Which combi boiler brands are best?

arissarazul · 7 June 2018 at 2:02PM

which combi boiler makes and model does everyone here recommend and which are reliable please?

I have had quotes and prices from various plumbers for the following boiler brands:

Worcester
Vaillant
Viessmann
Ideal
Gloworm
Main
Biasi

(I know Biasi isn't a good boiler)

which do you guys think is best or worst and which do you have in your house? All of the above boilers come with a guarantee but only one comes with 10 years. Also, Atag who i never heard of got mentioned.

i also had a rather crazy quote from British gas for more than £7300 which i will post up, I know its a rip-off but want to know whether the work is required, or not!

plumberpaig · 7 June 2018 at 3:06PM

I think this thread helps to answer some of your questions:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5631484

Atag - you might struggle to find installers unless you already have a good one lined up. Great boilers though, just not popular with the customers yet.

Avoid Biasi.

£7300 looks expensive, even if all of the following is true:

you live in a 5 bedroom house
you have 3 bathrooms
you're having underfloor heating installed
you're having new radiators installed
you're having a top boiler installed
all your pipework is being renewed and buried underground

British Gas, along with most other larger companies, sub-contract a lot of their work out to companies like the one I used to own - a small company employing less than 10 guys. We did the work for BG and got paid a little more than half I expect.

There's plenty of local installers to you that will give you a great installation for much lower costs, even if you're in London.

Edit, if you or others don't mind boilers you might not have heard of then, Intergas would be the one for me - level with Vaillant for overall best value. (Just my opinion).

sleepymans · 7 June 2018 at 3:32PM

Im really happy with my combi Valiant. It was around half the price that BG quoted me (and tried the hard selling tactics...like a managers discount if `i signed up on the day of the survey!!)

Valiant service mine annually too, and are extremely thorough.

southcoastrgi · 7 June 2018 at 9:18PM

The 3 best boilers on the market are 3 that most people have never heard of.

Intergas
Atag
Viessman

Sorry should have said imo

roger-w5 · 7 June 2018 at 10:05PM

Intergas,would be my first choice.

Most boiler manufacturers internet home page have a 'find a local installer search facility'

bris · 8 June 2018 at 12:18AM

genau wrote: »

Something I've looked into and these have always been consistently favorably mentioned: Worcester Bosch, Valiant, Baxi and Potterton. Am not saying others are not good just that these have consistently been mentioned as being among the best

Would it be straightforward to find installers for the above mentioned as they sound good

Intergas
Atag
Viessman

That's because Britain has always had them and everyone knows them. It's a brand everyone knows so assume they must be the best.

I do however like them, they're not bad boilers and a lot easier to sell.

I do however favour Intergas, they do things different inside which does away with the diverter valve.

It's a hard sell though because no one here has heard of them, and usually it's Worcester Bosch that end up in the house.

plumberpaig · 12 June 2018 at 1:11PM

bris wrote: »

That's because Britain has always had them and everyone knows them. It's a brand everyone knows so assume they must be the best.

I do however like them, they're not bad boilers and a lot easier to sell.

I do however favour Intergas, they do things different inside which does away with the diverter valve.

It's a hard sell though because no one here has heard of them, and usually it's Worcester Bosch that end up in the house.

Agree. Parts were hard to get before and the sales reps were also hard to get hold of. They were just too small before but it's much better now.

Engineers love them because they have very few moving parts and are extremely easy to service and repair.

Not sure about the Baxi boilers except possibly the Ecoblue. Potterton is also a no no no for me.

Agreen with Southcoastrgi's list and would also add Vaillant into that mix if they don't go down the cheap route too much.

robatwork · 12 June 2018 at 4:19PM

plumberpaig wrote: »

Not sure about the Baxi boilers except possibly the Ecoblue. Potterton is also a no no no for me.

Potterton are also a no no with me for the way they dealt with the faulty Suprima pcb issue. Brief summary - Suprima pcbs failed in huge numbers due to bad design by Potterton. Potterton briefly fixed them in the boiler equivalent of a recall about 15 years ago, but won't offer anything now to acknowledge or fix the problem. This problem is still occurring today to those who haven't replaced the pcb. Boiler perfectly good otherwise.

Frank99 · 12 June 2018 at 4:34PM

Get the one with the longest warranty, my plumber claimed that Worcesters last longer than most he has seen.

Ganga · 12 June 2018 at 7:09PM

My next door neighbor had an Intergas boiler fitted,vey efficient and economic and supposed to be very good quality.

plumberpaig · 13 June 2018 at 5:05PM

Frank99 wrote: »

Get the one with the longest warranty, my plumber claimed that Worcesters last longer than most he has seen.

There's a lot of boilers on the market that now come with 7+ years warranty. It also helps if the engineer is a accredited installer as they sometimes get extra years on top.

Some manufacturers have increased their warranties but made their boilers more expensive, just to keep up with the others.

Remember, if you don't service your boiler annually it voids the warranty. That's an added cost that some would otherwise not have accounted for.

Which combi boiler brands are best?

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