Anyone familiar with IDEAL Boilers? Advice please

Lucy_Lastic

I am in need of a new (combi) boiler and due to the new regulations it must be a condensing boiler.

I have a quote from British Gas for £3000. This is for a Gloworm 30 CXi. The BG man pointed out that this boiler has a stainless steel heat exchanger and that the price includes a "chemical power flush" which is apparently essential to remove any sludge from the system. He says that if this is not done then there can be all sorts of problems in the future.

A local contractor has quoted £1500 for an Ideal boiler, no further details at present. Having done a little research I would imagine that it would be the Ideal Mexico 15, or 18 or 24.

Has anyone any knowledge of Ideal boilers?

The house is a 15 year old 2 bed end of terrace and has 5 radiators. What size/Kw boiler would it need?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I need to make a decision fairly soon.

caveat_emptor

Gloworm 30Cxi is about £800 inc VAT to buy. If it's a simple replacement then BG price is well over the top. I had a BG guy canvassing for energy supply and I happened to mention I would soon need a new boiler. He said that I shouldn't bother with BG as their prices were too high.
I don't know Ideal but an equivalent would be the Mexico HE30 @ £1250 inc VAT (ouch!) so you shouldn't have to pay a fitter more than this for the boiler, though I'm sure he would like you to.

jcorbygas

The boiler could be an Ideal Classic HE which in our opinion is one of the best boilers. Bear in mind that due to new regulations us engineers cant just fit a new condensing boiler these days. We have to update the cylinder, fit new heating controls, and fit trvs on all rads. Try telling a customer that Mr Prescott wont let you pay around £900 for a new boiler - he wants you to pay at least double for all the extra work. If you dont carry out all the extra work you cant certificate the new boiler as per new regulations and then when it comes to sell your home you wont have the necessary certification.!!

Cardew

caveat_emptor wrote:

I don't know Ideal but an equivalent would be the Mexico HE30 @ £1250 inc VAT (ouch!) so you shouldn't have to pay a fitter more than this for the boiler, though I'm sure he would like you to.

I thought the Mexico was a range of boilers made by Ideal.

Or at least I have an Ideal Mexico CF125 - this is an old model, fitted in 1988.

However it has given very little trouble. I also saw a recent post in another thread that someone had a 30 year old Ideal boiler still going strong.

However, like so many manufactured appliances, you cannot be sure that a manufacturer who earned a good reputation years ago still produces goods to the same standard. 'Past performance is no guarantee for the future etc'

Lucy_Lastic

Thanks everyone for your input.

I have now had more quotes and have decided to go for a (not British Gas) Baxi Platinum C24 HE at a cost, fully fitted, of £1870. It has a 5 year warranty, not sure how much the warranty is worth, but it sounds good to me.

Unless you know something I don't................................

caveat_emptor

Lucy_Lastic wrote:

Thanks everyone for your input.

I have now had more quotes and have decided to go for a (not British Gas) Baxi Platinum C24 HE at a cost, fully fitted, of £1870. It has a 5 year warranty, not sure how much the warranty is worth, but it sounds good to me.
Unless you know something I don't................................

Judging by number of people having problems within a two or three years a five year warranty could be worth quite a bit. But condition of warranty will be yearly service by 'authorised person'.

adr0ck

how do you get a 5 year warrenty

i thought baxi only did 12 months?

adr0ck

surely if baxi offered a 5 year warrenty they would be out of business

my experience of baxi:

9 boilers

6 failures within 18 - 24 months