What’s your opinion on this BG boiler quote?

Third and final. Hopefully. One national company, one local company, one local independent. A fair mix and I don't think that's excessive, do you, or do you just accept the quote of the first tradesman that comes through your door when having something done in your house? I'm not in a rush - it's not as if broken down in the middle of winter, I'm just replacing it as it's getting on a bit so I can afford to take my time and make a choice as to who fits it. Now I know there's many a boiler installer that would like me to be in that situation but I would have also thought that many on here would be glad that my money would be going to a local independent installer.

One thing that surprised me was that when I had the conversion to a sealed system and unvented hot water cylinder plus new valves, controller, room stat, flush and service 18 months ago, a local independent firm was just under £1,000 cheaper than a local one-man independent so it does pay to get more than one quote.

I tell you what's weird though, and my mate pointed this out to me, I'm interested in watches and holidays and I'd purchase any of those for more than I would pay for a new boiler to be installed without blinking. As he said, why am I sodding about for that amount of money for something that's going to keep me supplied with heating and hot water for the next 7-10 years. The answer is, I don't know. I think it's to do with where your priorities lie! :LOL:
 
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If it's a grudge purchase then I would just stick with your existing boiler, far more reliable and easy to maintain than any modern boiler.
 
I would like to but it's kettling and I suspect 24 years without any inhibitor in it has done the heat exchanger no good. Just don't fancy chancing it through next winter and anyway, the wife has threatened to leave me if it packs up during a cold spell. Mind you........:whistle::mrgreen:
 
Monkeys peanuts and organ grinders.

Ask around your friends and families for a recommendation.

You only find out how good your boiler man is if he answers the phone when you have a problem.....
 
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I did. The independant installer was recommended to me by my friend. He fitted and maintains his boiler.
 
Hmmm. Just had a quote from a Vaillant approved installer to fit the boiler if I supply it for little more than BG want for just the scaffolding! £680 and that includes all pipe and fittings. They’ll register it so that I get the 7 years guarantee. I can get the boiler and flue for less than a grand so looking like it will cost around the £1,650 mark. Looking favourite at the moment.

I got the independent Vaillant approved installer to supply and fit it in the end. £1,640 all in. Was planned to be done over 6 weeks ago but I gave him the option to call it off and he did - in the heatwave we had, my loft was literally like a sauna. I couldn’t stay up there for 5 minutes without losing a pint of sweat - the temperature was 38°C so there was no way I could expect the bloke to work up there in that. We had a couple of holidays to go on so he said to call him when I was back and the temperature was a bit cooler. Two of them here this morning, took them about 3 hours in all. Made a nice tidy job of it - managed to use the existing flue hole, no scaffolding required and he was up his ladder for all of 15 minutes. Condensate pipe all inside the loft and entering the soil pipe in the soffit void so nothing actually outside the house. I can’t believe how quiet it is compared to the old one!
 
3 hours!? No way they've cleaned and flushed your system properly in that amount of time, wave goodbye to your warranty if you ever get an issue and Vaillant test the water quality.
 
Yep, two blokes, just over three hours. FFS it was fitted in the same place as the old one, used the existing flue hole and there were just three pipes and two cables - hardly a days work! It was power flushed 15 months ago when I had it converted to a sealed system/unvented hot water. Just recently I removed all the rads, took them outside and physically filled, shook, flushed and repeated until I was sure they were absolutely clean and then added another bottle of inhibitor. A couple of weeks ago I drained, flushed and added chemical flush, ran that for a couple of hours each day for a week then filled, drained, filled, drained until the water was crystal clear. Yesterday they drained the system again before the change and added inhibitor. The water in my system couldn’t be any cleaner. They are Vaillant approved and they signed it all off. They supplied it, they fitted it and they will be servicing it on an annual basis so any problems will be down to them. I’ve got no concerns about Vaillant checking the water quality if a warranty repair is needed and neither should you but thanks for your concern.
 
