New Boilers Alpha or Worcester

bwb45

Hi in the new year i am considering buying one of the two boiler makes Alpha or Worcester.which one would be the best for reliability and price.I live in a semi detached house with 8 radiators.Would also like to know what range of BTU`s i should be looking for on the boiler.

Mankysteve

Bedrooms BTU = width/ft x length/ft x height/ft x 4
Living rooms/Bath BTU = width/ft x length/ft x height/ft x 5

better to slightly bigger as you turn the boiler down but you cant make an underpowered boiler turn up.

confuseddad_2

Had a complete new system in a couple of years a go. Combi with all new pipework and 17 rads and towel rail.

Got quote for the greenstar and the alpha.

Bought the cd35c as it was cheaper, liked the guy from the company and we got the premier pack so 5 years parts and labour.

Had a slight problem when first commisisioned but alpha direct have been great so far.

Looked at worcester as recomended by brother in law as had his for 8 years and no problems so not really helping am I????

For me its down to price and more importantly piece of mind with the warranty.

Good luck.

bwb45

Thanks so far for your info so far. but would anybody else have any info on these two boilers Alpha and Worcester.Any recommendations as which one is preferred and why.
thanks mark

Cardew

The difficulty in recommending any boiler is there is so much 'badge engineering' on boilers these days.

Boiler maker 'A' of 10 years ago will probably have been bought out by Boiler maker 'B' but keep the same name - even though it owes little to the original design. So stating that my excellent reliable boiler made by company A is the one to go for, is now no longer valid.

For instance Skoda cars of yesteryear were a joke in terms of reliability, however they are now effectively VWs and excellent cars.

In any case with boilers there are a lot of 'common parts'. I suspect that all the electronics(which seem to be hugely expensive to replace) are made by the same firm for lots of manufacturers.

fb1969

We had a Worcester combi boiler installed in our flat in early 2002 and it was nothing but trouble. We took out a service contract directly with Worcester Bosch and certainly got our money's worth from them.

The main fault was that the flame sensor wouldn't detect the flame so would cut the gas supply and trip out. The main pcb was replaced twice and the flame sensor once. A new engineer then increased the gas supply pressure but that caused "explosive ignition" and another call out.

Another new engineer then reset the height of the flame sensor and the unit was a lot more reliable after that. We sold the flat in 2007 and the boiler was playing up at the time, but the new owner wasn't interested in the service contract.

That was a few years back and we may have had a rogue unit, but about half of it was rebuilt with little difference in the fault appearing. We never had any problem calling out Worcester and always found their staff helpful and friendly.