Glow-worm hideaway boiler 70b/80b

[sheeny]

Hi, got one of these boilers, seems very innefficient the amount of heat going out through the flue to the outside seems way more than acceptable.
The amount of gas used each day (on twice,for about 9 hours in total) is around 18/20 numerals on the meter.
Question is, is the boiler faulty (its about 20 yrs old) or just normal for that type of boiler?
Cheers

[gasmarc]

well if you are getting a nice blue flame and you know doubt have it serviced every year I cannot see the problem since we are having the coldest snap in 20 years, i would recommend getting a CO detector also

[sheeny]

Yeah nice blue flame...... got that, but you could cook a meal on the vent going outside.
Is it normal to lose so much heat through the flue??

well if you are getting a nice blue flame and you know doubt have it serviced every year I cannot see the problem since we are having the coldest snap in 20 years, i would recommend getting a CO detector also

[gas man]

if this is a balanced flue as i am assuming it is as you say you can touch the flue,it should have a guard around it and yes it is normal to get very hot your boilers not very efficient but look on the plus side theres no condensate pipe to freeze,if your concerned about your boiler call out a gsr engineer

[gasmarc]

agree with above ,but i regret taking mine out as it use to keep the kitchen nice and warm and great for drying the clothes

[stevetheplumber]

i can guarantee that the boiler you replace it with wil not last as long and will breakdown a lot more

[sheeny]

i can guarantee that the boiler you replace it with wil not last as long and will breakdown a lot more

I can well believe it, but a new condensing boiler would be a lot more economical, so it's probably swings and roundabouts.
cheers.

[gasmarc]

the only problem I ever had was replacing the thermocouple and eventually having a water leak from the heat exchanger, so i replaced it with a broag remeha 2.5 years old starts leaking water from the diverter valve fortunately got a warranty call guy comes out and hasnt parts ,then I had to wait 2 weeks for guy to come back ,mean while leaving 2 buckets under boiler, guy arrives and replaces diverter valve ,sychron motor,clip, happy days , 3 days late leak starts again condensation pipe frozen , to be honest the old one was better in some ways