Needing to replace your boiler is never something anyone looks forward to, hopefully you are replacing yours because you want to take advantage of the benefits of a new boiler and their energy efficiency, and not because you have found yourself without hot water or heating unexpectedly.
Fortunately having a new boiler installed is actually a much simpler proposition than it used to be. The vast majority of people in most homes today will only be going for what we call a like-for-like boiler swap. This means that you are changing your current boiler for one of the same type, e.g. a combi for a combi, a system for a system, an electric for an electric etc.
Like-for-like boiler swaps are the easiest to do, and generally take no more than a single day. This is because the pipework on your existing boiler will generally be a match or close match for your new one – even if you are switching brands – which in turn makes the installation easy and simple for your engineer.
There are a couple of situations where you would expect to have a slightly longer time to change your boiler. Moving your boiler to a new location in your home will take longer even if it is the same boiler type since there may need to be new pipework and flues installed for example. Changing to a new boiler type – sometimes referred to as upgrading your boiler – will take longer as well as there will definitely be new pipework required, as well as safe removal of your old boiler. In some cases installing a new boiler type could take 3-4 days if it involves having an oil tank installed outside for instance.
However, as we mentioned earlier, the majority of homes in the UK won’t need a new boiler type installing, thankfully just a simple and easy like-for-like swap. Quite often you’ll find that the changing of the boiler itself takes less time than the safety checks that need to be performed afterwards to ensure everything is okay and can be passed safe by a Gas Safe registered engineer that all gas boiler installations must be carried out by.
