# Combi boiler recommendations



## Raife

Hi you knowledgeable lot,

Im looking to update my old boiler/immersion to a new combi set up.

3 bed bungalow with 1 bathroom. 10 radiators in total.

Any recommendations on combi boilers?

Difficult I know, but any ball park figures for supply and fit?

Easy access as boiler is on a short flue through anexternal wall in the garage. 

Huge thanks


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## GP Punto

Good luck with this, I keep meaning to change my boiler which is 35 years old, nothing goes wrong with it but I know its not that efficient and probably overworked as the house has had two extensions.


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## Alfieharley1

I would consider a Worcester to be honest as for price. Give British gas a call as they give you a free quote. At that point you know roughly what you are looking at. You will also get 5 year warranty on the boiler but needs to be serviced every year or you can get the full central heating care to cover the whole of the central heating but first year is free.
This will be more than locals but if anything goes wrong it will be a simple call to get someone out


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## LeeH

Give British gas nothing!


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## Alfieharley1

LeeH said:


> Give British gas nothing!
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro


Reasons?


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## ffrs1444

Alfieharley1 said:


> Reasons?


Double the price


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## Alfieharley1

ffrs1444 said:


> Double the price


Yes price is steep that's why a local would be cheaper as I have put. For some people British gas are better as for example rad burst. Boiler leaks a private guy will not be available throughout the night so for people who don't have a clue about isolating Etc it is the best thing for them


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## helicopter pat

Give Boxt a go, quote done online and very helpfull on the phone. I had mine done in August and they actually told me I only needed the worchester model below the one I was thinking of getting. They can normally fit in a couple of days. The fitters that came and fitted mine had to sort out the brickwork to mount the new unit that was smaller than the old one but took it in their stride and did not charge extra.


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## hardyd44

My friend who owns a plumbing business - LOOOOVES British Gas, they always make him look cheap even if he isn't :lol:


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## funkydunk

Definitely not British gas. Too expensive and will try to sell a care plan which you don't need on the boiler because almost all boilers come with a minimum 5 year guarantee.
Worcester Bosch are great for after care but expensive. It all depends on your budget but don't go too cheap on the boiler. I used to fit ideal vogues because they were a good boiler about £200 cheaper and had a 10 year guarantee. There are too many variables for me to give you a ball park figure. Get recommendations from local friends a family is best.


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## VAG-hag

I’ve got a vailant in my house,11 rads. it’s going strong and is easy to work on if any parts fail. I had a fan go on it this year, childs play to replace


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## Dazednconfused

Another recommendation for Ideal - we got a Logic model with 7 year warranty but top models have a 10 year warranty. You might have to buy an additional filter for about £50 I think - but if it gives you a few extra years of warranty it's worth it in my book. The Ideal replaced a Ferroli - under NO circumstances get a Ferroli - had a mare with it!!
:thumb:


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## davies20

I posted a thread not to long ago about this.

In the end we went for a Valliant


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## GP Punto

I have held onto my old boiler becuase at a previous house I had installed a wall mounted Worcester boiler as recommended by my plumber, a good bloke. Never could get that boiler to work, the pilot was lit but the gas wouldnt flow until you removed the outer cover. The engineers said that should not make any difference but it was the only thing you could do to get any heat. He had Worcester engineers come and look at it for months but couldnt get it to work as it should. Once it was lit it stayed lit. Worcester wouldnt change it though so if I ever do buy a new boiler it will not be one of theirs.

Wished then that I kept my old one and thats why I am reluctant to make the change now.


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## Njs71

I've just had a heating system put in. New combi boiler & radiators.

Boiler Model

Ideal Vogue C40 Gen 2.............running 15 rads
16ltrs per min water output 
10 year warranty

Cost is around £1200

http://idealboilers.com/installers/products/vogue-combi

I always said I wouldn't get another combi boiler after having one when they first became popular years ago but now I have this range topping model in I've absolutely no regrets.

It easily runs 2 showers and the rads warm to temperature incredibly quickly.

No tanks and no noisey shower pumps :thumb:


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## LeeH

Alfieharley1 said:


> Reasons?


Because they will have your pants that far down you wont be able to see your own toes.


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## MDC250

Is that for the boiler, rads and fitting etc?


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## dholdi

MDC250 said:


> Is that for the boiler, rads and fitting etc?


That will be the cost of the boiler.
I also have the Vogue, its a great piece of kit.
I've said it in these type of threads before, download the manuals and compare the internals. 
The Ideal and the Vailliant are very easy to work on in comparison to the WB.


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## MDC250

Thought that would be too good to be true! Stupid question really as I've seen some rads that are silly money


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## Njs71

MDC250 said:


> Is that for the boiler, rads and fitting etc?


