Andy Hall wrote:

The author has made the typical confusion between combi and condensing
boilers.

He may have. I think it more likely that he meant exactly what he said;
"...........that some 40 per cent of today's energy-efficient
combination boilers break down within the first year"

I spent some time trying to steer a relative away from a combi. They're
more complex than the equivalent system boiler and just have more parts
to go wrong. The relative lives in a hard water area.


I doubt that my new boiler will last the 40 years it's predecessor
did. I'm spending a lot less on gas though.


One might expect it in the press - even the Telegraph
doesn't always get things right - but one would have hoped that a
journal purporting to explain science could do a bit better than this.

It was a letter and I've no idea whether the author has any technical
background. It sounds quite plausible.