Right need to get a new combi boiler installed as our existing Glow Worm boiler is not producing hot water, looks like an increasingly ocurring intermittent electrical fault of some sort, getting cheesed off hence replacement time.

Looking up on the font of knowledge that is SingletrackWorld it seems to be a toss up between Valiant and Worcester-Bosch, anyone got any first hand experience? I’m expecting a price of around £1500 – £2000 for the supply and install. Also want a wireless room thermostat.

Standard semi detached house circa 1900, three bedrooms, bath and shower, 8 radiators in Chesterfield.

To my mind the installation of a new boiler should be fairly straightforward as it will be in the same location as the current boiler, so all services are there and waiting. Oh yeah I’ll also check that the condensate pipe is routed internally to the sink waste which will be about 3 feet away.

I just had a Vaillant combi fitted – Ecotec Exclusive 838 which is for bath, shower and 12 rads (3 small) and it’s been good.
2 weeks in and the pump started making loud noises. Vaillant couriered the part to our house and sent an engineer out to swap it out and it’s been fine since.
Apart from that it runs very quietly, hot water is quick to come through – easy controls which tell you what it’s doing.

I had all the rads changed as well and the tanks taken out (change of plan) and so just a boiler change would be in your price range.
Chaps who fitted it hadn’t done this model before but were very impressed compared to others. They also routed the condesate pipe to a sink waste.

So far I’d recommend it. Things do go wrong and they sorted it pretty well.

Wocester Bosch here = excellent boiler and eco friendly as they come

My Student landlord experience says Worcester Bosch. Very reliable, easy and cheap to fix.

Just had 3450 spent on the heating.,

Fitting of a Worchester Bosch Si30 boiler, a gigantic towel rail, relocate lounge radiator and replace. Small radiator in cupboard upstairs and all new central heating pipe work. All copped downstairs and a mix of copper flexi upstairs.

Wocester Bosch here

Your pricing sounds in the right ballpark – maybe a bit more

Wooster Bosch combi here, 42 Cdi. Cost around £1100, plus a flue kit and the bluetooth thermostat inc delivery. Fitted by our plumber. Been very very good so far. Had one fault Jan last year and fixed within 24 hrs by their own tech.

When he inspected it with a plug in diagnostic he mentioned that quite often the original pipes from previous boilers dont have the required capacity/flow rates from the bore sizes to get the most from the new boiler… may be worth a check.

Cheers rickmeister, only have a 15mm feed into the house, but pressure is good.

The pressure into our house is excellent.

The boiler appears to love it and heats up the rooms fantastically quickly. I sometimes stand and shout at the space where the back boiler used to be calling it a names and reminding it how rubbish it was at heating the house compared to this new boiler.

Just a quick update went for the Worcester 30cdi, flue, timer, thermostat and installation for £1700 inc VAT. All prices were pretty much the same apart from the jokers who took 4 days to get a quote texted to me for £1695 exc. VAT!

Now we’ll see if it’s any good.

Viessmann

Not currently very popular in the UK. I can’t remember the exact price, but the guy who fitted it (and system) said it was slightly cheaper than a Vaillan or WB.

For that you get award winning technology and external temperature sensor which makes a huge difference as the boiler doesnt work as hard when the outside temperature is higher. + 5 year guarantee.

We have actually used the guarantee as the water was going through a heating and cooling cycle. Turned out the fitter (nothing to do with Viessmann) hadn’t openened the water inlet vale enough. The engineer said that they got far less calls to Viessmann stuff than WB or Vaillant and that they are generally better built boilers.

Weisman parts aren’t easy to get hold of at present. Had a few lengthy waits for pcb’s. They do look well made when you get into them though.

Remeha Broag, they’ve been making condensing boilers for 30 years. Not been in the domestic market for long, mainly make commercial boilers.

One warning if you go the W-B route – they are prone to the condenser pipes freezing in cold weather so if your pipe needs to run anywhere outside (or in an un-insulated area inside), be sure to protect it best you can from freezing. It is a dead easy job to fix if it does freeze (assuming you can get to the pipe), but a pain if the boiler cuts out in the middle of the night.

BTW – had ours for just over a year (with remote thermostat) and have no complaints about it. And yes, it froze up last month.

One warning if you go the W-B route – they are prone to the condenser pipes freezing in cold weather so if your pipe needs to run anywhere outside (or in an un-insulated area inside), be sure to protect it best you can from freezing. It is a dead easy job to fix if it does freeze (assuming you can get to the pipe), but a pain if the boiler cuts out in the middle of the night.

BTW – had ours for just over a year (with remote thermostat) and have no complaints about it. And yes, it froze up last month.
Ditto, had mine (W-B Greenstar 30si) fitted in Feb 2007 and it’s been great, no problems at all until the condensate froze in December. Boiler Man came round and replaced the original 22mm exit pipe with a 34mm one, and it’s been fine since, even when left unattended (running at a low temperature) while I was away over Christmas and the New Year.

We were very lucky as we had it serviced in early December, I got chatting to the engineer and he told me he’d been called out to loads with that problem recently so it was the first thing I looked at – fortunately our pipe is at head height right outside our door so I just pulled apart the push fittings and watched the water drain away (from the boiler end of course).

When the cold weather was over I just pushed them back together. Saved me £70 call out 🙂

Unfortunately mine wasn’t quite as easy to solve (boiler upstairs, pipe frozen outside well above head height), so the initial fix / bodge was to saw off the narrow pipe at the boiler end and leave it draining into a bucket inside the house. They then came back the week after and replaced the (old standard) narrow pipe with the (new standard) wider one. Didn’t charge me for either job – all part of the service from a small local firm. 🙂

yeah that sounds like what the engineer told me they had done loads of – I was just very fortunate in having a very easily accessible pipe.

Fit a trace wire. Stops the condensate freezing.