Which gas combi boiler??!!!

roydog2

As title, my 10 yo baxi back boiler has finally died having broken down at least twice a year every year since fitting, warrenty proved useless. Previous baxi was a joy and gave no trouble for 35 years!
BG and local boiler man have been unable to fix and both agree new boiler needed.
But which one do I go for???
Trusted boiler man wants to fit a vokera as he is trained in these and can offer 5 year warranty. But the Which reviews slag them something terrible.
Another local guy wants to fit a Worcester bosch as he installs them and can also give 5 y warranty, but it will cost £800 MORE than the vokera one (already coming in at £2300).
2 neighbours have Worcester recently fitted no probs but not really in long enough to judge if reliable. Other neighbour got gloworm one which broke down about 4 times initially but now seems to be OK after 7 years.
Trusted boiler man refuses to fit any Baxi or gloworm as he's thinks they're crap now.


The more I read about boilers the more confused I am!!
Viessman scores well at Which site but other review sites slag them aswell. The Worcester seem to do reasonable across many sites but there are some bad reviews too.
Volkera seem so cheap I cant believe they are OK, but trusted man says he's fitted hundreds and has relatively few callouts for repair.
Arghh HELP!!!

Cardew

You have summed up the dilemma well and to be honest nobody can help you as we are all equally confused.

Perhaps in 10 years time we will know which 2015 model was the most reliable! However that will be no relable indication that make will be the most reliable in 2025!

Firms are bought out and 'badge engineering' is like cars - Skoda are rubbish?? No they might have been years ago, but now they are VW. Mercedes are 'bullet proof'? well they certainly used to be, but when they started making them outside of Germany----

All it takes is a bought in component - e.g. a PCB or motor to turn a reliable boiler from one year, to be a disaster next year.

Gillybean

DH is a gas safe registered plumber and tends to used Worcester Bosch. They're reliable, got the 5 year guarantee. But also once that runs out, they offer a fixed price repair plan that can make it cheaper to get it repaired by them than to have a regular engineer come out to it. Plus the work is guaranteed for a year. We have often advised people to go down this route, even tho it means DH doesn't get the work himself lol.

That said we have a Baxi in our house, there's not much difference between the 2 brands. Ours has been in for 6 years and it's only broken down once needing a new thermistor.

Gillybean

And Cardew, you're right about one faulty part leading to another, etc. that's why I like that I can direct Worester Bosch customers to the fixed price repair plan if they want to keep their boiler going for a bit longer.

In general once repair costs go above £3-400, you're better off putting that money towards the cost of a new boiler.

BAPSMAN

Hi. Hopefully I can help a bit. (Im new here).

I built my own house back on 2004. I am a general builder. Im a qualfied electrician and a time served carpenter. I also do plumbing work and Im presently employed as a general maintenance engineer on a 160 acre site, covering maintenance/ electrical / plumbing and I work closely with a heating engineer on site too,so I have to know my stuff ( enough trumpet blowing, but you get the picture).

Back on 2004 I did a lot of research into LPG/ heating for my new house.. I dont like combi boilers to be honest and I have a direct (OZO/ Meggaflow) hot water system and therefore I have a conventional boiler rather than a combi.

I went for the Worcester Bosch Greenstar 30 CDI boiler. This is heating a 3,000 SQ FT detached house and supplying water for 3 bathrooms, so its a busy boiler in the winter! ~~In the 10+ years I have had it it has broken down Twice..... The service engineer was out the next day with a van FULL of parts on both occasions.
The first fault was a software issue ( it was a new style boiler). no issues, he had a new board on his van. He fitted it under warrantee ( 3 years I think).
The second time was the main gas valve letting by. Again out cam an engineer the next day... van full of bits.. sorted it out in under an hour !!

their engineers have parts sent out EVERY day, so that when they go out in the morning to service call outs, they are FULLY stocked with parts.

I have it on W/B service plan now its out of warrantee. Mines just had a service.. no parts needed.... That's now 10/11 years old!

These are VERY well built boilers. That is why they are...
1, reliable,
2, more expensive.

If you want a cheap boiler..... be prepared for problems...

You can either have a boiler built down to a cost,
or
up to a standard...

Guess which one gives the best value for money...

On this site ( 250+ buildings) we ONLY now fit W/B boilers... and we have VERY little trouble with them at all ( and I have around 40 + boilers on site. )

I cannot recommend them enough.:T