Boiler decisions

dogshome

Not willing to risk our utterly reliable, but 30 year old oil boiler thro' yet another winter and the bloody new regulations, I've had to go over to mains gas

My choice of boiler would be a WBosch Greenstar 34 CDi, but my Plumber who has lived in the village for 30 years and trustworthy recommends a Baxi Platinum 33 HE boiler that has a 10 year Warranty.

I've looked up the Warranty and it's good with few get-outs, and it covers Parts and Labour for the full 10 year term and availability of spares
BUT this boiler is really just a re-badged Baxi Duo-Tec which costs appx £300 less

I've run a business and to my mind the maths just don't make sense.
Even today, £300 will only cover around 2 full days of an engineers time and that's not incuding parts.
Yet Baxi's warranty says they will cover all these costs, with 10 years worth of inflation added on !

Hopefully I'm wrong, but it seems that Baxi are determined to grab a bigger share of today's market in the hope that they can sort something out when the chickens come home to roost - Then will the something be bye-bye Baxi ?

Opinions please

macman

Is the warranty transferrable to a new owner? They're probably relying on people simply not being aware in 5+ year's time that it is still under warranty.

Cardew

I think plumbers usually recommend boilers they are familiar with - and get a 'bonus' from the manufacturer for fitting.

The 10 year warranty will almost certainly be dependant on an annual servicing by a Baxi approved plumber @ £??.

I have just made the same decision and replaced my two boilers with a Viessmann boilers - a conventional boiler and a combi. These come with a 10 year warranty and my local plumber charges £40 + VAT for an annual service.

I will know after a few years if it was a wise decision, but Viessmann are a big firm in Germany(where I lived for years) and are highly rated by WHICH.

Baxi are a huge old established firm see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxi so I doubt if your fears of the firm folding will happen.

C_Mababejive

Heating Engineers can sign up to boiler loyalty schemes and get all sorts of offers and deals. Always check out the terms and conditions of any warranty.

[Deleted User]

If you invest the princely sum of £1 on a months trial Which membership you can see their boiler reliability stats. They conduct an annual survey of 12,000 boilers, rating reliability, customer recommendation, and engineer recommendation, and Worcester Bosch have won it hands down for the last 6 years. I've just bought a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 28CDi Compact Combi on the strength of it, which also has a ten year parts & labour warranty if you use their own programmer and fit a magnetic filter.

Veissmann and Vaillant do well, too.

dogshome

Hi jack_pott
Done the Which route and WB/Baxi web-sites.

Maybe I haven't searched the WB site deeply enough, but so far as I could see their 10 Year Warranty only covers the Heat Exchanger - any pointers?

macman

I had a Viessmann Vitodens 100-W boiler fitted in the spring. So far I'm very pleased with it. A 5 year warranty is standard: a Viessmann registered installer can extend that to 10 years, but, as Cardew says, it's linked to an annual service by a registered Viessmann installer.

[Deleted User]

dogshome wrote: »

Hi jack_pott
Done the Which route and WB/Baxi web-sites.

Maybe I haven't searched the WB site deeply enough, but so far as I could see their 10 Year Warranty only covers the Heat Exchanger - any pointers?

The WB catalogue says 10 years for the heat exchanger, and a 'minimum of 5 years' for the boiler 'as a whole' (page 45). My guarantee certificate expires in 10 years, and says 'any components of the appliance'.

The (WB approved) plumber said that the boiler comes with 7 years warranty as standard, and then you get an extra year if you use WB own magnetic filter, and an extra two years if you use their programmer. My Combi is the compact version, which is the latest generation design, and I think I recall him saying that it has a longer guarantee than older models because of that.

The terms and conditions are impressively short, reasonable, and free of loopholes:

1. Parts & labour, any components.
2. 10 years.
3. Must be serviced every 12 months by 'competent' engineer.
4. Proof of service required.
5. Neglect, misuse, accidental damage excluded.
6. Domestic use only.
7. UK, NI, ROI only.
8. Must adhere to any additional T&Cs imposed by installer (none in my case).

lisa110rry

Hi Dogshome, I had a Vaillant Ecotek boiler fitted last June and this year our consumption is down by 25% across the year as a whole! Whichever you choose, replacing your 30 year old boiler (ours was 29 and reliable, too) is going to save you considerable money!

System

Atag boilers now come with a 10 year parts and labour guarantee and a lifetime guarantee on the heat exchanger.

http://atagheating.co.uk

Rated No 1 boiler manufacturer in The Netherlands for the past 7 Years

I had one installed earlier this year and I am very pleased with the build quality: it is also operating under full OpenTherm control which the Worcester Bosch and Valliant UK* cannot do. FWiW, looking back to July 16, my average gas consumption was 10.74kWhs per day: last month, this had fallen to 6.8kWhs per day. The boiler is also whisper quiet in operation.

* Possible if an additional board is purchased from The Netherlands.

What is Opentherm Control?

https://theevohomeshop.co.uk/content/21-What-is-OpenTherm-and-why-use-Honeywell-evohome-with-it

Nest 3 now has it as do a number of other smart boiler controls.

gizmosmum

Hi Dogshome.


What are the 'bloody new regulations' please? Do you rent the property out?


And by warranty do you mean the one that comes as standard or are you looking to buy extra cover?
We have just had a quote for a new Baxi combi-boiler, £3000, including replacing our old boiler, removing the immersion heater and de-commissioning the water tank in the loft, and replacing radiator thermostat, 5yr warranty on the boiler... I haven't asked yet about extended warranty.
Anything you've learned would be helpful... :-)
Thank you.