Boiler·20 Jun 2026 · 4 min read
By Mohammed Miah, Gas Safe registered heating engineer
This depends on the age of the boiler, how often it's breaking down, and how the repair cost compares to a replacement.
Signs a repair still makes sense
- The boiler is under 10 years old and has been reliable up to now.
- This is the first fault it's had, or faults have been rare.
- The repair is a single, well-understood part, a valve, pump or sensor, for example.
Signs it's time to replace
- The boiler is 12–15+ years old, which is towards the end of a typical working life.
- It's needed several repairs in the last year or two.
- Replacement parts are getting hard to source, or the model has been discontinued.
- It's noticeably inefficient, older boilers can run well below the 90%+ efficiency of a modern A-rated boiler.
As a rough guide, if a repair is going to cost more than a third of the price of a new boiler on an older unit, replacement is usually the better long-term value. We'll always give you an honest opinion on which makes more sense for your specific boiler rather than push a replacement you don't need.
