Boiler Recommendations

Author
Discussion

Chrismawa

Original Poster:

553 posts

99 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
I need a new boiler as mine has passed its best. My two options from British Gas are:

Worcester Greenstar 2300 25kW Combi
https://www.wolseley.co.uk/product/worcester-bosch...

or

Vaillant ecoFIT pure 825
https://www.screwfix.com/p/vaillant-ecofit-pure-82...

Any plumbers on here able to tell me which would be the better option out of these two?

Thank You.

Road2Ruin

5,167 posts

215 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
The one with the longest warranty.

Of course you will now get a stream of anecdotal evidence from variety of sources saying that you should get a particular make/model and you are almost certainly getting fisted by British gas.

Chrismawa

Original Poster:

553 posts

99 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Road2Ruin said:
The one with the longest warranty.

Of course you will now get a stream of anecdotal evidence from variety of sources saying that you should get a particular make/model and you are almost certainly getting fisted by British gas.
Sorry should of mentioned, both of these boilers come with a 5 Year British Gas Warranty including all parts & labour.

Dr G

15,159 posts

241 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Road2Ruin said:
The one with the longest warranty.
Our very good, independent plumber gave me exactly the same advice. He installs Viesmann, which include 10 year warranties when serviced by Viesmann agents, for this reason.

It's very quiet and has given no grief ~3 years in.

Previous one was Vaillant and did last 10 years, but had crap parts/tech support at the end which were the nails in its coffin.

Toltec

7,159 posts

222 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Plenty of boilers come with 10 year warranties now, just check the duration of parts and labour cover though. You also need to get annual servicing to maintain the warranty.

If you have a plumber you trust then take their advice based on what they tend to fit. A good plumber doesn't want customers calling them back in for faults. Repairability is important, some boilers are reliable, but if they do have a problem once they are taken apart they are never quite as good. Ask your plumber if they like to work on a particular brand or not.

sam greenock

294 posts

119 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Road2Ruin said:
The one with the longest warranty.

Of course you will now get a stream of anecdotal evidence from variety of sources saying that you should get a particular make/model and you are almost certainly getting fisted by British gas.
You forgot to mention -Have you thought about an ASHP instead?

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
sam greenock said:
Road2Ruin said:
The one with the longest warranty.

Of course you will now get a stream of anecdotal evidence from variety of sources saying that you should get a particular make/model and you are almost certainly getting fisted by British gas.
You forgot to mention -Have you thought about an ASHP instead?
ASHP would only make sense in a very well insulated house with existing UFH.

caziques

2,567 posts

167 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
garyhun said:
ASHP would only make sense in a very well insulated house with existing UFH.
Correct design is required with an air sourced heat pump, particularly with radiators. With underfloor and thermal mass, a heat pump may be better than a gas boiler.

Chrismawa

Original Poster:

553 posts

99 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Spoke to a plumber friend who preferred Vaillant over the Worcester boiler. Looking online at reviews it seems both boilers have negative feedback and issues and its probably more to do with how its installed, amount of use, maintenance and of course luck!

So I've chosen the Vaillant option and its getting installed on Friday. Which is pretty rapid and good service I think from BG. One thing is for sure its going to be a massive improvement over my nearly 10 year old BAXI NetaTec which is known as a terrible boiler and a local plumbing company wouldn't even accept it onto their annual service cover plan when it was brand new biggrin


RicksAlfas

13,355 posts

243 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
It's a bit depressing that modern boilers only last ten years.
frown

Chrismawa

Original Poster:

553 posts

99 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
RicksAlfas said:
It's a bit depressing that modern boilers only last ten years.
frown
Judging by every plumber that's been to service or repair my boiler - I've been lucky to get that...

Biggus thingus

1,358 posts

43 months

Monday 16th May 2022
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There's currently a supply issue with quite a few boiler manufacturers' unsurprisingly

Usual thing, microchips in short supply so can't make enough boilers

Some are up to 3 months waiting time

gfreeman

1,729 posts

249 months

Monday 16th May 2022
quotequote all
Road2Ruin said:
The one with the longest warranty.

Of course you will now get a stream of anecdotal evidence from variety of sources saying that you should get a particular make/model and you are almost certainly getting fisted by British gas.
This is true...

I was searching for getfisteddotcom and to my disappointment the first result was British Gas.

Not to upset Road2Ruin I have added some anecdotal stuff - I had fitted a couple of Intergas boilers in different houses - a Dutch company - superb bits of kit. I used to use local accredited heating engineers (plumbers) with mixed results for service but now go direct to Intergas UK who direct employ service engineers.

LookAtMyCat

464 posts

107 months

Tuesday 17th May 2022
quotequote all
Chrismawa said:
Spoke to a plumber friend who preferred Vaillant over the Worcester boiler. Looking online at reviews it seems both boilers have negative feedback and issues and its probably more to do with how its installed, amount of use, maintenance and of course luck!

