Dingdongler

Hi.

Looks like a may need a new boiler, My glowworm combi boiler has packed up after only about 4 years, I may get away with a new heat exchanger but since it's thrown up a few problems before I may just change it.

Any recommendations for who makes the best/reliable boilers?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Vaillant, or Buderus.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Boilers, solar panels and heat pumps for home heating - Worcester, Bosch Group UK homeowner site

Had a worcester boiler a few years ago...........more hot water than you could shake a stick at LOL.

Shaun

StickyMicky

Saw some canny munters when i was in Birmingham

corradoboy

Vailant are like the Mercedes of boilers. No more reliable the the equivalent Ford Fiesta, but the parts cost 6x as much when they break. We'll be replacing our Vailant with a cheap'n'cheerful model when it breaks the next of its endless cycle of four repeating parts. Our tame plumber says all the bits for the cheapo ones he fits are £20 or so, and 1/2 an hour to fit each time. The last part I needed for the Vailant was £180 +vat, although a favour from a mate got that down to £70.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Worcester Bosch are known to be a good reliable boiler.

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

Take a look at Worcester reviews here.

Worcester Combi Boiler - Read Reviews

Glowplug

iTrader: (8)

+1

My cuz is a plumber and he highly recommends them

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Looks like "avoid Worcester Bosch", then?

hodgy0_2

we have had a Keston 130BTU condensing boiler, for the last 10 years

given no problems,and has been on pretty much 24hrs

MMT WRX

Worcester Bosch here too

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Valiant/Gloworm now the same firm... sure of it.

5t.

172sport

iTrader: (6)

Dont buy an Ideal.....................

Flathead

Mines a Alfa and seems pretty reliable and is about ten years old.

Account deleted by request

Worcester Bosch. Only choice.

Chop

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to the 4yr Glow-worm club: Top of the range condensing boiler - dead within 5yrs.

(Well, actually condemned due to the case rusting through - thanks to heatcall/homeserve/glow-worm's incompetence: None of whom noticed it was internally p*ssing condensate everywhere when serviced during its first few years and then failing to properly fix it when it deteriorated to the point it started leaking externally and weeing on the worktop - despite a new heat exchanger which it didn't need ).


Yes what a great "green" and "economical" move that was; Like all the adverts say: "Buy a condensing boiler and you "could" save upto 15% on your gas bill"...Yeah, fine apart from that peice of sh*t boiler cost 15% more than a non-condensing version and lasted less than half as long as what would be an acceptable lifespan.

Funnily my cousin's boiler (identical model just a lower output) died of the exact same thing a year later - that was under five years old too (new build house).



Anyhoo, enough of glow-worm slagging.....I'm on Worcester-Bosch now. Not perfect; Its on its third PCB and just had to have a new PRV, but their service is second to none. Both times the PCB failed I called them late in the evening and a guy was there at my house first thing next morning.

Dingdongler

Thanks guys. Worcester Bosch seems to mentioned a lot, I will look into those.

AliB, interesting comments. This throws up a dilemma for me, either fix the gloworm, it will 'need' a new heat exchanger to see if that fixes the problem (approx £300). That still leaves me with what seems to be a somewhat unreliable boiler, that has given me problems before.

Or should I bite the bullet, and shell out another £500 or so on top and get a new/better boiler?

500

Worcester, Best domestic boiler by far!

bigarf

iTrader: (67)

another here for the worchester bosch.ares has been in over 5 years now and never missed a beat,and beleive me at this time a year are lass has it on all the yime.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

To be fair, the Worcs-Bosch failed within its first year. The fault is a known "bug" on the PCB software/hardware programming where it gets stuck in "air purge mode" indefinetely, the only cure is by replacing the PCB. Unfortunately the PCB was replaced with an old stock item of the same revision, so had the same underlying bug. So it did the same thing and failed 12months later. Again replaced under warranty. The current PCB is a later revision which no longer suffers from this issue (touch wood).

The customer service and response was impeccable; in both cases the heating was up and running within 12hours of reporting the failure (Although Worcester is a stone throw away from me, maybe they know I can throw a brick through their call centre window if they mess me about ).

The PRV (pressure relief valve) failed (well, leaked) after the system was drained to replace some radiator valves. Quite common thing to happen on any brand boiler with a pressurised installatuion, as most are of the same design and made by the same company - the valve seals via a rubber washer, just like a tap, it perishes over time and if disturbed it leaks thereafter. Cheap part, simple to fix.