Wish it was lol.

That's just the price (thereabouts) for the boiler.

Can't recommend it highly enough.


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## Deadshot

Ideal logic + or vogue, 7 or ten year respectively about £2500 fitted in your situation, although you say boiler where it is currently is the gas meter near and if not is the pipe size adequate for a combi? And is there a hot and cold supply near by? Usually it’s easiest to fit a combi where the old cylinder was and not the boiler...


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## WallStreet

LeeH said:


> Give British gas nothing!
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro


Agreed. My mum is 86. Brit Gas tried to push her into paying £4,500! Plus prior to this £900 for a power flush!!

If your system has never had a flush in 10 plus years and you have some dead zones, then request it: £250-350. Use a fernox Power Flush & a magnetic system. Some older radiators may need changing. This will prolong your boiler life. Also ensure a magnetic filter is added too £60-90.

My selection was based on 2 criteria: max warranty & Best reliability.

Which! Magazine recommendations were all Bosch Worcester. I took a 34CDi Bosch Worcester which has a 10 year warranty when you also buy Bosch filter. If you have WiFi go for the Hive which I believe came top as well. This cost me £3200 in total. Fair price. 10 years parts & labour warranty. Bosch will send an engineer very quickly for a repair, same day within a few hours.

Which rating for other boilers didn't come close at all.


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## Danjc

Just had a worcester bosch greenstar 28cdi compact with a greenstar magnetic filter and a wave controller fitted and over the moon with it. 
10 year guarantee £2360 fitted by a local company.


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## streaky

I have a Worcester boiler fitted from new, serviced every year and breaks down every year.
Pile of horse pooh


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## RedUntilDead

Danjc said:


> Just had a worcester bosch greenstar 28cdi compact with a greenstar magnetic filter and a wave controller fitted and over the moon with it.
> 10 year guarantee £2360 fitted by a local company.


Look into that though. The boiler needs to be registered, installed and maintained by authorised companies for them to honour the full warranty.

Good boiler but read up and check that the wave is truly compatible with the boiler though and don't assume that the installer knows. It probably is but just check for sure. What I mean is, these boilers modulate for optimum performance, it might not "listen" to what a foreign controller is telling it to do. I.e I have a new valliant combi and was interested in expanding my nest collection and adding their controller. A company who specialise in smart controls highly recommended it. However, valiant use their own comms platform so the nest would only actually perform as an (expensive) on off switch. Valliant have their own smart controller.


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## RedUntilDead

GP Punto said:


> Good luck with this, I keep meaning to change my boiler which is 35 years old, nothing goes wrong with it but I know its not that efficient and probably overworked as the house has had two extensions.


Can I ask how you know it's not that efficient? I don't mean for that to sound rude or arsy 

Unless you already have this knowledge, it would be worth having the boiler monitored.

I run maintenance and facilities and have several different types of older boilers in one factory. We are always looking at being more efficient so I had a survey done on these appliances. From the flue gas anylsis you can see that these boilers are still performing and are indeed quite efficient so no gain to be made by replacing. They are simple, work well and easy to fix if and when required:thumb:

Last year I changed my home boiler as it was undersized and failed regularly and I got sick of fixing it to keep it going. Comparing gas usage to the prev year shows no saving and the new one is actually on less time.


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## GP Punto

RedUntilDead said:


> Can I ask how you know it's not that efficient? I don't mean for that to sound rude or arsy
> 
> Unless you already have this knowledge, it would be worth having the boiler monitored.
> 
> I run maintenance and facilities and have several different types of older boilers in one factory. We are always looking at being more efficient so I had a survey done on these appliances. From the flue gas anylsis you can see that these boilers are still performing and are indeed quite efficient so no gain to be made by replacing. They are simple, work well and easy to fix if and when required:thumb:
> 
> Last year I changed my home boiler as it was undersized and failed regularly and I got sick of fixing it to keep it going. Comparing gas usage to the prev year shows no saving and the new one is actually on less time.


Its a good question, and I am embarassed that I dont know a good answer other than people tell me that their gas bills have gone down when they have made the change to a combi boiler, but they also say its only around £100 a year, so it is therefore going to take 20 years to pay for itself.

Just this past week I have had the system powerflushed, and that made a very big difference on how quickly the radiators heated up. The man who did the work looked at the boiler and we both agreed it was ancient but never gave any trouble. I keep thinking its like a Morris 1000, old technology, very simple and nothing to go wrong. The boiler does nothing on my system other than to heat water, controlled by a room thermostat to the pump, and thats all.

