Cicero wrote:
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:04:15 +0000, John wrote:

Cicero wrote:
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:51:56 -0700, wendy_grunge wrote:

We live in a flat with a Johnson & Starley warm air system that has
been disconnected by 'cos the heat exchanger is leaking. Yes, I
know it could be repaired but it's 30+ years old and next year it
will be something else!

We have had a J&S approved guy call who recommends a new J&S
heater - Economaire - it's sealed and doesn't fall foul of the
increasingly tough ventilation/air entry standards. Looks OK.

BUT

However, it does seem a bit expensive. J&S won't tell me what
their boilers cost so I have no way of checking. He wants £2400
to replace it, replace aged fortic and put in new controls.

Is this fair?
***************

Are other warm air boilers available, are they any good?

Wendy
==================================
You wouldn't shop at Tesco without seeing prices so it hardly makes
sense to buy spares for an out-moded central heating system from
someone who won't give you a breakdown of component costs.

J&S appear to have a virtual monopoly of war air heating in this
country which suggest that you might be better off spending your
money on a more conventional 'wet' system which you can customise to
your own specification.
-----------------------------------

Problem with that, as my mother-in-law found when she was
considering this very thing, is that she had nowhere to put
radiators!

John
===================================
What is so very unusual about her property that it has no space
available for radiators in one form or another? I doubt if I've ever
seen a house / property that had no free wall space.

Having had warm-air heating since the house was built, there was never any
need to leave free wall space. The settee, for instance is pushed back
against (well, actually millimetres from) one wall, bookcases line another
wall etc., etc.

Nothing insurmountable if they wanted to do a major re-shuffle of
furniture/walls/rooms/space, but they happen to like the layout as it is -
and as it is, there's no space to hang rads of sufficient size/heat output
in existing gaps. They decided it was far, far preferable in their
circumstances to just replace the warm air boiler.

John