Done a quick search and seen that Valiant & WB seem to be well liked.
Anyone have any experience with Alpha boilers?
Any heating type forums around I could ask?

Thanks in advance

I work on all types of boilers day in day out and would stick to vaillant as many local councils do !

Bosch Worcester for me. Expensive but reliable

I had a Vaillant in my last house, seemed good. I've just had a WB fitted at my current place, both fitters had the same one (28i) in their homes – the best according to them.

Had a WB 28i fitted at the weekend after a few recommendations and seems OK once I've got used to the quirks of a combi – but not sure if I should have gone for the 30Si where you can control the water temperature – 28i is fixed at 55 degrees but this is a nominal figure as it depends on the cold water temp which is less in the winter and also flow rate. Any way, think the water temp control might have turned out to be usefull but too late now !!!

sorry for the Hijack

I had my boiler serviced last week and the guy (british gas) asked why i didt have a thermostat fitted…..i just said its always been like that and i just use the dial on the boiler for control of the heat to the rads

He said if i fitted a wireless thermostat in my living room it could save me some money

is this true ???

Granny – Worcester for me all the way, Valiant are good to, just don't seem to get the back up that I do from Worcester. Also find one of their installers and you will get a 5 year warrnaty with one.

Andy W – yes it could save you a lot of money, but will then depend on how you use the thermostat.

Worcester + 1

He said if i fitted a wireless thermostat in my living room it could save me some money

As above – it will depend on how you use it. We have a wireless one with our new WB boiler. It certainly makes the house more comfortable – the temperature is always just right whereas before it was either hot or cold. No idea if it is saving us money yet though – it will be a year before I can answer that one myself.

Thanks for replies.

Assume that Alpha are new to the market so too soon to get much feedback.
Someone mentioned Alpha were good and also with good back up etc but the company he works fits them so not sure if that was an unbiased opinion.

Will look at WB & Valiant, good back up is a factor too.

Any plumbing/heating forums about for more advice?

Cheers

Had a WB fitted over 12 years ago now only a small leak after draining system to add extra rads and a temp switch never had it serviced and still going strong. Thats the kiss of death now better start looking into a new one.

Alpha have been around for quite a while, you could say that they were once Ocean boilers which were very poor. Personally not had an experience of Alpha's only to repair a couple.

Think some installers and merchants like them because there are more margins in them and they offer some incentives to use them regularly. And in town the old adage of losing a job for a fiver is so true, so people go with the cheapest invaribly.

I've recently had a Viessmann boiler fitted. Seams good so far. Comes with 5 year gurantee and external temperature sensor which apparently (so they say) can save another 20% on fuel bills

As to remote thermostat. Yes I think they save money, especially if you get good ones that can be prgrammed at least 5 temps per day.

I've got a Honeywell one and with lots of helpful features.

Thanks Bear that sheds some light on it.
I've not heard of Viessmann, anyone else got any feedback on them?

Granny, neither had I until plumber recomended them. Internet research i did said they are common in Europe, up until 2008 ish some of the boilers were cr@p, but no complaints post 2008, and now award winning tecnology.

Cheaper than WB too.

Alpha's are simple, spares supply/availability good but not that common so harder to compare reliability. Simple=less to go wrong.
Worcester, Vallaint and Viessmann all top of the range boilers and are priced accordingly. Argueably back up is best from Worcester Bosch as they are based at Worcester, Viessmann again less common.

not so sure that they are that much simpler than any other boiler on the market?

Viessman have been a make that has interested me for a while, but not taken the plunge due to some slight negative reports and they were expensive when they first appeared.

Just to be a little different, i recently had a Potterton 30kw fitted and so far it's been ace. Both the radiator and hot water can be controlled from the boiler (i run both at approx. 75% capacity) and have a Honeywell CM901 thermostatic controller.
Two yr guarantee i believe.

I have a Saunier Duval Boiler(about 8 years old), will any wireless thermostat fit ?

Andy W – pretty much should be able to fit most controls to it.

Sorry to muddy the waters but i had i wb 24ri fitted by BG two weeks ago. Since Thursday it has failed 3 times! Bg gave up and asked for a wb eng to help. Turned out the boiler had a fan assembly that was part of a known faulty batch (not clear why) and the bg guy had changed it for another duff one! Mighty unimpressed. Fun bit was that When wb told me they'd come the next day i went to town on bg and wb customer service department. Despite them being utterly convinced that they could not come that day i kept at in and eventually they gave up and sent their engineer round that afternoo What a result! Mighty pleased i was!

Yup, they all go wrong, I've had trouble with nearly every make of boiler I've ever fitted, but percentage wise have fewer problems wirh WB than any other make, and considering I've used far more of them than any other make it is a good achievement. Valiant have been good too, but had a few problems with some of the older ones that were very complicated machines, but the real reason I steer clear of them is because sometimes you can wait hours on the technical suport line.

I had a WB fitted last year and v good so far, uses less gas, quieter, powerful and so on. My bro builds lots of houses and they nearly always fit them. I get the impression that despite being quite complex they are still reliable and support is good.

Think I'm going to look at a WB for a start.
Just been on their site and got a few local registered engineers to contact. Thinking that they will charge top dollar though, any reason not to buy the boiler online and get another qualified plumber to fit it so can possibly save a few pennies or is it false economy?
Would there be a longer guarantee going the official route…..

I just had an Alpha combi gas boiler fitted 35KW model. It was fitted by a personal friend who has his own business fitting boilers and I took his recommendation. I have found it to be very quiet, ramps up to match demand and very simple to set up. Its wireless controller is very programmable so so far so good.

Interestingly my friend rates them above Worcester. He has a fair amount of warranty issues with Worcester on build quality, swarf in lines etc.

cheers Bear

G R – you may get a longer warranty if you use one of their accredited installers, which will give you a 5 year warranty.

Scot – he may well have issues, but he will also have a fair few itouch / iphone as a result of using them regularly!

Were literally this week having a WB 27CDi fitted this week. We decided it was best to go for the top of the range that we can control the water and the 'keep hot' function because it's only about £100 more than the base model.

Peter was that being done by one of their recommended fitters and did you get a 5 yr warranty?
Off to work now so will catch up later

Scot – he may well have issues, but he will also have a fair few itouch / iphone as a result of using them regularly!

Eh?

They offered apple products as incentives to use their boilers.

WB 42 CDi Greenstar fitted, and the response to the two very small problems we have had has been superb. Phone up, engineer in 24hrs to respond diag and fix on the spot. Quiet, economical plus the backup, happy all round.

I am happy with the whole purchase/backup package…. WB have delivered.

The wireless thermostat is brilliant too and helping it being economical.

Worcester Bosch here as well.

Our old Potterton died acouple of years ago…after 20 odd years faultless service.

Plumber said much as mentioned above, the Worcester Bosch unit's on the whole seemed to be more reliable & with beter backup.
He said (along the lines of), all Worcester Bosch were pretty good, but with most other makes you had to cherry pick through the models.

Chris

try central heating forum

don't get a baxi – esp if it's condensing – ours is less than 5 years old and breaks down on average twice pa – despite maintennace contract