Personally I wouldn't let a single penny go into the direction of Glow-worm or Vaillant (same company), I'm that embittered by them from my previous experience. I would send a letter in their direction explaining the fact that a 5yr lifespan of a boiler (or heat exchanger) that is not cheap and has also been previously troublesome is intolerable. You never know, it may get someone's attention, it didn't work with me but might work for you, there is no harm in trying.

I presume its leaking? Just a pointer; if its taking a wee on your kitchen worktop, its maybe condsensate leaking/overflowing somewhere. This is what our old boiler did, and the plumber replaced the heat exchanger, which didn't resolve the problem, as that was not the fault; the leak was condensate (the rest is a long story; it was on a fully comp service maintanance contract taken up via Glow-worm, but underwritten by other companies - nightmare).

zs_phil

iTrader: (1)

i have a worcester greenstar boiler
and its great heats the house up fast and the hot water is nearly boiling

ScoobyDoo555

another vote for Worcester Bosch.

Also live pretty close to them, so parts are readily available

Had a replacement programmer under warranty, and (touch wood) never missed a beat in 7 years. Recommended

Dan

MMT WRX

Where's that then? Worcester or Clay Cross

mervil

iTrader: (5)

I'd personally go with one of the following,

Baxi DuoTec
Vaillant EcoTec Pro
Worcester Greenstar Jnr

Depends what you're looking for and what you're running. For Top notch Hot Water flow (for power showers etc + en suites) go for the Baxi. Heating-wise, the Vaillant or Worcester will be very good. They are pretty expensive but will last a lot longer than other cheap ones!!

Stay away for the 'B&Q' stuff too!!

zs_phil

iTrader: (1)

i had a sim'e boiler put in a couple of years back it was an MKM special that the builder i had in put in on the cheap to make a bit of money from me,the boiler worked for a day then started going wrong no hot water unless i turned the heating thermostat up full .
i asked for advice on here too and a guy called mog advised me on here that he fits 2 types of boiler i think varients and worcester ,i took note and advised the builder i had paid enough and to put a worcester greenstar boiler in or he wouldnt get paid and guess what he did .
might add me and my 2 children and wife went 2 weeks without hot water waiting for him to try and fix the sime boiler which didnt happen

Dingdongler

Thanks, I'll look into the Baxi, but Worcester seems to be the clear winner so far.

My system as outlined in my thread 'urgent help- immersion not working' is as follows;

The boiler is in the kitchen and I have a huge cylinder in the loft. The boiler heats the water in the tank, this water is for the heating. When I want hot water, mains cold water passes through this main body of water through a conducting coil. Hence it heats up as it passes through.

This should give me a limitless supply of hot water at mains pressure (one of my showers needs 3 bar to operate)

If I didn't have this cylinder, and only a condensing boiler, like most people here, how does that work? Cold water passes through the boiler and gets heated up? Will this give me a limitless supply of hot water? At what pressure? How does this fit in with the heating?

Sorry for so many questions, but since I'm going to have to shell out some money, it maybe the right time to ensure I have the best system, or if something needs to be changed.

Ps I have one en suite shower, one bath with shower over bath, one shower room with electric shower, and at some point will have another ensuite shower in future loft conversion. I have about 20 rads.

Thanks again to all for their advice.

Jamie

Who makes the best boilers?

Simon Cowell
Gets goat

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

A single combi boiler would struggle BADLY imho........

Sounds like a system I had in Manchester...... Worcester Hi Flo sorted it..in winter there was a 200 yard snow and frost free zone around the house, like a nuke had gone off LOL



Shaun

what would scooby do

You need to get your house insulated

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

By the sounds of it dindong, what you have is a thermal store. Which from a usage/demand point of view is a better setup than a combi (at the expense of outright efficiency), and if plumbed and manifolded correctly are generally setup to run more than one bathroom simultaneously with no or minimal disruption to any poor sod in the shower ( ). A normal combi boiler in contrast, no matter how large and no matter who says otherwise will not properly serve more than one hot tap simultaneously at a satisfactory pressure or flow rate, even if the mains supply static pressure is upwards of 8+bar.

You can get boilers with a built in thermal store. I think the Worcs-Bosch Heatslave/highflow range are such boilers (advertised as combis - which is a bit misleading/confusing), we had one in a property we used to rent out. They are large, heavy and normally floor mounted, and from looking inside the one we had, I would have reservations on the abilty to maintain them long-term. Basically it has a water storage tank squeezed around a boiler, which restricts access to components, this could be an issue if something needs replacing, as no doubt it will increase labour costs of repairs should it go wrong.