Heating season means boiler replacements, and every one leaves an old unit behind, often with a cylinder and a few radiators. Most end up in the skip or at the nearest yard as one lump. A few minutes of sorting can change what you get for it.
Before you touch it: safety and paperwork
- Gas: only a Gas Safe registered engineer should disconnect a gas appliance. Make sure it’s properly capped and isolated before it comes out.
- Asbestos: boilers and heating equipment made before the full UK ban in 1999 can contain it, for example in gaskets, rope seals, insulation and flue parts. If you suspect it, stop. Don’t break it up, and get advice.
- Whose is it? Agree with the customer that the old unit is yours to take.
- Carrying waste: if you take an old boiler away from a customer’s property as part of the job, you’re generally carrying waste, and in England you usually need to be registered as a waste carrier. Check the GOV.UK rules for your situation.
- Drain and cool first. Dispose of heating water and sludge responsibly, not onto the ground.
Boilers: what’s inside
- Heat exchanger: copper in many boilers, aluminium or stainless in some modern ones. Worth stripping if it’s copper. Copper isn’t magnetic and scratches to a reddish colour, aluminium is light and silvery, and stainless is usually less magnetic than ordinary steel.
- Internal pipework and fittings: copper and brass, and quick to pull.
- Valves and diverters: brass. Keep them separate from the copper.
- Pump: iron or steel casing with an electric motor. Only worth taking if you have a few, and treat it as an electric motor.
- Casing and panels: steel. Low value and bulky, so leave them.
- Cast iron sections: older boilers only. Keep separate because they’re heavy.
- Circuit boards, fans and controls: electronics. Set them aside rather than mixing them with metal, and ask your buyer how they want them.
Hot water cylinders
- Copper cylinders are the prize. Strip off the foam jacket, which is insulation and not metal, and remove steel and brass fittings such as the immersion heater and bosses. Buyers generally want copper free from attachments, and anything left on can drop the grade.
- Unvented cylinders are often stainless or coated steel, which is worth far less. Don’t mix them in with the copper.
- Coils inside indirect cylinders are worth pulling if they’re copper.
Radiators
- Steel panel radiators: low value. Fine to take if you have a van full, but not worth a detour.
- Cast iron radiators: heavy and priced by weight. Handle carefully, and keep them apart from everything else.
- Aluminium radiators: sell as aluminium. Take the brass valves off first.
- Valves and bleed fittings: brass, so keep them in the brass pile.
What’s actually worth stripping?
Go by value: copper first, then brass, then aluminium, then steel and cast iron. Strip what’s quick and changes the grade: the copper exchanger and pipework, brass valves and the immersion heater. If a part is mostly steel and takes more than a few minutes, leave it. A tidy pile of clean copper is worth more than a van of mixed lumps.
Sorting and presenting
- Keep copper, brass, aluminium, steel and cast iron in separate piles.
- Weigh each pile and take clear photos.
- Mixed loads usually sell lower. See our guides on mixed vs sorted loads and on telling brass from copper.
Got sorted copper, brass or aluminium from a boiler job? List it free on ScrapBays and let buyers quote their best price.
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