Guess how much they asked me for replacing it because of a small deformation where the leak was happening? That's right, 200USD with labor, and they wouldn't guarantee that it'll work afterwards. I mean ... that is just messed up, when you consider that a brand new central heating unit costs like 600USD with 5 year warranty. Long story short, I said no thank you, glued it up myself, but water was still slightly dripping.
Then winder came and the digital controller inside the central heating unit decided he was having none of it and kept turning off the heat randomly. That was the last straw, I decided to buy a new heater ... without any money? YES.
Gas companies nowadays are desperate to keep their clients, as gas prices go up, and electricity mostly stays at the same price, so many people are switching to heat pump cooling and heating (split system AC units with INVERTER
function for heating).
If I had the money, I would have switched too, but the gas company had a special financing offer, stretched to 7 years, it will cost me just ~20USD per month on the gas bill.
I phoned them up and an engineer visited me a few hours later to see what needs to be done. He saw that everything was in order, so they scheduled the installation for the next morning.
The next morning a young guy showed up, couldn't have been more than ~25 years old, with a van full of central heating units, tools and accessories.
First he unmounted the old defective unit, carefully, as I told him that I want to keep it. Then he commented on the poor installation job I did with the water pipes, asked me to help him bring in the new unit, and started the install process.
He brought the unit I ordered, a Protherm Lynx Condens 25-A, made in Germany. Very nice, if I do say so myself. Its retail price is around 700USD, so the rest of the money (~800USD) that I'll be paying is labor, profit and a significant chunk probably goes to the bank. Overall it's not a bad deal.
So the young guy installed it with no major issues ... he did an OK job, while discussing business, politics and life...etc. It took him about 3 hours to massage everything into place, as the space was really tight and the pipes had slightly different layout than the old unit.
Yeah, I know, I really need to repaint the walls and clean the pipes ... but for now it works, and I love it!
My old unit had a 89% efficiency rating, meaning that some of the gas and generated heat escaped through the ventilation ... but still very good for the year 2007, when I bought it.
The new unit however has a 108% efficiency rating, which mathematicians will tell you is impossible, but they use some sort of technology that captures condensation from the escaping hot air and extracts additional heat from it. Then some (acidic) water pours out of the unit (into the kitchen sink, through the wall).
What they warned me about is grounding, which my house doesn't really have, due to inappropriate soil in this neighborhood. I told the safety inspector that it's not possible to do it and the gas pipe provides plenty of grounding (as measured by a qualified electrician) ... but yeah, I'll need to buy a lot of copper rods (about 3x more than normal) and start planting them in the garden alongside the house ... and hopefully in the end I'll have proper grounding. Otherwise they won't fix the mainboard of the unit, if it fails under warranty... and that part could cost even more, about 300USD new...