# Reccomend me a new boiler



## tmitch45

We have had our combi boiler for 11 years and this week the hot water stopped working. I had my suspicions and a plumber came out to fix and I was astounded to realise that the broken part costs £400 alone!! The plumber recommended not throwing money at an 11year old discontinued boiler and said we would be better off investing in a new one. I've managed to temporarily fix the boiler for now but means we can only use the hot water or the central heating not both.

The plumber said talk to your friends about which boilers they have and I'm happy to fit one. So detailingworld friends, can you recommend a reliable combi boiler with a minimum output of 36kw (so could run two showers) ideally from a reputable brand which I'll be able to get parts for in the future and ideally with a long warranty. I'm also interested in seeing if there is a way to buy the boiler interest free.

Any advice is very welcome.


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## nbray67

Stick with the brands that are reliable, have good warranty and well made Tim.

Worcester Bosch - upto 10yrs warranty
Vaillant - 5yr warranty I believe
Ideal - upto 7yrs warranty

Not sure if they do Interest Free but Boxt are getting bigger in terms of competitive boiler installations.

I work for BG, not central heating, they have good offers on at the moment but CAN be more expensive than a local guy. 0% but only over 24mths. Hive is currently half price thru BG at the moment also, £125 installed if you sign up to BG rewards.

BG will quote you for what you need and give sound advice, get them in for a quote and then use their quote/recommendations as a table against other installers etc..


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## nbray67

On a side note, take out a service contract for your central heating system and it'll heed you well should you ever need to claim.

A bit of an after thought now but that £400 part you need would've been around £60 in call out with a service contract and then covered within the service contract.

I'm not sure how it works with BG, but they do a one-off repair service that could get you out of a hole for now and save you quite a few quid, take a look at their T+C's in regards to this.


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## tmitch45

Thanks mate. All the hard work was done last time with the pipe work etc for a combi so I guess to fit a new combi will be about a days work. I think a quote from BG and a local indep might be the way forward.

On thing I wasn't sure on, will the contractor dispose of the old boiler as part of the deal or could I keep it, strip it and sell the expensive parts on ebay as they are going for silly money at the moment?


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## Andyblue

tmitch45 said:


> Thanks mate. All the hard work was done last time with the pipe work etc for a combi so I guess to fit a new combi will be about a days work. I think a quote from BG and a local indep might be the way forward.
> 
> On thing I wasn't sure on, will the contractor dispose of the old boiler as part of the deal or could I keep it, strip it and sell the expensive parts on ebay as they are going for silly money at the moment?


Can't recommend which boiler to go for, other than agreeing with has been said.

With regards to your old boiler, can't see any reason why you can't keep it, end of the day it is yours and potentially will cost them to dispose of it as they're trade...


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## Juke_Fan

Worcester Bosch are quite fiddly to repair if they go wrong so I have been told by a few Gas Safe engineers, also the innards are very plasticky and can go brittle and crack.

I have had two WB normal boilers and they are reasonable but certainly not the best. We get an occasional gas smell from ours due to residual gas in the gas valve venting into the case and getting out via the folds in the top of the case. Not ideal but WB assure us it is perfectly acceptable. Vaillant for me next time,


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## streaky

I had a Valliant boiler and was very happy with it.


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## dholdi

When I was deciding it was between a Vaillant and Ideal, when you look at both internally they are very similar in design and not as cluttered as the Worcesters.
Getting staff discount on the Ideal sealed it for me.
The Ideal Vogues have a 10 year warranty.
They are available in a 40kW version which should meet your needs although if I was looking to run 2 showers I would be considering a cylinder.


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## Alan W

I'm researching a new boiler just now as well and would suggest that you look at the Viessmann Vitodens, a Which Best Buy, in addition to Worcester Bosch and Vaillant.

The Viessmann Vitodens and Vaillant both have stainless steel heat exchangers whereas the unit in the Worcester Bosch is aluminium.

Alan W


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## AndyQash

My last two boilers have been Vaillant, the first one we had for 17yrs and it never missed a beat and the current one which is an ecoTECpro28 which has been faultless for 10yrs, both were/are covered by service plans which I think is a must, so very good advice from nbray67 in regards to that.


