Is my Vaillant combi obsolete

[tfspark]

I have a Vaillant Compact 282(E) Combi. It has given us good service over the years but has had it's moments!

I pay monthly for a maintenance contract which only covers boiler breakdowns. The engineers came today because I had no central heating, hot water was ok.

According to the wife (I was at work) they found some sort of leak and spent a long time looking through their van for a little washer to fix it. They complained that it was so old that they were struggling to fix it.

Not sure what the leak was but there wasn't any dripping water.

Anyhow they are back tomorrow with a new part.

My wife was then told that in March this boiler was obsolete and they wouldn't be allowed to fix it.
If that is true then I guess I stop paying the contract.

My question is, will the model really be obsolete, ie no parts available?
I am quite happy to mention the company but not sure if it's allowed on here. But they were Vaillant engineers.

 

[Agile]

I assume its Vaillants own breakdown cover then.

Your boiler is perfectly repairable and all us independents will fix them!

As far as I know all the major parts are available.

There obviously comes a time when an insurance based cover becomes uneconomic to deal with older boilers. It seems yours has just reached that point.

Tony

 

[mickyg]

who said it would be obsolette the maintenance company or the vaillant engineer? I suspect its either Homeserve or D&G as both use manufacturers for boiler repairs.

 

[plumbplumb]

I very much doubt this boiler falls into the obsolete category.
Obsolete means no longer manufactured and no longer supplied parts. This doesn't mean parts are still not available via parts suppliers who may have some bits left on the shelf.

It could possibly be put on reduced service list meaning some parts are no longer available this doesn't make it obsolete.

I seem to remember criteria for a boiler being gas council number listed is that they guarantee manufacture of spares 15 years after boiler production has ceased

 

[Dan Robinson]

it's 10 years pp. But these boilers are still readily fixable.

 

[GuessMan]

The boiler will not be obsolete, Vaillant and your insurer have deemed it uneconomical to carry on patching it up or indeed making parts for it. When you have to start paying the real price for the bits and time required to fit them, I bet you will ditch it long before parts are no longer available.

 

[The831Bunny]

I heard on good authority that Vaillant are making the Thermocompact (VCW 240/280/221/242/282 VC 112-282) range obsolete from March 2012. I understand that to mean GS will not work on, or carry spares for those boilers.

Not sure when spare part production will stop in Remscheid though. I'll have to find out.

 

[Bunnyman]

Yes plus one , they are obsolete from April GS will no longer repair them but us independents love em ,look for a good local specialist there's plenty on the web
[/code]

 

[The831Bunny]

This coincides with the new ecoTEC range (launches April) see www.vaillant.co.uk for new ecoTEC information.

15 year parts availability now on this new range. Thermocompacts ceased production in 1995. Thats 17 years of spares. Time to move on. [/url]

 

[tfspark]

Thanks for the interest and replies. Just a quick update.

A very nice Vaillant engineer arrived yesterday morning with parts to fix my boiler.
He said that they'd had a memo stating that they wouldn't be supporting my boiler after the end of March 2012.
I asked him how this would effect my breakdown contract with Homeserve but he wasn't sure. He did say that just because Vaillant direct weren't supporting this range it didn't stop others from providing service.
Something I will need to take up with Homeserve.

These are the parts he fitted.

190717 Pressure relief valve (only cause he used the old one to drain water and it stuck partially open!)
01264 Servo valve
012684 Diverter valve
161107 Pump
061707 Automatic de-aerator
Loads of little capillary tubes.

All a bit belt and braces but hey it's nearly a new boiler

No point in replacing to now, as I'm sure it'll have several more years use left in it. Well done Vaillant

 

[Bunnyman]

Doh he didn't know what was up with it then so changed everything lol😃still u got a lot of stuff on ur contract ! Pump never ffs!or the water wouldn't have worked, Divertor ? Unlikely servo possibly. Blocked pipes probably😃😃😃an y not clean the prv sigh! Another group service part changer!

 

[The831Bunny]

...and +1

You can hear it now can't you: "Good job I've got cover, the engineer said it would have cost over £450 for those parts..."

 

[Dan Robinson]

Well at least the OP will get another 15 years out of that boiler with all those shiny new parts

 

[tfspark]

...and +1

You can hear it now can't you: "Good job I've got cover, the engineer said it would have cost over £450 for those parts..."

Don't quite understand your comments? Sounds like your having a dig at me for some reason?
I've certainly never said "Good job I've got cover......."

Any engineer worth his salt would identify the faulty part and replace it alone to fix the fault. I guess it makes for an easy job if you don't have to worry about the cost.

 

[Dan Robinson]

He was having a go at the engineer. You are lucky. You have hundreds of pounds worth of new parts fitted when only one or two components were faulty.

The "Good job I've got cover......" is how many people react when the parts slinger has thrown half the contents of the boiler in the bin and replaced with new when they couldn't find the fault.