Can anyone recommend a decent external oil fired combi boiler?

kjmuttie

Hi all,

I moved into this house less than 3 years ago. It was refurbished and with new boiler/tank (external, oil fired) Great! I thought but i have been plagued with problems. Current problem is the Worcester
Greenstar Heatslave. It appears to have always had leaks judging from the inside. I have had it service 3 times whilst living here, most recently less than 4 weeks ago. Today it wouldn't fire up. Checking it out found the fuse had shut it off and would not reset. Called engineer who serviced it. It was FULL of water and the condensation had migrated up and into the control panel, shorting the system.
Now I suspect, this boiler has been leaking since said engineer serviced it but I cannot prove. But the insides are a mess (corrosion/muck, insulation not holding up), it still has a small leak but everything is corroded, so hard to remove nuts, etc. During the very cold winter 2 years ago, it could not keep the house even nearly warm. Should I just consider this a lost cause and replace it with something better? Can anyone recommend something better and not a Heatslave (haha). Needs to be externa and oill. What costs am I looking at??? Thank you dears!

mark-w20

I would suggest a Grant.
Can u not change over to an unvented cylinder though as that would most likely be a better long term option

kjmuttie

Thank you Mark for replying.......and recommending a boiler.
The property was refurbished completely and the new boiler installed outside. Without re-doing the kitchen (which is already v. small) there is really no place for a boiler so I think I'm stuck with the situation. I shall mark down your recommendation. Cheers:T

What_do_I_know

As a company we always recommend Grant or Worcester as the best oil boilers on the market.

From what you have said it's seams as though the installation is at fault , not the boiler itself - you should not be getting moisture from the condensate back into the boiler, this denotes not enough fall on the pipe. Also if the boiler is not keeping you warm enough it sounds like it's undersized for your property.

It should still be under warranty with Worcester - if an accredited installer installed it - try giving them a ring and see what they say? They have very good customer service.

You should not be having these problems with a three year old boiler and I am sure Worcester would want to know about it.

What_do_I_know

Also you have not said if you have had to represurise the boiler or not. If the water was coming from the boiler you would have to be re-pressurising otherwise the boiler would not fire.

If you have not had to do this the water is obviously coming from else where, which leads back to an installation problem.

Silent_Dancer

It would seem the boiler has not been installed properly. Have you asked Worcester to come and look at it?

Worcester oil boilers are the amongst the best in the market see Which report.

Ray_Alexander

You could try ringing round some local firms and see what quotes they're prepared to offer. I don't know anyone who does oil boilers - but I'm sure they are some out there that can help you out.

captainhindsight_2

If your off grid and considering a new boiler you need to look at renewable alternatives, it could be a very expensive mistake to miss out on the current rhi payments.

Silent_Dancer

captainhindsight wrote: »

If your off grid and considering a new boiler you need to look at renewable alternatives, it could be a very expensive mistake to miss out on the current rhi payments.

Although there can be financial rewards for fitting renewables from RHI, the technology is expensive to install, often unreliable and more expensive to run per unit of fuel.

ilikecookies

Another vote for a Grant boiler! We've only had ours 4 years but no had any trouble to date.

As another poster said I suspect your original installation was perhaps at fault but I'd still chose a Grant over a Worcester ...

As for going down the renewables path we looked at this when we switched from LPG to oil but both the economics (even with a higher RHI then) and practicalities just didn't stack up.

captainhindsight_2

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

Although there can be financial rewards for fitting renewables from RHI, the technology is expensive to install, often unreliable and more expensive to run per unit of fuel.

This just simply isn't true. Capital costs can be higher than fossil fuel alternatives, but the rewards from rhi and fuel savings more than cover this and make it a no brainer decision and put most people in profit. Renewables are very reliable if you buy the right product and you use the right installer, and some manufactures are offering 7 year parts and labour warrantys .

Also with the gap between renewable fuels and fossil fuels widening year on year the fuel saving get greater and greater year on year, the only reason not to have a renewable technology in an off grid property if you can't afford it, which should never be an issue because even with borrowing the money and paying a high interest rate you are still better off.

A lot of posters on here seems to have a vendetta against renewables and common sense , probably because they don't understand the technology