Boilers, recommendations for and against?

[DrPhill]

Our boiler seems to have died - not unsurprising but disappointing none the less. I am going to get an engineer to check it out, but being a pessimist I am preparing myself mentally for the 'new boiler' adventure.

Does anyone here have recommendations (for or against) any particular brand/model? Our current one is a Halstead eden cbx32 (whatever that means ;-) and we would be looking just to replace the boiler (and TRVs on half a dozen rads).

Any idea of ballpark prices for supply and fit so that I can weed out the outliers?

Any info gratefully received.

 

[NikNak]

Gas i presume.?

No.1 Worcester Bosch
No.2 Vaillant
No.3 ......there is no no.3

Supply and fit allow £2,200 - £2,500. For that price they should be fitting a 'Magna-Clean and doing a power flush and the trv's too.
Get several quotes and if you can get a fitter that comes recommended.!!

 

[Geoff_S]

Yes, Worcester Bosch from my experience (as a user, not a fitter)

Oh, and watch out for the quotes. The highest quote we got was £14,500 and another for £11,000. We settled for around £2500 in the end.

Mind you, we live in the South East, too many clowns around here :roll:

 

[DrPhill]

Thanks both, that helps (and make swmbo happy as she was recommending Worcester/bosch from her research). 2k2 - 2k5 sound affordable and sort of what I was expecting.

I assume that that fitting will include a flue through a sloping tiled roof? There is a suspect-under-current-regs horizontal flue through the tiles at present which will need to be replaced.

 

[galleywood]

Lat September we had a Glowworm boiler supplied and fitted along with Magna clean and power flush - 2k Inc 7 years parts and labour guarantee on boiler.

 

[Jasper42]

1Worcester Bosch
2 Vaillant
I had a Vaillant fitted about 6 years ago. The gas engineers ( British Gas) that service it always say it a good make but most people are not willing to pay that bit extra. They also like it as it is easy to work on. 1 rubber washer changed in 6 years as part of the service so very happy with it.

I would not get British Gas to fit it as they are very expensive but happy to use there service contract for that peace of mind.

Now I had said that have I doomed myself!!!

 

[nolly47]

Hi
If halsted eden cbx 32 is a combi boiler then consider an ideal logic combi boiler and make sure that you buy the weather compensation kit to go with it. The weather compensation kit is not expensive. What ever boiler you decide to buy make sure that you buy the weather compensation kit to go with it.

Steve

 

[jimmy_s]

I would go with a Viessmann Vitodens 200W weather compensated boiler. I had one in the last house for about 10 years before we moved. Failing that a Valiant.

 

[DrPhill]

Thanks this is very helpful......

A magna clean is a magnet to attract iron-oxide? Several folk have recommended them here. Does it work? Where does the oxide go, or does it need to be emptied? The system is old so a power flush makes sense.

We had a bathroom fitted a month or two ago so maybe that stirred up the gunk and blocked something?

Anyway I have an engineer coming today, and if we need a new boiler I have some facts and figures to start talking with.

 

[paulm]

Not familiar with the weather compensating feature mentioned a couple of times above, any more info' please from anyone knowledgeable on such things ?

 

[NikNak]

A magna clean is a magnet to attract iron-oxide? Several folk have recommended them here. Does it work? Where does the oxide go, or does it need to be emptied? The system is old so a power flush makes sense.

I think i'm right in saying the Worcester Bosch comes with a 10yr guarantee and the Vaillant a 5yr (that's what we have) and from what i remember you must have a Magna-clean fitted as part of the warranty (other makes are available :mrgreen: )

Yes, as you say its a very strong magnet that 'catches' all the gunk and goo(?) and is cleaned out each year when you have it serviced (also a requisite of the warranty)

 

[DrPhill]

I think i'm right in saying the Worcester Bosch comes with a 10yr guarantee and the Vaillant a 5yr (that's what we have) and from what i remember you must have a Magna-clean fitted as part of the warranty (other makes are available :mrgreen: )

Yes, as you say its a very strong magnet that 'catches' all the gunk and goo(?) and is cleaned out each year when you have it serviced (also a requisite of the warranty)

More useful facts. I assume that the service has to be carried out by an approved engineer, but not necessarily one provided by the manufacturer. So we need to find a reliable service engineer at a reasonable price (eg BritGas mentioned above). Can I assume that the service prices are reasonable......

 

[Matt@]

from personal experience....

