Can Anyone Recommend A Good Boiler?

RedOnRed

Can anyone recommend a good and reliable wall mounted gas fan flued boiler? Or maybe just recommend rubbish ones and i'll use a process of elimination?

My current boiler is an Ideal one (as in make) which is still hanging in there after 27 years. It still does the job but is a bit noisey and around 55% efficient.

I suppose the above speaks volumes for Ideal boilers, but after 27 years i'm kind of guessing it may have been superseded and may now be unavailable.

I suppose you could say if it aint broken why fix it and even if it does brake British Gas fix it anyway. I dunno, what do you reckon?

pedro3uk

I can't really recommened a good boiler but I have had a Vokera boiler which regularly required attention and, until I found a local boiler expert, it cost me over £100 each time. After 10 years I have now replaced this with a Worcester Bosch. Although it seems ok, the fan has the annoying habit of coming on then going off at regular intervals. Worcester came out to it but said nothing was wrong. I got annoyed whilst sat outside this summer so contacted them again and they stressed emphatically that it was normal. Oh well! Having said that we really need 22mm gas pipe as opposed to 15mm which we have as performance will suffer but that is not the case. It performs well but just have to put up with that damn noise.

RedOnRed

On the one hand i've had Worcester Bosch boilers recommended to me by a British Gas plumber and then on the other hand i've gone onto Ebay and noticed that there's more W/Bosch used spare parts on there then any other boiler manufacturer, with reasons generally given that they've all had to be replaced very often.

There's one seller that states that his W/Bosch boiler has pretty much had all it's parts replaced and has been almost entirely rebuilt.

So that's sort of put me off W/Bosch.

Unbelievable_2

My Mum and Dad recently had a Worcester Bosch boiler installed by British Gas and they have had quite a few problems with it.

We have oil now but used to have gas Gloworm (also installed by British Gas) at our previous house and it worked a treat.

RedOnRed

I'm starting to see a pattern emerging here with Worcester Bosch who confusingly claim...

"Our products are designed, manufactured, sold and distributed with the quality and reliability that is synonymous with the Bosch name."

Every white good in my house (washing machine, fridge/freezer, hob, oven, extractor, iron) is Bosch and all are well built and ultra reliable. So it doesn't quite seem that their boilers share the same build quality.

haribol_2

I have recently changed my boiler to a Vaillant which I am thoroughly pleased about. It came highly recommended from numerous plumbers I have spoken to.

If you can opt for the combinational boiler.

Woby_Tide

Had a Worcester Bosch Condensing Combi for 2 years now without so much of a peep out of it.

i have to open th airing cupboard to check it is still there every now and again

cattie

I have a Vaillant combi & they are considered the Rolls Royce of boilers by many gas installers. Having said that I had a Worcester Bosh combinations in my last 2 houses & neither gave me any problems whatsoever. I've always had a British Gas service contract, which I think helps to keep a boiler running trouble free & well worth the outlay for the peace of mind.

raeble

When I was researching I too heard that Valliant are the rolls royce of boilers. Gloworm and Worcester Bosch are also recommended. Touch wood I've never had any problems with a Gloworm but I haven't bought a new one yet. Your local energy efficiency centre might be running discount schemes on new boilers running under various names around the country - green boiler scheme and magic boiler scheme (east midlands). https://www.saveenergy.co.uk might be worth a look.

Woby_Tide

going back to the ebay point a while earlier, it's worth considering that the reason there may be lots of WorcBosch parts out there as they are the most common boiler. It's a bit like saying a Ford Focus is most unreliable because there are lots of spare parts. Choosing the boiler with the least available spare parts beliveing it to be most reliable may end up meaning when something does go wrong you struggle to find a part quickly and/or cheaply. Just worth considering with some of the less common makes in case you do get problems along the line

StephenB_2

On the one hand i've had Worcester Bosch boilers recommended to me by a British Gas plumber ...

Call me cynical, but do you think that might be related to the commission he would get if you bought one?

SJB