Replacing a boiler 17 January at 12:25PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 6 replies 224 views

goldeng1456

I need to replace an old boiler. Any advice would be much appreciated. Worcester Bosch? Or Vaillant? And should I use British Gas to fit it (too expensive?) 

diystarter7

Hi
This may help from a few days ago

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6413646/new-boiler-24-7

Thanks

MikeJXE

Use a  local gas safe registered engineer. My son is one and the difference in price with BG is ridiculous, you hill find them here gassaferegister.co.uk 

FreeBear

goldeng1456 said: I need to replace an old boiler. Any advice would be much appreciated. Worcester Bosch? Or Vaillant? And should I use British Gas to fit it (too expensive?) 

Looking to replace my boiler sometime this year. Have dismissed Vaillant as it uses a proprietary protocol to talk with any thermostat so you are limited on choices if you want a smart control to do stuff like load compensation & modulation. WB also uses their own proprietary protocol, but it has been reverse engineered, so there are alternatives when you dive in to home automation..

It will be a local company doing the installation - Won't even consider the likes of British Gas as they will add their profit on to the bill and still use a local fitter (who will be working to a minimum price, and quite likely cut corners).

macman

What sort of boiler? Combi, system, conventional? How old is the existing boiler?
Vaillant, WB or Viessmann are the usual premium options.
BG will typically quote 40% more than an independent GSR RGI.

rob7475

Worcester Bosch offer up to 12 year warranty on some of their boilers. I'm sure other 'premium' manufacturers will offer similar.

As for installation - try local fitters, BOXT or the manufacturer direct as some offer an installation service using accredited installers in your area.

I think the likes of Boxt etc have taken some of the competitiveness out of the market. Your local heating engineer can now look online to see what Boxt are going to quote you and come in at the same sort of price or just under to win the job. Boxt are making a decent profit to pay for their nice offices, call centre staff etc where the local indy wouldn't have these costs. I'd expect them to be a good bit cheaper but that doesn't seem  to be the case with many.

As an example, I've just been quoted £2750 by an indy for a new boiler install. Straight swap to a 30kw WB combi. The cheapest options were around £1900 for a cheap boiler. 3 years ago I had a complete central heating install in a 2 bed house I was renovating for £1900 including boiler with 10 year warranty, 5 radiators, all new pipework etc.

BUFF

diystarter7 said:

Hi
This may help from a few days ago

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6413646/new-boiler-24-7

Thanks

or https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6417765/new-boiler-quotes/p1