A plumber would normally cost about £40-£50 per hour.

Personally, I'd have it repaired if it's a fifth of the price. Alternative would be to ask whoever would do the repair for a price to fit a like-for-like replacement if you buy it for them.

I've been told a 15+ yr old Ideal Mini C24(Kw) a weepy auto air valve replacing and also the gas control valve is 'not working fully' - and also needs replacement. It is also in 'poor condition'. Cost - £450. Dilemma is repair or replace?

We had a near identical problem earlier in the year. ideal mini i30 that was 12 years old.

2 years ago replace heat exchanger, improved hot water flow.. this year very tepid "hot" water.

Ideal will come and try a fix for the above price and only charge the ( I think ) £149 call out fee if it does not work.

You can get a brand new ideal searching online and just fit the new one in the same place, same pipework according to our plumber, but he didn't rate them, so he suggested a Valiant Glowworm 30 and fitted complete with new flue drain, flush, clean new filter and chemicals and gas safety certificate for £1870 which was way less than any of the online quotes.

CO4 postcode.

We went with that. it's near on silent, water temp can be easily adjusted on the screen.

You could buy the ideal boiler yourself with a new flue there are complete installation kits available with everything all in.and just get a quote to fit. about 4 hours max

I can understand many people's reluctance to part with well over £2k for a 'standard' boiler installation, especially when they find out how much the actual boiler costs to buy.

I agree with those who state that a decent plumber should be charging in the range £40 (if you're very lucky) to £60 per hour for their work.

Note that often the replacement of a boiler will be a two-man job, hence why they may charge much nearer the £100ph mark, probably adding on 50% for the plumber's mate, but then things should in theory go a bit quicker and the simple tasks done by them may actually reduce the price compared to if the plumber alone did the job.

In addition, they factor in the cost of disposal of the old boiler, which I doubt if you can just take down the local municipal tip and dispose of at all or for free like you would an old TV.

Add on to all the above and the actual install costs comes the warranty, which you won't have if you do it yourself, unless you are Gas Safe registered and, for upper tier warranties (7-10yrs) have passed the required course to be an 'advanced fitter' for that brand.

That in itself is worth several £000s (maybe more over a 10 year timeframe), given how much you're getting quoted for the repair work, whereas under warranty, its all free, except perhaps for the phone call to report it. Normally, the only things not covered or lesser warranties are the system controller and heat exchangers, which are mostly just 2 years.

If you / your plumber can easily source quality replacement parts and any other boiler / system issues can be fixed for that £450, then I'd go for the repair. I'd be wary these days about DIYing an install or fixing issues internal to the boiler because of the risk if you make an error and the consequences, financial or physical if that leads to some major 'event'.

At least with the repair, it gives you time to research a 'proper' replacement rather than rush into making a decision you may later regret. Rather like the same conundrum for cars.