Condensing boiler myth

Dear Sir

Have we all been led into a fool’s paradise of cost saving, energy saving and carbon reduction with the introduction of condensing boilers?

With the rapidly escalating number of short-term failures and disclosures of vastly increased service and maintenance costs, it would seem that we have.

I regularly receive reports of boilers on which the service and maintenance costs have completely negated any savings from reduction in fuel consumption, and this, coupled with the comparably short life of the boiler, makes a complete nonsense of the technology. 

Not to mention, of course, the nuisance value of a boiler which regularly fails to achieve it’s mundane task of producing space heating and hot water services.

My nextdoor neighbours have just replaced a four-year-old combi, which was deemed to be unusable, and which during that period had cost in excess of £1,000 in service and spare parts.

Given the choice, they would certainly not have replaced it with another condensing boiler, but of course had no option.

It’s turned out to be a sad and rather ridiculous situation.

Lance Ritchie

Ritchie Engineering Sales Agency