Our house came with a Keston 130 (badly) condensing boiler installed when we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. It has been nothing but trouble though not all of the problems have related to the boiler itself - the accompanying pump was underspecced for example and we subsequently replaced it with a 25/55 model that greatly lessened the amount of cycling that the boiler was doing.
We have had the majority of radiators in the house replaced since we moved in (I think there are only two panels that were there when we arrived and one of those is switched off) but although our system was supposedly flushed we still seem to have a fair amount of crap moving around. There is a 'trap' near the boiler that we have emptied a couple of times and found quite a lot of 'grit' in the cup.
The Keston has always been a noisy beast and in the last week it has got significantly noisier. Keston say the fan is failing which will be =A3360 plus fitting (presumably plus VAT as well). Given the noise, the problems we've had with the boiler and the difficulty in finding anyone willing to work on it other than Keston themselves (who are currently only doing warranty work) I'm of the view that this might be time to call it a day and replace it.
What do people recommend in it's place? It's a large, end of terrace, victorian house with original sash windows - it needs some serious input. The boiler is in the airing cupboard on the first floor - which is off a bedroom and below a bedroom so something quieter would be better. Should we consider changing anything else at the same time? (we had the hot water cylinder replaced less than a year ago.)
Anything else to think about? My intention is to source the parts myself and find a heating engineer to fit (so recommendations in South London would be useful).