warm front what boilers do they used

deafpaul

hi we have found out that we have a grant for £2700 from the government we have had the installers want to fit a ideal isar boiler. since we had not heard of this make we looked it up and found it had very poor reviews. we have now requested a diferent boiler and are being messed about by them. has anyone else had this boiler installed that could give us some feedback on its efficency.or has anyone had a different type fitted that could give us feedback aswell thanks paul

ic

Both my grandparents have each had ideal boilers fitted under the warm front scheme. Do the job, they were toasty warm over Christmas. One has had an issue where dirt got into the sealed system, and this blocked up the heat exchanger meaning hot water to the tap wasn't constant. The installers came back and replaced it no problem.

installerknowledge

Please dont get an ideal. I have fitted these for a national company and they have stopped fitting them because of the problems. You should stick to something like a Worcester Bosch or Glowworm where you have a quality product. If you have the grant for £2700 does that mean you dont have to pay anything?

barrie-sw

The fitters employed to fit my new boiler quoted for ideal as well, but I spoke to warm front representatives who confirmed that there are several approved boilers to choose from. I insisted on Vaillant as they have an excellent reputation and are one of the options available.

Premier_2

Get a competitive quote from an independant qualified engineer for the same work before agreeing to go ahead with warm front.

Warm front were featured on BBC Watchdog (as well as other consumer programmes) uncovering their tardiness, overcharging and lack of customer after-care in many cases. Unfortunately the watchdog page has been removed (it was over a year ago I think), but there's quite a bit along the same lines if you google

e.g. http://www.gas-guide.org.uk/blog-warm-front-scheme-criticised-by-charities-106.html

deafpaul

yer it does mean that we have £2700 to spend but they have said we may have to pay a little towards the costs about £50-£100 which we do not mind but need a good boiler

Premier_2

So how much are they charging you to supply & fit a new boiler in total?

A new boiler only costs typically about £600-£800 depending on model of course.

Add about £100 for a flue & additional materials, still leaves £2k for labour - it don't take that long to fit a replacement boiler!

space_rider

deafpaul wrote: »

hi we have found out that we have a grant for £2700 from the government we have had the installers want to fit a ideal isar boiler. since we had not heard of this make we looked it up and found it had very poor reviews. we have now requested a diferent boiler and are being messed about by them. has anyone else had this boiler installed that could give us some feedback on its efficency.or has anyone had a different type fitted that could give us feedback aswell thanks paul

I`ve had the ideal isar for 3 years and it`s been fine.

HeatherH

I went for the warmfront grant. They came in and said I needed a whole new heating system with 5 radiators.

I waited for the invoice and it came in at over £4,200! This work was going to have exposed pipes and I was advised against it as their invoices didn't exactly tally up.

My neighbours beneath my flat had central heating put in the year before and it only came to about £3,000 and theirs was under the floor boards and fancy.

So I'm sticking with my electric heaters, as I didn't fancy them ripping my flat to pieces.

david29dpo

Total con in my case. My parents had the £2700 grant. The cost was £3600. Could have done a better job myself for less than £2000. OK they got a system by paying the £900 extra themselves but the fitters see it as a cash cow. The boiler (ideal) packed up after 6 months because the fitter never flushed the system after fitting. The complaints got us nowhere.

elektra

lengthy blog here about people's experiences -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/2008/11/20/heating-grants-have-they-cost.html