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They are Vaillant approved

I joined the Vaillant scheme several months ago, just to see of ot was that easy. It is. I don't even fit boilers now, and my last Vaillant was probably 20 years ago. "Approved" schemes are generally points make prizes schemes. Scandalous, in my view. But your guys may be the best - who knows?

Anyway, how high off the floor is the new boiler?
 
Well, I have to apologise here to Muggles and concur that it IS hard for some people to connect three pipes and two cables! I must also agree with FiremanT. Apparently, Vaillant approved doesn’t imply any level of competence.

Went to bed last night, wife said she could hear the boiler/pump running. The heating wasn’t on, neither was the hot water. To be sure, I turned both off at the controller. The pump was still running and hot water was going through the bypass circuit for nearly an hour. Too hot to touch so it wasn’t just cooling down. Anyway, I didn’t want to switch the boiler power off in case there was residual heat that might cause damage so switched my gas off at the meter. After a few minutes the pump stopped running so I switched the lot off and went to bed.

This morning I switched on the gas, switched the power to the boiler/controller on (HW and Heating still off) and it immediately started running with hot water going round the bypass circuit. I phoned the bloke up and he got his dad to call me back and agreed to come round later (Father and Son firm, I assume the dad is more experienced). I had a look at the fitting instructions (how hard can it be? :rolleyes:) and then phoned up the Vaillant technical line. I was describing the symptoms and the bloke stopped me halfway through and said "They haven’t removed the jumper link on the 24v connection”. Get them to check that when they come back, it’s a very common mistake to make. Apparently, unless you are using Vaillant controls, you have to remove this jumper link.

Okay, I probably shouldn’t have but I whipped the front off the boiler, checked the circuit board and sure enough, the jumper was there. I removed that and it’s all working fine now. Phoned the Dad back up and told him and he was a bit embarrassed and said his son was a silly sod. Kids, eh? :rolleyes:

Oh well, no harm done and we’ve all made mistakes I suppose (I know I did with my first solo job after finishing my apprenticeship) although I’m sure there are some on here that never have!

They do say "If you want a job done properly, do it yourself” but I never thought that would apply to boiler fitting! :LOL:
 
I joined the Vaillant scheme several months ago, just to see of ot was that easy. It is. I don't even fit boilers now, and my last Vaillant was probably 20 years ago. "Approved" schemes are generally points make prizes schemes. Scandalous, in my view. But your guys may be the best - who knows?

Anyway, how high off the floor is the new boiler?

About a foot. Feel free to kick a man when he's down and tell me what’s wrong here then. :unsure:

 
Don't people lag pipes any more. Mine's in my garage with a fair run before entering the house but I feel a bit stupid now for doing it!
IMG_20180831_114612459.jpg
 
About a foot. Feel free to kick a man when he's down and tell me what’s wrong here then. :unsure:

I am not especially familiar with modern Vailants - but I can tell you that working on a boiler with insufficient clearances can be a bitch. A foot is probably okay, as the F&R is off the top, but depends on what is on the boiler base, and configuration of any pipework.
Don't people lag pipes any more. Mine's in my garage with a fair run before entering the house but I feel a bit stupid now for doing it!
View attachment 147609

CBE is correct
A loft is considered an unheated area and the pipes should be lagged. As well as possibly frost stat protection.

Don't people lag pipes any more. Mine's in my garage with a fair run before entering the house but I feel a bit stupid now for doing it!
View attachment 147609
 
They were lagged. I temporarily removed it as I thought it was preventing heat loss when the bypass was running.
 
About a foot. Feel free to kick a man when he's down and tell me what’s wrong here then. :unsure:


It's going to be a bu99er to get the condensate trap out of the bottom to clean it on a service, and I'd have lagged the condensate to prevent freezing. A Spirovent on the flow above the boiler would have been good too, to remove dissolved air and further reduce the risk of system corrosion
 

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