By contrast my neighbour had a new boiler in 18 months ago and it keeps failing to fire up, boiler repair man was there for a day and a half with no heat. Because they had a toddler I had them round to mine to keep warm, bit of a joke really.

Until something fails I really dont want to change to something newer, and, only possibly, better.

I know that you say that they are easy to fix, perhaps the only issue is on parts, this one is now 35 years old.


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## Danjc

RedUntilDead said:


> Look into that though. The boiler needs to be registered, installed and maintained by authorised companies for them to honour the full warranty.
> 
> Good boiler but read up and check that the wave is truly compatible with the boiler though and don't assume that the installer knows. It probably is but just check for sure. What I mean is, these boilers modulate for optimum performance, it might not "listen" to what a foreign controller is telling it to do. I.e I have a new valliant combi and was interested in expanding my nest collection and adding their controller. A company who specialise in smart controls highly recommended it. However, valiant use their own comms platform so the nest would only actually perform as an (expensive) on off switch. Valliant have their own smart controller.


All good it was installed by and will be maintained by the same company that are authorised by Worcester.

The Wave is a Worcester controller so definitely compatible.
https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boiler-controls/wave


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## GP Punto

Danjc said:


> All good it was installed by and will be maintained by the same company that are authorised by Worcester.
> 
> The Wave is a Worcester controller so definitely compatible.
> https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boiler-controls/wave


I have no experience of this but just on the basis of what I have been told, no expert here.

To meet the terms of the warranty you have to do certain things such as have a magnaclean filter from new and to have the system powerflushed before the boiler is installed.

I am the worlds worst at reading the Ts and Cs on warrantys but in this case I just might.


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## Danjc

GP Punto said:


> I have no experience of this but just on the basis of what I have been told, no expert here.
> 
> To meet the terms of the warranty you have to do certain things such as have a magnaclean filter from new and to have the system powerflushed before the boiler is installed.
> 
> I am the worlds worst at reading the Ts and Cs on warrantys but in this case I just might.


I'm the same for t&c, system was flushed and a Worcester Greenstar magnetic System Filter also fitted :thumb:


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## Sicskate

Danjc said:


> Just had a worcester bosch greenstar 28cdi compact with a greenstar magnetic filter and a wave controller fitted and over the moon with it.
> 10 year guarantee £2360 fitted by a local company.


We just bought a house with a newish (2015) green star but it's the 15kw version.

Seems to be ok, but far too small for the size of the house ️, apparently the previous owners were cheap and stoopid!!

We're considering either getting the 28kw fitted or ripping it all out and getting a combination.

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## G.P

WallStreet said:


> Bosch will send an engineer very quickly for a repair, same day within a few hours.


Far from my experience, and unfortunately for me I do work for them and get to talk to the R & D Dept. so for me, having inside knowledge together with trying to get paid from their accouts dept. in Romania I no longer wish to recommend Worcester's. They have now also become one of the most expensive boilers on the market..


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## insanejim69

GP Punto said:


> Its a good question, and I am embarassed that I dont know a good answer other than people tell me that their gas bills have gone down when they have made the change to a combi boiler, but they also say its only around £100 a year, so it is therefore going to take 20 years to pay for itself.
> 
> Just this past week I have had the system powerflushed, and that made a very big difference on how quickly the radiators heated up. The man who did the work looked at the boiler and we both agreed it was ancient but never gave any trouble. I keep thinking its like a Morris 1000, old technology, very simple and nothing to go wrong. The boiler does nothing on my system other than to heat water, controlled by a room thermostat to the pump, and thats all.
> 
> By contrast my neighbour had a new boiler in 18 months ago and it keeps failing to fire up, boiler repair man was there for a day and a half with no heat. Because they had a toddler I had them round to mine to keep warm, bit of a joke really.
> 
> Until something fails I really dont want to change to something newer, and, only possibly, better.
> 
> I know that you say that they are easy to fix, perhaps the only issue is on parts, this one is now 35 years old.


Same here,we moved into our house almost 3 years ago and has an old boiler fitted. But has never put a foot wrong in 3 years at all, so very reluctant to fit a new one after hearing so many stories of constant break downs with new boilers from family and friends. Think I might just stick with my old system for now. Costs around £28 a month on DD for our gas so it can't be that bad in efficiency wise, and that's including building up a credit over summer to use in winter. That's a 2 story 2 bedroom house,plus we only plan on staying another 4 years possibly before looking at a bigger house.

James.


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## FJ1000

Ideal must be better now - The one I had in an old Flat (fitted in 2006) had repeated problems, and was eventually replaced with a vaillant which was faultless.

At home now, we have a vaillant combi too. Whenever that dies, I’ll probably go with a megaflo type installation powered by a vaillant system boiler


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