Valliant boilers have narrow tubes in their heat exchangers so very unforgiving on being fitted to a system thats not squeaky clean as they can block more easily than others.

Worcester have long warranties. Alot of fitters like fitting them as they have good deals with Worcester (which is not the same as giving you advice on the best boiler) . Alot of fitters do NOT rate Worc boilers and describe them as marketing over substance.

Intergas is raved about by those in the know but you need a fitter who deals with them and likes them...

We paid £2K to have a Valliant fitted straight swap at home. Paid £1900 to have a Worc fitted straight swap in a rental. In the sumer I reckon I could have saved £300 on that. Joe Public can buy a Worc 24i combi for around £800 (cheaper to the trade) . They take 4 hrs, 2 men (one of them just a goafer) to fit if no issues so do the sums! . Better to install in the summer as the fitters need the work then so price comes down. VAT on £2K is £400 so try find a non VAT reg fitter and buy the boiler for them though alot of fitters wont like that either.

Fitters hate roof work due to potential leaks. I enquired about having a flue through the tiled roof and they said they would sub that out to a roofer. Like any trade, most of these guys want an easy job at the max price. Give them something a bit tricky and the price will shoot up out of all proportion IMO.

 

[whiskywill]

This is not a recommendation as I have no experience of them, but interesting. https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/flow-boiler-worth/

 

[Sideways]

Buy a decent make. Whatever you would spend on a service contract, stick it in a jamjar every year and pay the bills as they come up. In the long run you'll save a lot of money. Service contracts are very profitable business for British Gas and the like. No need to give them your hard earned cash. Save it to pay for your next boiler 10 years down the line.

 

[DrPhill]

This is not a recommendation as I have no experience of them, but interesting. https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/flow-boiler-worth/

What an unusual idea - worth considering after a few people other people have tried it.....

Boiler engineer came round and diagnosed pump failure. 200gbp for pump (apparently Halstead are owned by glowworm who take the pi^H^H mickey). However, the new pump should buy us a couple of years usage. Also we have some plans for the space the boiler occupies - plans that involve dust and disturbance and I would rather subject the old boiler to that than a shiney new one.

However, the info about new boilers is very welcome. I will certainly need this in the future, so thanks for all the input.

Buy a decent make. Whatever you would spend on a service contract, stick it in a jamjar every year and pay the bills as they come up. In the long run you'll save a lot of money. Service contracts are very profitable business for British Gas and the like. No need to give them your hard earned cash. Save it to pay for your next boiler 10 years down the line.

I know where you are coming from - the providers of the service contract have to make money somewhere - money that could stay in the customers pocket. That is if the customer can cope with the disruption caused by a boiler failure, and has the money to finance the repair. This is the finance model I have always used by default (I have never had a service contract for anything).

 

[RogerS]

My plumber - an old guy - recommended Worcester Bosch. In fact he was pretty adamant and no kickbacks for him as he was perfectly happy for me to buy one myself.

Magnaclean removal is a DIY job if need be although should be done as part of the service..which is around £100-120 including replacing the oil nozzle (no idea what gas price is). To do the Magnaclean yourself, you turn off two valves on either side of it using the supplied plastic spanner. Then with the other end of the spanner undo the top and remove the rare-earth magnet. Wipe off the black magnetite. Reverse the procedure. Good idea to wear rubber gloves. DAMHIKT

 

[Myfordman]

WB every time from me too. Easy to install and excellent manuals. Not that I've needed any spares but most spares I've looked for have been on ebay.
Install yourself and get a gas safe engineer to make the final gas connection and set it up. He will issue the certificate and register it with gas safe. That cost me £80 about 3 years ago.

 

[Ali]

Bumping this up for anybody's interest and opinion.

Need a new boiler pretty soon, my old boiler is about 20+ years old (Potterton Kingfisher M1). Had British Gas come and give a quote in late January with their half price boiler offer, got a quote for £3056 for a Vaillant ecofit pure 430 all in.

However due to the bad weather and getting my elderly parents through the winter I never booked this. I wanted to get a few quotes from some other independent installers but could not get hold of anyone (someone is doing well hey).

Anyway it seems I have missed British Gas' winter offer but I have just come across a new website called BOXT (www.boxt.co.uk) - described as the Uber for boiler installations.

Does anyone else have experience of going down this route? The BG quote obviously included some extra pipework and making good with the installation, worried if this faceless booking will just dump a new boiler and move on?

 

[Selwyn]

I very much doubt British gas will be cheap.