New boilers, sized right and fitted clean

There’s no one-size-fits-all figure, because several things drive the price: whether you need a combi or a system boiler, the output your home needs, how many bathrooms you have, and the condition and route of the existing pipework and flue. A like-for-like combi swap is more straightforward than converting from a tank-fed system to a combi or moving the boiler to a new spot, and any extra work — a new flue run, a magnetic filter, or upgrading old pipework — affects the total. Rather than a vague ballpark, send us a few photos of your boiler, the flue and the pipework on WhatsApp and you’ll get a fair, fixed price up front, with no pushy in-home survey and no surprises once we start.

A straightforward like-for-like combi replacement is usually a single day. We drain the system down, take out the old boiler, fit the new one and any system filter, flush the system through, dose it with inhibitor, then commission it to the manufacturer’s Benchmark standard, test it and leave everything clean and working. Jobs with more to them take longer: converting from a tank-fed system to a combi means removing the old cylinder and feed-and-expansion tanks and reworking the pipework, while relocating the boiler, fitting a new flue or upgrading old pipework can push a job to two days or more. When we quote from your photos we’ll tell you honestly how long your specific job should take and roughly when in the day the gas and water go off, so you can plan around being without heating or hot water for the shortest time possible.

The one that’s right-sized for your property and your hot-water demand — not the dearest. A combi heats water on demand from a single unit with no tank or cylinder, so it frees up loft and cupboard space and suits flats, terraces and homes with one bathroom. A system boiler with an unvented cylinder stores hot water at mains pressure, which is better for larger homes with two or more bathrooms where several taps or showers might run at once and a combi would struggle to keep up. Output is the other half of the decision: too small and it won’t keep up in cold weather, too large and it short-cycles and wastes gas. We work it out with proper BTU and heat-loss calculations based on your rooms, radiators, windows and bathrooms, then give you an honest recommendation rather than simply selling the most expensive option.

Yes. Every installation is carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer (No. 945446) and commissioned to the manufacturer’s Benchmark standard — that means the gas inlet pressure and gas rate are set correctly, combustion is checked with a flue gas analyser, and the Benchmark logbook in the boiler manual is filled in and dated. Because fitting a gas boiler is notifiable work under the Building Regulations, we register it with Gas Safe and notify building control on your behalf, and you’ll receive the Building Regulations compliance certificate in the post. Registering the installation this way is also what validates the manufacturer’s guarantee on your new boiler from the day it’s fitted, so it’s worth keeping the Benchmark logbook and the certificate together somewhere safe in case you ever need to make a claim.

It applies to the Ideal Vogue Max range specifically — not every boiler. As an Accredited Ideal installer we can register a Vogue Max with Ideal for up to a 12-year manufacturer’s guarantee, on two conditions: it’s registered with Ideal within 30 days of installation (we handle that for you on the day it’s fitted), and it’s then serviced every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer, with each service logged so the guarantee stays valid. We’ll remind you when the annual service is due. Other boilers we fit carry their own manufacturer’s guarantee — usually a shorter term — and the same yearly-service condition normally applies.