs you should look out for. These are signs that you need to get a new boiler:
Higher Bills
Old boilers are almost unequivocally less efficient. An older boiler might be as low as G-rated or 60% efficient, which is far from the 90%+ efficiency of modern boilers. New boilers must be 86% efficient for gas and 85% for oil to meet building regulations.
It’s always been said that boilers older than 10 to 15 years are useless and expensive to run, but this varies for each boiler, so it’s better to get an expert’s opinion from a heating engineer about boiler service.
People are used to rising bills, so it can be hard to tell if they are. However, you should check your bills to see if they go up before energy prices do.
- Higher bills may indicate worsening boiler performance.
- If your bills are at their peak during winter without a change in your gas tariff, it could be the boiler’s fault.
- New boilers must be at least 85% efficient, but many are 90%+ efficient.
- A new boiler will gradually pay for itself compared to running an old, costly boiler.
Strange Smells From The Boiler
Boilers should not produce any smells. If your boiler starts producing a sulfurous, eggy, or otherwise unusual smell, evacuate the building.
Other strange smells should also be checked out immediately, whether burning, hot, or something else. Call the emergency line and evacuate the building when the gas smells are present.
This might happen simultaneously as changing the pilot light on your boiler. If the pilot light turns orange, ensure your carbon monoxide alarms are working right and call a technician immediately.
- Boilers should be odourless.
- Most gas smells are emergencies. If you suspect a leak, call the emergency gas line.
- Changes to the pilot light might accompany smells.
- Never ignore a smelly boiler!
Changes to the Pilot Light
A pilot light on an older boiler lights the main burner. Newer boilers don’t have pilot lights and instead use electric lighting.
It’s firstly important to say that if you smell gas, you shouldn’t go near the boiler to check the pilot light. Instead, shut off your gas at the mains supply, evacuate the immediate area, and call the gas emergency line.
Pilot lights should burn wholly blue. If they burn orange or have an orange tinge, shut off the boiler and call a Gas Safe Engineer.
If so, the boiler may be releasing dangerous carbon monoxide. Use a meter to check, and stay away from the boiler until you hear back. Remember that carbon monoxide has no smell and can kill you.
- Changes to the pilot light are signs of existing or imminent faults.
- Some boilers don’t have pilot lights; they have electric starters instead.
- Never ignore changes to the pilot light.
- If a strange smell occurs when the pilot light is changed, evacuate the premises and call the emergency gas line. Luckily, this is rare.
Frequent Issues
If your boiler shuts off randomly, displays frequent error messages, stops working shortly after firing up, or heats slowly, it might be worth replacing.
Boilers shouldn’t need to be fixed once a year; a monthly service should keep them running efficiently. If you constantly have to call an engineer to fix your boiler, you might consider getting a new one instead.
- Frequent boiler issues may indicate poor overall function.
- It’s cheaper to replace the boiler than to keep repairing it repeatedly.
- Other issues might arise if regular servicing doesn’t keep a boiler working smoothly.
- Ask a heating engineer for advice.
Low Performance
We already talked about how higher bills are a sign of a bad boiler, but you can also tell if your boiler is healthy by how quickly your radiators heat up.
Leaks or Dripping Pipes
Your boiler should never leak. If it leaks and your boiler is reaching its lifespan, you should consider replacing it with a new energy-efficient heating system.
Poor Performance
You notice that your boiler isn’t behaving as it used to. If it takes a long time to heat up, or you’re continually adjusting the pressure, it’s time to get it checked and consider replacing it with a more sustainable and greener option.
Banging or Gurgling Noises
Boilers are noisy, and most of the time, the sounds and noises are nothing to worry about. However, if you notice your boiler making a kettling, banging, gurgling, or clunking sound, this can be a sign of a more serious problem.
Energy Efficiency and Modern Boilers
Newer boilers, especially gas and biomass boilers, use much less energy than older ones. Because of this, energy prices go down, and the carbon impact goes down. A brand-new boiler can be more than 90% efficient, while an older one might only be 60% to 70% efficient.
Summary
We hope you’re clear now that if your boiler indicates the above alarming signs, you should have to replace your boiler. Newer boilers use less fuel to heat your house, so they are better for the environment. Breakdowns are much less likely to happen after a new installation. They can give you more control over the heating, which makes your home more cosy.
And you can enjoy lower energy bills and hassle-free home heating.
