Which new boiler?

Need to replace my ancient Worcester 28i, which apparently may go on forever, but will be unrepairable when it goes. Will be letting out the flat so replacement seems best (although no issues in 2 years).

My gas engineer (friend of a friend) recommends a Vaillant ecotech 28 but it’s too big to fit into a kitchen cupboard (37cm deep).

Got an online quote for £2,200 for Vaillant 830, finance offered which makes me wary.

Any thoughts/recommendations?

I keep my spoons in the kitchen, if that helps.

How about an intergas boiler? Less moving parts to go wrong.

I recommend Vaillant, excellent boilers. Had a few Eco Tec boilers and always been faultless. Your quote seems high, I purchased a new 28L about 5 months ago for £1,300 from http://www.plumbnation.co.uk – The reviews seem a bit mixed but my order was fine and a lot of fitters order from them.

Are you sure you need to get rid of your existing Worcester boiler. Our Worcester combi is 12 years old. Only needed the diaphragm pumping up once and a new pressure gauge.

Appreciate it will now probably explode.

Go only boxt to get a baseline quote.

We recently had a new Baxi. The plumber said he used to be a Worcester fan boy but isn’t now. Something about too much plastic in the construction of the latest models causing issues. He evidently thinks Baxis are OK. But our particular one is a big ‘un which is in the open, not in a cupboard. And very handsome it looks too.

Are you in a hard water area? If so look for a stainless steel heat exchanger.
Ensure you have a good rate of modulation, 20 to 1 is available, so it will turn itself down as opposed to going full chat, off, full chat.
As an owner of a 30 yr old wb24i i wouldn’t be changing just for the sake of it. Might get 10 years more out of it. Maybe keep an eye on ebay for dead ones, they go cheap, and you will have sparea. That said common faults will run run through the range.
Dropping £2000 on something tjats working seems daft to me.
Avoid British gas.

Were you not championing heat pumps on here?

Thinking about the baby Robins in Antarctica or something.
Would an electric combi boiler not be an option?

Would an electric combi boiler not be an option?

If you want to pay three or four times the heating and hot water costs compared to gas feel free.

Replacing a very old boiler saves a few Robins though. Our 40 year old non modulating Baxi was replaced with Worcester 40Kw which modulates down to 4Kw. Gas use down 40-50% in the last year.

I asked the question in relation to system boilers and tanks recently.

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-boiler-tank-recommendations-please/

Anyway, ended up with an Intergas boiler which seems fine so far. Pretty quiet, modulates, and of course their less moving parts feature which may help reliability I guess.

Our installer said they can be trivially converted from system to combi so possible options for the future there if that’s a factor.

Are Valliant good these days? They used to be pretty unreliable but that was about 15-20 years ago. Ideal seem to be another boiler beloved by fitters but again they had the same issues (of course statistics say the more out in the wild the more likely you are to see a bad one).

Anyway, I’d be avoiding Worcester only because their proprietary interface makes fitting any sort of smart gubbins other than their own a complete waste of time unless they have an Opentherm compatible model now.

The boiler looks 30-40 years old, I’d huge and poorly situated. But yes if I knew I could get another few years out of it I wouldn’t be thinking about this.

I suppose the risk of it going when it’s let is I’d be away and over a barrel when it comes to getting a replacement.

@trail_rat I do, moreso for off gas areas. My flat has no outdoor space for a pump.

We’re in the process of getting both (yup..two..FFS!) boilers in our house replaced – one is a combi, which is on death’s door..
The other is a hot water tank/gravity fed system which jsut doesn’t have enough pressure to be any use.
Getting both replaced with Glowworm energy 25s – our plumber suggested Glowworm = Valliant, so both are good options..

I asked about Bosch, and he suggested they are good, but not worth the price…

DrP

Holy thread resurrection.

Spoke to one of those lot that advertise discounts on FB. Got offered a Worcester for £1.8K or Vaillant for £2.2K have supplied pics and discussed details (Vs £2.5 from local independent).  They keep claiming they only have so many left which raises cowboy alarm bells.

I’ll look for reviews but a £300-£700 saving appeals, chances of regret?

i would be looking at it the other way round.  If you are renting it out then who do your letting agency use to fix things or who would you call.  Then ask them what they can service and go from there.  Both are good makes  but I’ve found in the past that the amount of electronics in modern boilers can flumux old school boiler engineers to the point they start randomly changing things.  So go with whatever the service company you use are trained in, it will probably save  you that 700 squids in the future.  Your local independant might be the best option really even if more pricey up front

Are you in a hard water area? If so look for a stainless steel heat exchanger.

@single, excuse my ignorance, but stainless steel is better for what reason, less scaling?

Which makes have stainless steel heat exchangers these days?

Re hard water, other option is get a water softener.  Which is what we did, preserves life of things like boiler / showers etc… and has other less financial benefits like nicer hair after washing (important for wifey!).  Dunno about heat exchange stuff

Thread bump

Currently without hot water of heating, but have access to showers and non gas heating options.  The existing Boiler has a couple of issues and will cost somewhere around £750-£1000 to fix, along with a part that needs replacing There is a leak that needs tracing and sorting. The boiler is actually quite old, older than some people I work with. I think around 2002. We’ve been experiencing faults occasionally in the last couple of years requiring and engineer to fix.

Local guy, not the cheapest, but always does a good job to a good standard, has a Vaillant eco Tec 650 plus with an install cost of £2200 (this Thursday, or next week).

I’m ok with paying a bit more to the company whose office I can literally see from my home office.

Anyone had a boiler at this price point recently, anyone have this actual boiler?

Are you sure on that model number?  I did a lot of research into Vaillant boilers when I had mine done last year, and don’t recall a 650.  Vaillant’s model number convent is usually the last two digits are the kW output of the boiler.  I know they do (or did) a 65kW one – in which case – do you live in Buckingham Palace to need such a high output? 🙂

Anyway, I paid just over £4000 for an ecoTEC exclusive Green IQ last September, but before everyone sucks their teeth and says I was ripped off, I also had the flue redone, SensoCOMFORT weather compensating controller, and a myVAILLANT connect internet gateway.  Those add about a £1000 to the price.  But are something to bear in mind, you’ll only get the best out of a Vaillant boiler with Vaillant controls.

My plumber is also pricey, but I know him and the quality of his work well.

Anyone had a boiler at this price point recently

yep, ~£1800 for a Baxi with 10 year warranty. (Was also offered a Bosch which was more expensive but didn’t want a Bosch!) Plumber is a neighbour but didn’t do us a discount because of that! (But also didn’t try to rip us off – did mention a Powerflush or something at £3-400 but ultimately decided it wasn’t necessary)

Are you sure on that model number?

Oops  I meant 615

If they’re registered by Vaillant Advance then it increases the warranty to 7 years, which may be a decider.

Vaillant and Baxi (and possibly others) have up to a 10 year warranty if that’s important

The one quoted comes with a 10 years. One of those it doesn’t matter until it does.