Comparing boiler quotes

allinatizz

Hello!

The IQE Simplicity combi boiler we inherited with our first house has broken down 2 days outside of the warranty period, so after spending nearly £300 trying to fix it and nearly two weeks without heating or hot water we've decided to stop throwing good money after bad. It was a c*** boiler anyway.

I know absolutely nothing about boilers and I've had two quotes so far with more lined up for this week. But they were so different it's gotten me confused and I would very much appreciate some advice. For background, there's 2 of us and we live in the South West in a 2 bed 1 bath terraced house with 7 radiators. The boiler is in the kitchen and we would want the new one to be installed in the same place. The surveyor who came round said we wouldn't need any new pipework etc.

Boxt - £1,695
- All online
- Worcester Bosch Greenstar 25i
- 10-year warranty (parts & labour)
- A chemical flush of radiators pre-installation
- Magnetic filter
- Scale reducer
- Honeywell smart heating controls (we already have a Hive but were told we could flog it on eBay if we didn't want it).

Boxt - £2,030
The same deal as above but with a WB Greenstar 30i.

STL Heating - £2,278
- This is the cash price.
- Surveyor came round and spent about 5 minutes checking everything. Said it would be a 'like for like' replacement.
- Intergas 2824 (HRE)
- 12-year warranty (parts & labour)
- Magnacleanse(?) of radiators pre-installation
- Magnetic filter
- Scale reducer

I'd not heard about Intergas before but from googling they seem to be quite popular with gas engineers and we were told the heating and hot water mechanisms are separate so an issue with one won't necessarily affect the other. Which does sound great. On the other hand, WB is very well-known and seems to come highly recommended by many people. I also find the pros and cons of a Magnacleanse vs chemical flush confusing.

The Boxt T&Cs seem quite worrying, with them reserving the right to charge you extra if they see something unexpected on the day but they have great reviews online. STL doesn't however. I brought this up with the surveyor and he gave us his direct line and said to contact him if we ever had a problem so as to not have to go through customer service.

The cheap Boxt offer is very tempting, especially as we bought this house less than a year ago with what we thought was a relatively new boiler with a full service history. Also, I'd been saving that money for a much-needed car so parting with it is particularly painful. But I also don't want to skimp on something so important.

I'd be really grateful for any advice on if these quotes are realistic or not and whether I'm missing anything!

cybervic

Can't comment on Boxt but I just did a quote (2bed flat with 1 bathroom) their quote seems very cheap compare to my local plumbers. Personally I would prefer Intergas though, google them you will know they are highly praised by gas safe engineers and consumers too.

daveyjp

For more info on Boxt Google "Helplink problems".

Same directors, same modis operandi. Will they have changed their spots?

southcoastrgi

Boxt is 40% owned by Worcester which is why they really only push WB, the installers are sub contract & there is a good chance they aren't even local so it might be problematic if you have any faults.

Intergas is a better boiler although that model only has a 7 year warentee so the other 5 years must be coming from STL heating themselves, so you need to make sure that you aren't tied into a overly expensive service contract that says they are the only ones that can service your boiler.

Lcd

Just had a boxt boiler fitted and they were great and about £500 cheaper then anyone else.