Which boiler do heating engineers have in their own house?

As someone who has just experienced the Ideal Response 120 combi 'knackered heat exchanger syndrome'.......briefly had the boiler installed just over 5 years ago, has functioned really well but seriously died yesterday, I'm now searching for a new boiler. The pipework from the meter to the boiler is all in 22mm pipework and is about 8m. The Ideal boiler also suffered from the EI syndrome and I'm wondering whether this shortened its life as I believe it should have been in 28mm (is this correct?).
I'm telling you all because I don't want the pipework to be underspec'd for the next boiler I buy, and it's really impractical to change the pipework at this stage.......not impossible but a bit impractical. Is the Response 120 boiler a bit of a rogue boiler in this respect?

Any recommendations/ advice would be welcomed.

Al

I recommend doing away with central heating and installing a couple of woodburners.

Why?

Well I have several different boilers, Ariston, Biasi, Chaufoteaux, Danfoss... Viessmann ( but nothing beginning with WXYZ !!! ).

Tony

undersizing is easy, oversizing is expensive!

get ground source heat.did anyone see diy sos. they installed it on that last week.most energy efficient and green.

i got one of these
and got agile to blow into it.

Ive got an old worster 240 Balanced Flued Combi.

Think Ive ever only worked on 2 of them when Im out working, but in 10 years, its had 1 DivertorValve Diaghram and thats it

Not even needed a thermocouple yet. I wont service it cos I know the minute I touch it something will go soon after so Im waiting till It goes before giving it a clean, took a telegan reading from it a few months back and had a ratio of 0.0008 so no worries there.

Dunno what would be a good new boiler to go for as most of the condensers ive seen are within 2 years old and having multiple problems already.

Till I worked on greenstars id have sworn i would only have a worster but not confident about that now.

I have a feeling that the one CH Engineeers have at home might not be the best for the rest of us.

"Stopped workling again dear? No prob, I just have to turn this... saw this off... solder these together... and fit these new parts that I just happen to have in a crate on the van"

I have an Ideal mexico (aged at a guess 30), a Buderus 500 24c (aged 1), a Glowworm Hideaway (aged >10), and an Ariston Eurofighter a23 mffi (aged 9).

I never touch the mexico and can't reach the balanced flue outlet without a ladder so haven't wasted my time sticking a probe inside. The flame picture is perfect. Hasn't needed a part in my ownership (7 years).

Buderus problem free, but young.

Glowworm perfect flame picture fga OK, never touch it, not needed a part.

Eurofighter I fitted from new, hasn't needed a thing, but I did notice dhw performance not up to standard, however tenant hasn't noticed so I haven't done anything about that. I am actually quite pleasantly surprised at the reliability of the eurofighter. I would have a very low threshold for doing much with it, prefering to not meddle with boilers in my spare time I'd probably stick a new one in if much more than a cleanse and a diaphragm were called for.

What would I replace the Eurofighter with? It;s a tough call between a Buderus 500-24c (tenants don't have to have a 28kw) and a Sabre 25HE (which is a Vokera Compact 25). Though the Buderus is best quality available I couldn't be certain as a failed cost accountant in a previous life whether the net present value calculation of the extra initial capital cost over a Sabre would lead to a purchase decision by the budget supervisor. I don't expect much trouble from the sabre judging from the reliability of the old vokera models it was based upon..

The Ideal Response heat ex is timed to leak at 5 years on the nail. You would never face this problem with a Buderus no part takes longer than 15 minutes to change or costs more than £120. I have changed the coil inside the main heat exchanger and it took exactly 15 minutes from arriving at the job to having the outer case back on and starting to drink the cup of tea, but it was the first one I had done. I recon I could get that down to 5 minutes. The only downside of a Buderus is that they are looked after by Worcester engineers who amongst the trade are known to be up themselves a bit, but the ones who are trained on Buderus are the more progressive thinkers. It is far superior to anything ever made in the UK. If Ideal do the decent thing and offer you a new boiler because the response wasn't ever of merchantable quality I would accept it, sell it on eBay and purchase a Buderus.

Paul Barker said:

I have an Ideal mexico (aged at a guess 30), a Buderus 500 24c (aged 1), a Glowworm Hideaway (aged >10), and an Ariston Eurofighter a23 mffi (aged 9).

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Are these in just the one property

thats what i wa thinking.

In my house i fitted an Alpha CD32 and 2 and after 2 years not even looked at it and been fine.

Now tho if i had to choose a boiler i would choose remeha. alpha need to bring a newer smaller boiler boiler out as the current CD s been out a bit

I've got a Viessmann Vitodens 300 (complete with solar panels). Been in approx 2 and half years now. Supurb boiler but a bit pricy.

Thanks very much for the replies,especially the lengthy informative one from Paul. From what I've read about Ideal's 'response' to customers' complaints, I don't think I'd get very far. The best response I could give, would be by not buying or recommending an Ideal boiler ever again.

I'll check out Buderus....never heard the name before.
Cheers
Al

Agile said:

Well I have several different boilers, Ariston, Biasi, Chaufoteaux, Danfoss... Viessmann ( but nothing beginning with WXYZ !!! )

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Ariston ®, Biasi ®, Chaufoteaux ®, Danfoss ®... Viessmann ® ?