I have narrowed the choice of medium output combis down to two models, Vaillant Ecotec plus 831 or Worcester Bosch Greenstar 30Si.
Both have similar specs and the Vaillant is around 100ukp more expensive looking at current online prices.
Does anyone have any experience of running either of these two units?
-- rbel
I would go for a Vaillant, most installers I have spoken to say the same, Worcester are apparently not worth it due to the build quality, over-hyped and overrated. We have a Vaillant Ecotec as well, not been in very long mind, 4 years in October, though there have been no complaints about the boiler so far.
The new Ecotec range has a few improvements, the 831 has a CH output range of 5.2kw - 24kw compared to 7.2kw - 24kw on the 30si.
waits for harry to come along and tell you not to bother, that he can heat his house with an 8 watt cfl and a couple of farts a day.
I'm very happy with last year's Ecotec too
If you have more than one bath or more than one shower in your house, its worth spending a few quid more on a boiler with a bigger DHW heat exchanger.
I have an Vaillant Ecotec 838 exclusive. This can output 5.3kW to 32kW to CH and can output up to 38kW to DHW. The DHW exchanger is about twice the size of others in other boilers.
I got the 838 for £1k plus VAT. you also need to buy a flue kit for it as well which will be about another 50 quid.
Stephen
Yep, they appear to have made it a bit more installer friendly from what I can see and with wider modulation ranges compared to previous models.
Are you sure about this, the technical data sheet seems to suggest it has a 11.2kw - 30kw output for CH?
Yes. There is a display on the boiler that shows the power level. It modulates down to 5.2kW and modulates up to 38kW for DHW and up to 32kW for CH.
If you read the manual, its possible to adjust the upper and lower limits of the burner modulation range.
Regards
Stephen
Oh wow, maybe its because it's from the Exclusive range, the Ecotec Plus you can only adjust the upper limit
Our current aged Potterton has an output of 17.8kW to 20.5kW which has produced a good level of comfort here in a well insulated property on the south west coast. Our mains water flow is only 12.5 litres/min so the 831 DHW flow of 12.7 would seem to be a reasonable match.
-- rbel
I've had experience of getting support from Worcester on the few occasions I've needed it, and trying to get support from Vaillant :-/
Bosch were here next day but i've no experience of Vaillant.
In message , brass monkey writes
That's the problem, isn't it
You could count on one hand the number of people here who have any useful comparative experience
As one of those people, I used to recommend W_B, but I think that they are going downhill, with Vaillant hot on their tails
Both seem to be having quality issues
Vaillant have the edge, but then, they are a bit more expensive
Look for the cheapest boiler to spec with the longest warranty
I got 5 years with this 30cdi, the only fault so far (after 3.5 years) is a dicky wireless thermostat. I just know I shouldn't have said that.
In message , brass monkey writes
Well, I currently have a 28i Junior which has yet to go wrong. It replaced a 242E which was working when I removed it, having required a fan and secondary HE in the 20+ years it was installed
However ...
I repair more W-B and vaillant fans and pcbs now than anything else, with the exception of suprima pcbs and ICOS modules
Because they are wrth repairing rather than buying a new POS replacement?
ahh perhaps not.
Crosses finger, touches bit of wood, looks for lucky heather and hopes his fleet of WB's keep going.
In message , tony sayer writes
A lot of fitters seem to have an aversion to installing baxi-potterton, I wonder why ?
Having accounted for a fair few of those I can believe that. But how many Greenstar fans and PCBs are you seeing relative to their standard- efficiency parts?
Significantly fewer, of course, but steadily rising
standard-
Presumably beacuse the installed base is steadily rising.
Interesting though it is that Geoff now repairs more W-B and vaillant bits than anything else without knowing how many units are out there it doesn't really mean very much.
Which has the better reliabilty:
Make A with 10 repairs and 1,000 installed units Make B with 1000 repairs and 100,000 installed units
When you only know the number of repairs...
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