Replacement gas boiler _ help!

amisfield

We're having to replace our 5 yr old condensing system boiler (Vokera) as the heat exchanger is cracked & there have been other problems with it. Have now got 3 quotes and endured a sermon from a BG man, essentially telling me that only BG do a proper job and small businesses are not to be trusted.

That aside, I think our choice is coning down to one of 3 boilers:
Worcester Greenstar 24i
Worcester Greenstar 28HE
Glowworm 30 SXI

Any of these would be fine for our house. I have seen elsewhere people recommending that the heat exchanger should be stainless steel - the Glowworm is the only one there, as the Worcesters have aluminium. However, everyone has been singing the praises of Worcester.

Any recommendations/comments anyone?

It's now getting urgent!

alanobrien

amisfield wrote:

We're having to replace our 5 yr old condensing system boiler (Vokera) as the heat exchanger is cracked & there have been other problems with it. Have now got 3 quotes and endured a sermon from a BG man, essentially telling me that only BG do a proper job and small businesses are not to be trusted.

That aside, I think our choice is coning down to one of 3 boilers:
Worcester Greenstar 24i
Worcester Greenstar 28HE
Glowworm 30 SXI

Any of these would be fine for our house. I have seen elsewhere people recommending that the heat exchanger should be stainless steel - the Glowworm is the only one there, as the Worcesters have aluminium. However, everyone has been singing the praises of Worcester.

Any recommendations/comments anyone?

It's now getting urgent!

Yes Vaillant !
Good reliability and Stainless Steel heat exchangers.

robowen

Worcester boilers are great....
however..in your circumstances having had one with a aluminium exchanger, you may be better to go for a Vaillant boiler instead.

These have stainless heat exchangers.

rob

<edit> as for the gas board....smile politely...listen to the sales pitch...show them the door...then burst out laughing at the quote.
You are no more likely to get a better job done by the gas board than you would with a reputable local firm. Gas board trainees are rushed out of training after about 6 weeks and straight into your home. Most of the experienced engineers have either left or been promoted.

amisfield

Pretty much what I did - apart from seething for a little while at the patronising attitude. I only really called them in to find out what the highest price would be.

Any opinions on the Glow worm?

vansboy

Worcester has a 2yr warranty - thats what we bought, for Grandmas new system.

VB

alanobrien

vansboy wrote:

Worcester has a 2yr warranty - thats what we bought, for Grandmas new system.

VB

Yep so does vaillant, i recall hearing that some make is going to offer a 5 year guarentee soon, bet they up the initial cost for it though

robv_3

Most installers have makes they like so ask them what makes they recommend. If it breaks down in years to come its them who will be fixing it.

RedOnRed

We had a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 28HE system boiler installed last April and it's very good. Nice and quiet and does the job nicely.

My advice would be to do what we did...go on to the Worcester Bosch site using the Find An Installer facility, put your postcode in and it will fire up their locally approved and trained installer for your area.

We did just that and the guy did a great job for a very reasonable price and because they're WB trained they know the product inside out - which gives peace of mind. He was also a really nice bloke.

vansboy

& if you're looking for recomended gas installers, the people we need were MUCH cheaper than other independents, even less than Mr pay me cash!!

If you want their details, Beds/Herts area & around about, just ask!!

They all need to be Corgi registered, so the job ought to be done 'right'!!

VB

amisfield

Thank you all for your help. We're in Scotland so unfortunately Beds/Herts area out of range! However, I have found a local installer who seems to be experienced, calm, sensible, not patronising - and relatively cheap! Won't really know until he does the job but he instils confidence which is more than can be said for several of the more expensive ones. Still to make a final decision on boiler model - toss up between stainless steel & his preference for W-B reliability.

Meeten

where abouts in Scotland?

I am looking for someone in Perth to have a look at my heating system....