What's the uk.diy recommendation for combi boilers these days? Replacing a stupid French thing (Britony SE) that keeps randomly locking out on PCB errors. I replaced the PCB and it did about 8 months and started again. Ran a soldering iron over it (I suspect bloody lead-free joints) and got another month.
It is going to be replaced with maximum prejudice :-)
So, who's good and any good priced suppliers?
Bosch Worcester boilers are the ones I have been pleased with. The last one I bought I got through Plumb Centre and got the same price offered to the trade, but that was quite some years ago.
Richard
ebay, look for 99 or 100% rating
NT
Don't. Have a hot water tank. Then at least when it dies you can still have a bath (immersion heater)
Andy
This is what I did after two unreliable and inadequate combis (although to be fair I do know one house where the combi works fine).
General advice in this NG is Worcester Bosch or Vaillant.
AIUI, and some have far more experience than I, WB has had a long run of unreliable machines. The upside appears to be the stream of WB spares on ebay.
NT
Which? magazine says the same, I meant to say that. I have a Vaillant.
That's a good find. Thanks all for the info guys; probably Vaillant then as the 28kW ones seem to come in cheaper. The EcoTec Pro 28 seems to be the one generally available, though I'm surprised at the £900 price tag
- I must be out of touch! Although I've never had to look at combis before, only system boilers.
Cheers all, ta.
If it were for me, I'd have a tank. I hate the morse message of hot water you get unless you run the tap for minutes at a time every time.
To be fair to the existing god-awful-pile-of-French-crap (and its twin sister that I also look after) they seem to have done 10 years fairly uneventfully. In the five years I've fettled them they've had 3 relays replaced on the PCBs and the temp control variable resistors of one of them replaced. So a tenner of bits instead of about £400 of PCBs.
I had my W-B repaired last month. It was installed ten years ago. For the first repair two years ago the charge from W-B, parts included, was around £250, this time it was £350. The man from W-B also said that they have consciously designed some parts so that it is difficult for independent repairers to work on them.
I called them out a few weeks ago, but then I knew I needed a new heat exchanger, so the money wasn't hard to justify. Insurance co deemed it beyond economic repair, and I could see why. Took him at least an hour to get the old one out. I could see easier ways of doing it, but thought I'd better keep my mouth shut. On the whole though, a very efficient organisation. Parts get delivered to the engineer's van by overnight courier, so they're always ready to go at 8AM. Can be the best option if you need the job done in a single visit because, unlike BG, they carry a Tranny load of parts.
I have a Viessmann, self installed. Since I was fitting it myself, could search for the very best price, and got one mail order for over 200 quid less than my local dealer. Bringing the price close to a 'lesser' make supplied by the firm fitting it. But it's a system boiler, not combie.
There is an online supplier that seems to list every single part as a spare. Not that I've needed them.
I'd agree with that. With W-B you no what it will cost upfront unless it is beyond economic repair. They have the parts on the van so there is one visit and it's done. Many years ago when I needed a repair on the previous old cast iron lump I had to pay for the time it took to travel across London to get the parts and then come back and fit them.
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