Alpha e-tec plus 33 / ideal vogue

[muggles]

Hello all. This is probably one of those questions that most will roll their eyes at but anyhow im asking it anyway!
Im changing to a combi boiler with hive/nest thermostat.
Im read many reviews on the ideal vogue and how good it is but cant find much at all on the Alpha Etec. Both engineers have great reviews and my slightly preferred installer wants to put in the Alpha (with Hive) . Is the Alpha on a par? His price was about the guy wanting to install the Ideal. Its a big layout and i want to get this right. Many thanks in advance.

At the risk of dragging this conversation back round to the original topic...from the boiler point of view, I'd say there's little to choose between the Vogue and the e-Tec. The Vogue comes with a longer warranty, but warranties have just become a lot harder for the customer to comply with thanks to new legislation around periodic system water testing, so that might be a moot point anyway.

As for the controls, both boilers are OpenTherm compatible, so get an OpenTherm control fitted for best efficiency. Nest is OpenTherm, Hive is not. I personally prefer the Honeywell T6

 

[rizsher]

If I were you, I'd check with the installer again, AFAIK, the Alpha ETec can be fitted with an "EasyStat" wireless controller - but, it is truly wireless, there is no wall mounted thermostat that you can replace with a Hive smart controller - I took that to mean, there is no possibility to connect these to a smart device like Hive - unless, there is a way that my Boiler installer didn't know about.

As a reference, I got my old Viessman 200 boiler replaced last month with an Alpha ETec 33. Most of what is being said here is true - Alpha seem to have very limited internet footprint, hardly any discussion or comparison. I found it to be a cheaper brand than the others, 1005+VAT. This includes all the bells and whistles:

Alpha Intec plus £674.78
Premier pack £160.16
Flue pack £ 77.89
Easy stat £ 92.81
£1005.64 plus vat

The premier pack ups the warranty to a total of 13 years. Again, I'm sure there are exclusions and limitations. However, I got the Viessman installed exactly 10 yrs ago, and appeared to be a premier brand with lots of goodwill on the internet back then - my property was on rent for the last 8 years and I had the BritishGas Homecare agreement running for those 8 yrs, which includes a yearly boiler inspection (Total waste of money and a scam by BG). The boiler failed in January, and when we inspected, found it had a drip leak from inside for at least a couple of years the way the underside plates had corroded, yet was never picked by the BG annual inspection.

In any case, I decided to go for Alpha to save on initial outlay, and, have kind of accepted that 8-10 yrs is the life of any boiler now, so, why fork out maybe 50-60% more for a name. My plumber, who I trust quite a lot, had only good things to say about Alpha. Its been in place for 3 weeks now, cant really comment on longevity.

 

[Gasplumber]

Valiant and Worcester baxi if you want!
Ideals will be ideals look and sound good for a few years then problems.
Think from engineers view I prefer Worcester as more forgiving but valiant are smarter. All the codes ect don’t need tools these days to diagnose them

 

[Gasplumber]

Just to add to it sadly you want something people are familiar with. Sad as it seems but true!