A co-worker of my wife just called me because he has a Buderus GB142 that quit a week ago. His house was built in 1983 and he had the Buderus installed in 2010. He had three companies look at it, and only one tech seemed to really understand the unit. Unfortunately, all three companies recommended total replacement. FWIW, the symptoms include recent puking of water, low pressure and then high pressure. One of the techs seemed to think it might have a bad expansion tank (my thought) but also that some sensor or board was bad ("temp on one side didn't match the other side"), parts not available for several weeks, expensive, and no guarantee it would work.
I don't know anything about these modern units so I called a buddy who might be able to help him. While I'm waiting for the return call, my question to the group is whether the high efficiency of these offset their (apparent) short life and cost of repairs when things do go wrong.
My three year old Slant boiler is maybe 86%,, a consenser maybe 98% at best. If one burns $1K in fuel a year, would saving $150 ever pay for itself if the boiler has to be replaced in 15 years or needs expensive parts?
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