Boiler choice Baxi or Worcester ?

naepace

Hi, long story short. I need a new boiler. I can get a Baxi 105HE + flue & programmer for £600 (which looked a good deal to me) but have been told by 3 installers & the BG man who recently serviced my existing Gloworm that Baxi are pretty poor/*?+*^* (both boilers & aftercare) & all recommended a Worcester boiler in particular the Greenstar 30cdi. However, this will cost £4-500 more than the Baxi.

So I'd love to hear the opinions of those of you know about these things, as I am particularly clueless & poor Is the cheap option the expensive one long-term ? From my research a lot seems to depend on the quality of the installation rather than the boiler itself which only confuses matters further. The wife wants to keep a service contract as well which had me thinking does it matter if the boiler keeps breaking down if I'm paying out money every month for peace of mind anyway !

Many thanks in advance.
NP

bambibashercol

you are correct that a lot of problems with boilers are down to installation.
The system should be powerflushed and a spirovent or magnaclean fitted.
Baxi boilers are ok. the worcester cdi range is even better but as you said if its going on to a service plan why spend the extra.
Bg like worcester boilers as they fit them rebadged under there own name.

naepace

I knew Worcester was a respected brand but I always thought Baxi was as well (hence I thought the deal was a good one) Having looked at reviews/forums for the Baxi 105HE there certainly seems to be lots of people having problems but I'd imagined that to be relative, due to them being popular and a big seller.
I have the £500 but I also have Xmas coming up :rolleyes:

Clearly many people do not rate them but does anyone have a Baxi and are happy with it ?

Canucklehead

naepace wrote: »

Hi, long story short. I need a new boiler. I can get a Baxi 105HE + flue & programmer for £600 (which looked a good deal to me) but have been told by 3 installers & the BG man who recently serviced my existing Gloworm that Baxi are pretty poor/*?+*^* (both boilers & aftercare) & all recommended a Worcester boiler in particular the Greenstar 30cdi. However, this will cost £4-500 more than the Baxi.

So I'd love to hear the opinions of those of you know about these things, as I am particularly clueless & poor Is the cheap option the expensive one long-term ? From my research a lot seems to depend on the quality of the installation rather than the boiler itself which only confuses matters further. The wife wants to keep a service contract as well which had me thinking does it matter if the boiler keeps breaking down if I'm paying out money every month for peace of mind anyway !

Many thanks in advance.
NP

Good evening: find yourself a RGI who will fit a Band A (energy efficiency) boiler with a 5 year parts and labour warranty. The Baxi105 HE is Band B with a 2 year warranty. Value for money options include the Remeha Avanta and the Viessmann Vitodens 100 (both have stainless heat heat exchangers, the WB CDi doesn't).

A service contract is a waste of money if you have a good warranty...if your wife is concerned, set aside the cost of a 'service plan' every month as a self-insure.

Check registration here

HTH

Canucklehead

A boiler is only as good as the standard of the installation and annual servicing.

bambibashercol

i would not fit the viessman 100 boiler as they have lots of problems with them but the viessmann 200 boiler is a diffrent beast and highly reccomended.
Most problem with the baxi are leaks off the diverter valve at the front, easy sorted with a new seal. The baxi platinum comes with a 5 year warrenty also but more cash.
Pays your money and take your choice.
I went to 2 worcesters last week with blown pcbs, If you want to really upset british gas get an ideal isar on british gas cover. The worst boiler ever designed in my opinion.

Canucklehead

bambibashercol wrote: »

i would not fit the viessman 100 boiler as they have lots of problems with them but the viessmann 200 boiler is a diffrent beast and highly reccomended.
Most problem with the baxi are leaks off the diverter valve at the front, easy sorted with a new seal. The baxi platinum comes with a 5 year warrenty also but more cash.
Pays your money and take your choice.
I went to 2 worcesters last week with blown pcbs, If you want to really upset british gas get an ideal isar on british gas cover. The worst boiler ever designed in my opinion.

Good morning: the original Viessmann Vitodens 100 sold in the UK did have a few teething problems (lots about this on DIYnot...a flawed product introduced on the cheap for the more 'price sensitive' i.e. tightwad UK customers) but the current version is an excellent product especially the OV. The 200 is much larger and significantly more expensive boiler but a good product....the controls do drive some less experienced RGIs mad though.;) The OH installs both ranges. Btw...Baxi has been taken over by Remeha....hopefully this will stop the sad, long decline of Baxi-Potterton.

HTH

Canucklehead

VfM4meplse

As a lay person I know noting about Worcester but would never go with Baxi again. It let me down for years with an intermittent fault which was inconveniently undetectable everytime someone came out to check, and finally packed up when it snowed hard in February.

naepace

Thanks for the other recommendations. Another complication is due to a significant credit note (long story :rolleyes:) I can only get the boiler from a particular supplier who do not offer the other two brands recommended.
I note that although the Worcester does not have a steel heat exchanger they do give you a 10 year guarantee on it.
Still nobody seems to have a good word to say about Baxi, I'm starting to lean towards the Worcester & take Canucklehead's rec about self insuring (assuming I can convince the OH). I found one of numerous threads on DIYnot about Baxi 105 problems which had been viewed thousands of times :eek: that's a lot of people interested in Baxi faults, similar searches brings up very little in comparison for Worcester.

naepace

There is a possibility I can get around the credit note issue, if I can, one of the RGI's has just offered me the Vitodens 100 as an alternative to the WB 30cdi, although he has never fitted one he has attended the course which will give me a 5 year guarantee he has been looking for an alternative to WB). I decided to google this boiler and have encountered lots of faults in the earlier models as already pointed out in this thread. Basically, how would I know I was getting a new version & not an old model that has been lying in a warehouse for a couple of years ?
The Viessman is around £100 cheaper than the WB.
Cheers.

Canucklehead

naepace wrote: »

There is a possibility I can get around the credit note issue, if I can, one of the RGI's has just offered me the Vitodens 100 as an alternative to the WB 30cdi, although he has never fitted one he has attended the course which will give me a 5 year guarantee he has been looking for an alternative to WB). I decided to google this boiler and have encountered lots of faults in the earlier models as already pointed out in this thread. Basically, how would I know I was getting a new version & not an old model that has been lying in a warehouse for a couple of years ?
The Viessman is around £100 cheaper than the WB.
Cheers.

Good afternoon: give Viessmann a ring and ask what the product code would be for the new model Vitodenns 100W combi (don't know it off the top of my head tbh;))

I suspect the old model is no longer available for sale unless sourced from 'Cowboys R Us'.

Let us know how you get on.

HTH

Canucklehead

andrew-b

I'd just get the WB and be done with it if that's what you have a credit note on - especially if this vitrodens 100 isn't recommended based on past performance. My preference would have been a Vaillant from my own experiences - though there's very little to choose between them IMHO. I'd never actually heard of Veissmann before coming to this forum so whether that's good or bad i've no idea - only ever heard canucklehead mention them which isn't really surprising if that's their speciality.

Either way i think it's best to go with whatever your installer is knowledgeable of and happy installing that gives you the longest warranty ... remembering you'll probably want them back to service it. At the end of the day so long as that big white box on the wall works who cares what name is on it!