Any current views here on Ideal boilers? A friend is looking to replace the boiler in a flat with a combi, and the plumber wants to install an Ideal Logic Plus 24HE (5-7year warranty) or an Ideal Independant 24HE (2 year warranty).
Ideal didn't have a particularly good reputation with their early condensing boilers, but I haven't heard any comments (good or bad) more recently.
I've wired up a few over the last year, my plumber seems to think they are better than his previous favourite, Glowworm. Easier to wire up too - no separate pump over-run from the boiler, just a switched live, N+E.
I've had a Logic Plus installed for almost 3 years. Still works :-)
No faults as yet, but needs servicing (about £30 with a local fitter) every year to maintain the warranty, and you will get inundated with 'Warranty Plus' type literature. I've not bothered to read what that brings, but it doesn't give me much faith in the warranty as supplied.
Fairly noisy in use - I wouldn't want it in a lounge or bedroom. The worst thing is the pump - sends a sort of low level resonant hum through the system during heating/hot water. I'd blame the pipework, but this one has a good deal of plastic, and this the second house I've lived in with this boiler - same thing. Silent when not in use.
Otherwise, fine. Chucks out hot water at a fair rate, heats the radiators.
The ones that they made about four years ago didn't last long, and up to about 3 years ago WB, Valliant or Broag (Remeha) were said to be the best choices.
I thought you had a keston ?. Is that still working ?.
Yes, I have a Keston C25 - Still going fine, but that's because I know they have a very poor reputation, so I'm very careful with servicing it myself. Also, mine is almost always run at low temperature (45C flow), which may contribute to better life.
I picked up one for spares which was installed and serviced by British Gas, and finally condemmed by them. Various parts have leaked inside, making a complete mess of the innards in terms of rusty stains everywhere. (Final condemming was due to one of the cover screw points rusting and breaking off). In comparison, my self-installed and self-serviced one still looks brand new at 14 years old! You do have to inspect them regularly enough that you can instantly leap on to any problem before secondary damage writes the boiler off.
There are some bugs in the firmware which it would be nice to have fixed, but I doubt anyone has worked on that for years. The interfacing between the controller and the hardware all looks very simple - almost begging for a raspberry pi replacement controller ;-) I'm not actually considering that, although I did produce a prototype computer interface which replaced the standard front panel control circuit board.
Anyone else here still have a Keston Celcius 25?
The two I installed in my church back in Twickenham in 2001 are still running OK AFAIK
This place has two Ideal boilers, installed before I bought it. When I had a (good/knows his stuff in other areas) gas-safe man in for another job, I asked him for a quote for a service, so he had a look. "Hmm...Ideal...I'd better not touch them, you really need a specialist", was his immediate reaction. Rather put me off them.
Having said that, I've only had one problem in nearly 3 years, and that was a failed flame sensor, which I'm sure could happen to any boiler as it's effectively the modern version of the thermocouple that always used to burn out.
Not a very useful comment, I suppose, but maybe a bad reputation coupled with a reasonable experience (so far).
The impression I got with the ISAR I fitted in 2003/4 (before we knew what a lemon their electronics were going to be) was that the boiler construction itself looked pretty good - compact and tightly packaged (so perhaps not easy to work on some aspects), but decent materials and quite nice design with lots of stainless internal parts etc. For the four years I had it, it had one fault (failed DHW temperature sensor), which I actually found you could fix just by bending it a bit). It performed better than any combi I had tried til then. No idea how it worked out longer term.
I haven't had any trouble with the "heat 18" I put in about a year ago. As others have said, it's quite noisy though and I can't really see why it needs to be - it's just a fan after all. The noise it makes reminds me of when I used to wedge a piece of cardboard in the frame of my bike so it scraped on the spokes.
Cheers,
Colin.
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