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## Soul boy 68

I have a Valliant boiler, had it for ten years now and still going strong, highly recommend one.


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## MPS101

I have a Worcester Bosch one was fitted by British Gas when they had an offer a few years ago. Has been fine and if BG are fitting them they will use the ones that they think are going to result in the least service calls.


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## Meirion658

*Boiler*

I have Baxi boiler and had a 10 year warranty with it as well. It was installed 3 years ago and had no problems at all with it.

The comparison Worcester boiler was £300 more expensive to fit.


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## Sicskate

We've had an ideal logic 30something fitted, very happy with it, and I believe it's a 10year warranty. 


Sent from my COR-L29 using Tapatalk


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## Andy from Sandy

If I took out a service contract I would expect it to contain break down cover and not have to pay extra for call outs.

My boiler does the hot water and central heating. It cannot heat both at the same time. In the airing cupboard is a motor valve that switches which water gets heated.

During the summer months with the heating off the motor valve would stick so it wouldn't switch. It took me a couple of hours to change the valve.

Does your boiler really heat both sources at the same time? In principle the boiler is actually working. Everyone I ask about a new boiler I see quotes of £2000. I would consider that £400 first.

My Poterton boiler is 24 years old and after it was checked out I was told I wouldn't make enough savings to make it worthwhile changing it.


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## nbray67

Andy from Sandy said:


> If I took out a service contract I would expect it to contain break down cover and not have to pay extra for call outs.


You can have a service contract with no call out but the premium will be higher.

There's no contract out there without a call out fee incorporated in it somewhere, whether it be in addition to the cost of the premium or included in it.

We have BG Homecare on our house and on a rental we have. When we moved into this house 5yrs ago, BG came out and serviced the boiler in order to qualify it for the contract, the boiler threw up a fault the following day, Feb 2014, no call out fee as they had been out the day before.

New electrodes, seal and some other bits, approx £300 incl labour that the HC cover covered.

The boiler, I kid you not, packed in the day after the service for the next 2yrs, zero call out charge and over £1k in repairs and labour to get it running over that 2yrs.

Our premiums went up each year, not by much but that contract has paid for itself 10 times over.

We gave up with the Potterton in Summer 2017 and had BG fit a W.Bosch for us, my staff discount made it cheaper than local quotes we had.

The rental as an Ideal ISAR fitted, 3 call-outs for this in 2yrs, twice we've had to pay the call-out excess of £50/60, again, paid for itself during this time.

The premium here again has risen the last couple of renewals so we'll look to upgrade the ISAR soon as it's coming up to 11yrs old now.


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## tmitch45

Andy from Sandy said:


> If I took out a service contract I would expect it to contain break down cover and not have to pay extra for call outs.
> 
> My boiler does the hot water and central heating. It cannot heat both at the same time. In the airing cupboard is a motor valve that switches which water gets heated.
> 
> During the summer months with the heating off the motor valve would stick so it wouldn't switch. It took me a couple of hours to change the valve.
> 
> Does your boiler really heat both sources at the same time? In principle the boiler is actually working. Everyone I ask about a new boiler I see quotes of £2000. I would consider that £400 first.
> 
> My Poterton boiler is 24 years old and after it was checked out I was told I wouldn't make enough savings to make it worthwhile changing it.


Yes its a real pain. Done loads of research on youtube and plumbing forums and my boiler seems to be the only bloody one with a diverter valve that cannot be fixed/replaced in isolation to the rest of the boiler. The electric motor which controls the diverter leaver is working fine. The leaver is a little stuck and I've spent ages wiggling it around to free it up. Its better but not free enough to completely allow the hot water to only go to the taps and not the radiators. Yesterday I put a 'C' clamp on the leaver and managed to hold it closed with that while I enjoyed the best hot shower I've ever had lol. The only way to fix this is to replace the hydro block which contains the valve. That's also who I'm asking for recommendations and its good to get comments that say a particular boiler is difficult to work on as I'll avoid this in case its me who tried to fix it in the future.