So I've chosen the Vaillant option and its getting installed on Friday. Which is pretty rapid and good service I think from BG. One thing is for sure its going to be a massive improvement over my nearly 10 year old BAXI NetaTec which is known as a terrible boiler and a local plumbing company wouldn't even accept it onto their annual service cover plan when it was brand new biggrin
The Ecofit Pure isn't actually a Vaillant made boiler; it's a rebadged Glowworm Energy which is a good couple of hundred quid cheaper and comes with the same 10-year parts and labour guarantee if installed by a Glowworm/Vaillant registered engineer. Which is almost everyone that installs them apart from it seems, British Gas.

Why the 825? I've installed over 600 boilers and have only ever installed a 25kw boiler about 5 times. Do you live in a flat with 1 shower and no bath?

Your boiler likely won't be installed by a BG engineer; it'll be smashed out to a not-local contractor who will bang it in as fast as humanely possible because he needs to get back home 300 miles away at a decent hour.

You're probably paying more money than to a decent local guy who would have installed it properly and you'd have got a 10-year guarantee.

Still blows my mind anyone under the age of 70 uses British Gas.

Road2Ruin

5,167 posts

215 months

Tuesday 17th May 2022
quotequote all
Oy took 13 posts wink

Sheepshanks

32,535 posts

118 months

Tuesday 17th May 2022
quotequote all
LookAtMyCat said:
The Ecofit Pure isn't actually a Vaillant made boiler; it's a rebadged Glowworm Energy which is a good couple of hundred quid cheaper and comes with the same 10-year parts and labour guarantee if installed by a Glowworm/Vaillant registered engineer. Which is almost everyone that installs them apart from it seems, British Gas.
We're just having an Energy 30S installed as part of our refurb. It was just presented to us as a fait accompli - apparently ordered for another job that's been delayed even though ours has been known about for 6mths so quite why a boiler couldn't have been ordered for our job, I don't know. They also said can't get boilers, very lucky to have this one etc. Even Screwfix seem to have a wide range of various makes from stock.

Chrismawa

Original Poster:

553 posts

99 months

Monday 6th June 2022
quotequote all
LookAtMyCat said:
The Ecofit Pure isn't actually a Vaillant made boiler; it's a rebadged Glowworm Energy which is a good couple of hundred quid cheaper and comes with the same 10-year parts and labour guarantee if installed by a Glowworm/Vaillant registered engineer. Which is almost everyone that installs them apart from it seems, British Gas.

Why the 825? I've installed over 600 boilers and have only ever installed a 25kw boiler about 5 times. Do you live in a flat with 1 shower and no bath?

Your boiler likely won't be installed by a BG engineer; it'll be smashed out to a not-local contractor who will bang it in as fast as humanely possible because he needs to get back home 300 miles away at a decent hour.

You're probably paying more money than to a decent local guy who would have installed it properly and you'd have got a 10-year guarantee.

Still blows my mind anyone under the age of 70 uses British Gas.
It was indeed installed by BG themselves, 3 guys in total as one installed the HIVE thermostat. They were on the job for a good amount of time, protected my kitchen benches from damage and took away every single bit of rubbish even my old boiler. Also checked over the rest of my system. It was all pretty good service in my opinion.

I live in a 3 bedroom house with 1 bath... not sure what you're getting at but the boiler works perfectly both hot water and heating upstairs. It's now covered by BG themselves for 5 years, although if the manufacturer is happy to guarantee it for 10 years it should be good to last that anyway without issue?

Plenty of people take their cars to main dealers for servicing when the back street will do it for half the price...

...but surely that's their choice.

Edited by Chrismawa on Monday 6th June 11:40

cwis

1,147 posts

178 months

Monday 6th June 2022
quotequote all
LookAtMyCat said:
Still blows my mind anyone under the age of 70 uses British Gas.
I tried to get a "local guy" to come and fit a new boiler about 4 years ago - replacing a floor standing thing fitted in the 80's.

I tried for a YEAR - being ghosted before and after quoting, people being vague about what the quotes included, Laughably high quotes, vagueness abut when they could start, etc etc.

I just wanted it done so I could get on with upgrading the loft rooms to habitable - the radiator header tanks etc were in the way. It was also stopping me fitting a new kitchen - the floor standing monstrosity put paid to that.

Shenanigans with getting a "local" was holding up my entire project.

So I gave up and got fisted by BG.

They turned up when they said they would, quoted clearly, turned up to do the work when they said they would, and it cost what they said it would and took as long as they said it would.

Amusingly, the chap that lead the team had turned up to quote (obviously doing a "foreigner") a while earlier. And then ghosted me. Apparently his Apple account had got hacked.... Riiiight.