Me mum is having a new boiler fitted, bloke came round to have look etc but has told her she cant have a combi boiler cos she has copper piping, is that correct?
Cheers, John
lol wot a load of bull…you could ask mark but it seams he’s retired 
JohnP is in the business.
Get another quote.
I had combi boiler with copper pipes, now i have condenser boiler with new copper pipes.
yeah cheers people, i thought it was b0ll0x but didnt know much about it.
wot it is me mum has gor the go ahead off the warmfront lot and bloke came round today to looka t boiler etc and thats wot he said, me mum was on her own.
we have now more info so will refuse then to do the job.
we reckon he is just coming in changer the boiler over for new 1 thus saving him a bigger job as she has the big copper tank etc.
warmfront is there to reduce bills energy etc so there will be no point in still using the system she has, would there?
Cheers again, John
are you sure he said copper piping? the reason I ask is with 33 years in the heating trade I have never heard such a heap of horse apples! the vast majority of UK heating systems are copper, if your mum qualifies under the warmfront scheme then you need to see if a reputable installer locally is recognised under the scheme, a lot of the British Gas regions are and at least you will get some sort of back up, Warmfront is a typical goverment balls up, and a lot of their installers travel miles to work, which in itself is not bad however, if something goes wrong can you get them back? at least with BG you have a pretty good chance (by the way I am in competition with BG so have no great love of them ,but they are at least contactable) do your research and be forearmed, warmfront is a very good scheme but is open to abuse. you will probably have to take the boiler they say, but if you get a choice then you won’t go wrong with vaillant, veissmann or worcester-bosch http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080303/debtext/80303-0021.htm
ps just reread your last, if your mum has a cylinder then it is still going to be cheaper running cost wise to fit a combi, although it is more work for the installer (maybe he gets a better return on fitting a standard boiler over fitting a combi? ) if the cylinder is older then it may need to be replaced with a newer model and have extra controls fitted to meet building regulations, all might make nice “add-ons” to the contract, one thing, under no circumstances agree to “top-up” the warm front quote! there have been some bad practices mentioned , read the link
Get another plumber, i’m in this game, where is your mum and if you want i can send someone round to price up.
Exactly the same here. Bet the plumbers name was John Wayne & works for Bodge it & Run.
the problem they have is that if they qualify for warmfront then they get 100% grant, unless you are in on the warmfront cartel it doesn’t matter if you are 10x the quality and 1/2 the price you won’t get the job unless the mum pays for it in full, its a typical stitch up with our money being distributed by a private company to their members! read the link I posted before and do some research.
yeah as kenny said, me mum has gone the warmfront direction.
she had the money a few yrs ago to get a new boiler etc but no1 wanted to take the job on, after she got made redundant and cos she had savings had to use that to live on and was not allowed benefit (dont get me started, lol) although working in the same job for 26 yrs so now the warmfront way is the way to go for her.
As a building professional I’ll endorse the “borrocks” about the pipework being in copper. It’s my standard spec. and I’ve built quite a few buildings with combi boilers and copper pipework.
If your Mum lives on her own, a combi boiler is the way to go. Not so great in family houses. (No, don’t bother to object to that statement. I’ve heard it all before!)
If converting from a conventional boiler + cylinder, there’s a bit of extra pipework to go into the cylinder cupboard, but that’s all.
Getting the controls up to current standard can be a bit of an extra, but has a pretty good pay back time and worth the money.
There is a legal need to get Building Regulations approval for any boiler change but any decent fitter will do all of that for you. (You can ignore it but then try selling you house.)
There is also an insurance and legal requirement to have an annual inspection by a Corgi registered fitter on combi boilers.
All of the above is why I stayed with a convenntional boiler + cylinder in my (family) house.
oldguy is quite right about staying with a cylinder in a family house, combi’s are getting better all the time but there is a limit to how much water a minute they’ll heat.Combis work well for a lot of people but so do cylinders, the controls thing is well worth the effort but with just one person in the house most of the time a combi is OK ,however the main point is that warmfront will pick up the tab as long as their designated installer does the work, I just suggest you would be better getting someone accountable like BG to do the work as long as warmfront recognise them. Notification of new gas appliances inc boilers is done by the installer via gas safe register, if he trys to get out of this run a mile the only reason not to do this is if he is illegal! (can’t see warmfront paying for illegal work) don’t let anyone fob you off with “you can inform planning” you can’t ! at least you can but then they would insist on a qualified installer signing off on the installation at your expense! (just done this for a lady who couldn’t get a final completion certificate from planning control because her builder used someone who was unable to notify ie illegal! I charged her over 300+VAT in the end ,I had 2 guys there most of a day we had to run a new gas main and even rehang the boiler because the screws where way to small! if I notify, I take responsibility for that boiler and I don’t take risks) there is no legal requirement to have any boiler serviced annually , however if it is in a rented property there is a legal duty to have it checked for safety annually, that applies to all gas appliances owned by the landlord.
upshot have the work done she will get energy savings no matter which way she go’s try to get a reputable company to do the work, don’t pay extra! it shouldn’t be necessary .
of course it just occurred to me that maybe he advised her not to have a combi because she has a COPPER CYLINDER, and just to go with the control upgrade and a condensing boiler, in which case I apologise to him 
Watch BBC1 10:30AM Cowboytrap, that plumber will end up on it, if he has’nt been allready lol