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## Sh1ner

Just out of interest, what combi do you currently have?


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## scottk

I just changed ours for an ideal with 10 year warranty. Tried to get Veissman to quote but the guy didn’t turn up but he did call but we never got another call to rebook. Decided that if that was the level of service I wouldn’t bother. Our boiler was quite old and parts weren’t easy to get. This new one is about 20% more efficient so should be decent savings-we also fitted Hive at the same time.
We had to get a CO detector fitted too as this is the legislation since our last one was fitted.


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## tmitch45

Sh1ner said:


> Just out of interest, what combi do you currently have?


We have a Halstead Ace SE 30. I don't know myself but I've been told that after it was fitted Halstead went out of Business. As a result the parts are very expensive. To be honest though only had one problem with it in 11 years but did get it serviced every year by a local plumber.


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## Sh1ner

tmitch45 said:


> We have a Halstead Ace SE 30. I don't know myself but I've been told that after it was fitted Halstead went out of Business. As a result the parts are very expensive. To be honest though only had one problem with it in 11 years but did get it serviced every year by a local plumber.


Is this the one?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HALSTEAD...101085&hash=item54134ee428:g:ZvkAAOSw7bla9UNZ

It looks as if it might be serviceable once removed.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HALSTEAD...101085&hash=item1cdc0cf941:g:J9MAAOSw1lFdsbmi


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## AnthonyUK

MPS101 said:


> I have a Worcester Bosch one was fitted by British Gas when they had an offer a few years ago. Has been fine and if BG are fitting them they will use the ones that they think are going to result in the least service calls.


Also have a WB from British Gas which is quiet and efficient compared to the 15 year old one it replaced. 60% efficiency vs 93% for the new one was a no brainer.


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## PugIain

We recently had an Alpha boiler fitted.
I think it's an e Tec 33. 7 or 8 year guarantee. Certainly a massive step up from the Baxi one before it.

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk


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## tmitch45

Sh1ner said:


> Is this the one?
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HALSTEAD...101085&hash=item54134ee428:g:ZvkAAOSw7bla9UNZ
> 
> It looks as if it might be serviceable once removed.
> 
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HALSTEAD...101085&hash=item1cdc0cf941:g:J9MAAOSw1lFdsbmi


Yes these are the offending parts. I wouldn't touch the used one and as my plumber said with the cost of the part and his labour its not economical to fix. I'd have a go myself but it involves joints under mains pressure and the boiler is situated in the loft so I'd be extremely concerned about leaks.

We have a friend whos a plumber who will take a look tonight for us but at the moment its looking like a new ideal or Vaillant boiler.


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## Ducky

Vaillant warranty is 7 years if an approved installer is used.


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## Rundie

Alpha boiler here too, fitted a couple of years and no issues so far.


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## Nick-ST

Alpha etec plus are offering up to 13 year warranty (not sure if a big warranty is important to you) at the moment but believe 33kw is the biggest they offer....

Personally I would consider a Baxi, their after sales is just about the best on the market. Will attend a breakdown within 48 hours and do fixed price repair. I.e the fixed price repair may cost £200, but they will repair any components that are faulty even if the parts cost more than the £200. Better still they then warranty the replacement parts. 

If you are in a very hard water area though I would encourage you to go for a boiler with a stainless steel heat exchanger. Viessmanns are very popular for this alone. 

Just to be clear I have no affiliation with any brand but I have worked in the industry for 12 years. Just because a boiler has a big warranty definitely does not mean it is the best!! The premium model boilers quite often have some of the shortest warranties.


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## davies20

Had a few Vaillants over the years, all have been bomb proof touch wood.


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## RS3

I had a Veissman 100 boiler fitted 2 years ago on the recommendation of a gas engineer contractor at my work who tests commercial boilers. He suggests that they are the best boiler under £2k but they are quite expensive. I think I paid about £1500 fitted with a 10 year warranty and its been so much better than the Worcester Bosch I had before which was only about 7 years old and had been trouble year after year. My dad fitted a Worcester in his house about 25 years ago and its never missed a beat but apparently, they used to be much much better built back then.


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