Boilers - Hot water and CH type
Discussion
Does anyone have any GOOD experiences with modern day boilers?
Do any of them work reliably for more than 6 months at a time?
Do any of them have an expected life of greater than 5 years?
Or in my case 2 1/2 years at the moment and having taken 2 years to get the thing to work as intended. Now important component parts are starting to fail and I get the impression from the engineer who visited yesterday that this is not unheard of. Major dismantling job to replace the bit he thinks is required so plenty more opportunity for secondary damage or similar to other components and seals. And this will be the 4th time the system has had to be drained with the related risk of having to get the air out of the system once again.
I am not at all amused. I may decide to cut my losses and change it again so any recommendations would be welcome.
Do any of them work reliably for more than 6 months at a time?
Do any of them have an expected life of greater than 5 years?
Or in my case 2 1/2 years at the moment and having taken 2 years to get the thing to work as intended. Now important component parts are starting to fail and I get the impression from the engineer who visited yesterday that this is not unheard of. Major dismantling job to replace the bit he thinks is required so plenty more opportunity for secondary damage or similar to other components and seals. And this will be the 4th time the system has had to be drained with the related risk of having to get the air out of the system once again.
I am not at all amused. I may decide to cut my losses and change it again so any recommendations would be welcome.
parrot of doom said:
I have an Alpha boiler, highly recommended by a plumber who I know well (father in law of best mate). Its fantastic.
Remember, just like any other complex mechanical device, they do need caring for every so often.
This one was installed by a large local plumbing and electircal company a little over 2 yrs ago. The manufacturers engineers have had several attempts at getting it to work as it should - several major components changed. Their last attempt was August last year. They insisted it should have an annual service first so I had the installers do that. The manufacturer's engineer seemed to get it to work as expected and it has not yet reverted to its previous problems.
Now we have a leak - bad news as it is located in an airing cupboard. Actually I think we have 2 leaks, at least one of which is connected to the condensate drainage system/flue system. We seemed to have a bit of a leak last time and I got the engineer than to look at it but we decided it might have been an extreme rain storm a few day before with high wionds blowing rain into the flue. (It was blowing the very heavy rain horizontally right at the flue so quite possible I thought.)
The boiler before was from the same manufacturer. That struggled through 9 years before the heat exchangers started to leak. Swapping the unit, especially for one that required little change to the existing plumbing and flue location, seemed like the most sensible (and cheapest!) opportunity.
When it works as it should it seems fine - just doesn't stay that way for long. And it the components are going to start to fail this early in its life I am less then comfortable with keeping it going.
>> Edited by longq on Wednesday 16th March 12:45
telecat said:
Got a Worcester Combi, Now about 3 years old. Had one problem about 18 months ago. Guy came out and fixed it No charge.
This house had a Worcester Combi originally. Obviously an older model. We had a number of problems with that when we moved in (it was about 4 years old when the burner unit cracked on Xmas eve ...).
Eventually the combined burner/water heater cracked againi when we were away for a weekend. Came back to water soaked floors. It was 13 years old by then and Worcester considered it as obsolete and were surprised it was still working at all.
So we got a different type which was smaller and more efficient (allegedly).
bertie said:
What model of of boiler do you have?
I've just had a Baxi HEplus and it's by far the best, quiestest boiler I've known.
Hmm, naming and shaming rules prevent me from stating at the moment.
Edit: However it is a well known brand now part of a large group - as most are.
Had a Baxi back boiler/gas fire in a cottage we rented many years ago. Seemed excellent but we were only there 18 months. OLder products may not have been as efficient as modern ones but they did seem to work well with little attention in the main.
>> Edited by LongQ on Wednesday 16th March 14:15
The fundamental problem here is that everyone is obsessed with getting the cheapest they can and not at all interested in quality.
Hence all the boiler manufacturers are purely interested in the price they pay for parts not in the quality.
An awfull lot of large quality brand manufacturers are sourcing electronic controls, fans, burners, air pressure switches etc from the far east as it saves a few pennies.
We've just had a customer drop a stress screening process from one of the controls we make for them because it saves them 27p on a £30,000 tractor.
Hence all the boiler manufacturers are purely interested in the price they pay for parts not in the quality.
An awfull lot of large quality brand manufacturers are sourcing electronic controls, fans, burners, air pressure switches etc from the far east as it saves a few pennies.
We've just had a customer drop a stress screening process from one of the controls we make for them because it saves them 27p on a £30,000 tractor.
falcemob said:
I have a Potterton Kingfisher that I fitted nearly 30 years ago. It is still going well and all I have had to buy for it is a new a gas control valve and new thermocouples every 5 years or so.
But you ar chucking a monumental amount of gas up the flue compared to a modern modulating condenser.
bertie said:
I have a Potterton Kingfisher that I fitted nearly 30 years ago. It is still going well and all I have had to buy for it is a new a gas control valve and new thermocouples every 5 years or so.
But you ar chucking a monumental amount of gas up the flue compared to a modern modulating condenser.
Never easy to make gas usage comparisons when the bills seem to be made up at different times and we hardly get two winters the same but I must say I have not really noticed any great saving in gas with mine. Have noticed increased service costs. NIdeed the manufacturers of this one seem to have doubled their service charges since the model was announced about 3 years ago.
Makes me wonder why.
But then it tok them 2 years to get it to modulate as they said it is intended to. Or at least to do it for more than 2 months after any re-setting work. My guess is a lot of gas disappeared that way.
longq said:
Got a Worcester Combi, Now about 3 years old. Had one problem about 18 months ago. Guy came out and fixed it No charge.
This house had a Worcester Combi originally. Obviously an older model. We had a number of problems with that when we moved in (it was about 4 years old when the burner unit cracked on Xmas eve ...).
Eventually the combined burner/water heater cracked againi when we were away for a weekend. Came back to water soaked floors. It was 13 years old by then and Worcester considered it as obsolete and were surprised it was still working at all.
So we got a different type which was smaller and more efficient (allegedly).
Julie's flat has a Worcester combi of some bizarre design (to me anyway) in it: it's been in since the flat was built...19 years ago.
It's had plenty of problems though, mostly due to the water in Leicester. At the moment the ballcock is knackered so has to have it's mains 'top-up' feed shut off; means we have to refill the tank manually every few weeks.
My favourite was a Halstead (sold through Wickes) that I installed in '95 and it still works fine despite never having been serviced.
My house has a Baxi Genesis in it: plastic fantastic heap of crap. It's near the top of my list of home improvements...
bertie said:
But then it tok them 2 years to get it to modulate as they said it is intended to. Or at least to do it for more than 2 months after any re-setting work. My guess is a lot of gas disappeared that way.
Are you going to tell us who makes this mystery appliance?
Still a bit concerned about naming and shaming for now.
The brand has not so far been mentioned on the thread but other products from the international corp of which it became part, a couple of years ago (I think), have been.
Maybe the problem is simply modern appliances? Cheap, expensive to maintani and whatever they may appear to 'save' in energy (green heaven) they lose in manufacturing energy requirements and cost of maintenance.
My ol' man does installations from domestic combi's through to industrial blown gas for aircraft hangers.
He swears by the following for domestic installations.
www.chaffoteaux.co.uk/
He swears by the following for domestic installations.
www.chaffoteaux.co.uk/
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