Best Brand Boilers

[Dan Robinson]

Two screws, a flue hole. Normal pipes. Choice of switching voltages - easily down rated to 24kW if gas is a little short (or anything up to 32kW).

No plate HE to clog, no DV to stick, no By-pass, just three temp (two dry pocket) sensors, a fan, a flow swtich, pump, gas valve, PCB and spark generator.

How's that for a spares list?

 

[chuckalicious]

Going waaaayyy above my head now, but do carry on

I've contacted a number of people listed on both Valliant and WB website, so let's see who I like and who's quote fits the bill.

Once again, thank you very much for you help, I'm slightly less confused than I was when I started

 

[Dan Robinson]

That's the idea, every thread like this decendes into a techy debate of some sort.

One day everyone shall realise that I am right and follow my masterly ways. Now if you don't mind i need to go to the fridge to add more gin to my G& lessT before the missus gets out of the bath.


In defence of WB support - I was called back to a Greenstar 35 HE plus that we installed a few years ago. My service guy gave it a ancoe over, but the owner reported yesterdaythat it had been leaking for some time after he left.

Ebarrased I returned this morning to check it over, and foundthe cup that clips to the bottom of th einternal trap was leaking. The only thing that sealed it was a great dollop of sanitary sealant. I called WB and said - look this thing needs remomving every year, and its failed after three - not good. They said that they would post the homeowner a new one fro Monday morning.

I was expecting a bit more of a fight to be honest (read recent thread about Ideal and Isar diverters). So, kudos for sending one out of warranty FOC, but naughty naughty for designing something so weak.

Which is why the internal plastic manual air vent scared the shyte out of me when we fitted a little heat only WB a little while ago. All because my apprentice thought our InterOpen wouldn't fit - P e n i s!

 

[chuckalicious]

Have 2 companies coming round tonight to provide quotes, so I'll let you all know what they say.

 

[chuckalicious]

Well, first quote has been done. Was a rough one, but it was £4300 excl vat. For a 30CDi Worcester Bosch, 11 new rads (I said 10 originally, I mistcounted) and about 3 days work.

I have to say I was impressed with the guy, he explained the benchmark tests he'd do once installed, and what he'd do with them, and what Corgi certificate I'd get back. Just a shame about the cost..... once we hace the official quote from him then I'll see what I can do.

got the next one in a few minutes, will be an interesting comparison.

 

[gas4you]

Doesn't seem that far out to me on price. If he's a registered WB installer you should get a 5 year warranty as well.

 

[chuckalicious]

That is all very true.

Second guy came round, equally decent. However raised some interesting points. Firstly that the ground floor is piped with plastic piping, not copper. He didn't want to have plastic piping on a pressurised system, and so wants to repipe the ground floor. Would make sense to me. The first guy didn't even mention the pipes.

Also, both pointed out that I have a 15mm gas pipe, and a 22mm pipe is required for full efficiency of the new boiler. We have two options there. 1: run the new pipe through the house at great cost and disruption, or 2: run it outside (the meter is on an external wall) and up the external wall to where it would connect to the boiler. Both claimed that it was perfectly safe to have a gas pipe outside. Would you all agree?

No quote yet from the second person, but will post it when I get it.

 

[gas4you]

Nothing wrong with plastic pipe on a pressurised system

Depending how far the boiler is from the meter you may even have to go to 28mm copper. This should be worked out before hand by who ever quotes you.

Gone are the days when '22mm' will do Most of my combi installations include some 28mm copper for the gas.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Gas pipe outisde is a no brainer.

Plastic pipe? Well there's a hundred meters of the stuff under my living room floor, and over 200 metres in both my brother's houses. Both are sealed, mine and my middle brother's houses are both unvented mains ed hot water systems running at 3.5bar.


As long as it is barrier pipe then you havn't a problem. If its the old Acorn or non barrier then thats a different mater.

 

[penpusher]

hey chuck, rgi in your area, think i can spec a system within your budget. email in profile.

 

[chuckalicious]

penpusher, I emailed you when you first asked, did you not get my email?

So plastic pipe is ok? The second guy said that it only has a lifespan of about 5-10 years and slowly melts inside, plus the knuckles might not handle the pressure of the new boiler. To be fair when you look under the floor the plastic pipe is just left coiled up on the bare soil as whoever installed it didn't bother cutting it to the right length, so I can see his concern over it.

I'd be unimpressed if that was a load of crap.

The second guy also didn't think it was necessary to replace the rads, because they are all of a good size and quality, whereas the first one thought they should all be replaced.....

 

[chuckalicious]

I think both guys mentioned probably having to take the supply outside as 28mm, then stepping down inside the boiler room to 22mm, so no worries there.

When you say gas pipe outside is a no brainer, I assume you mean it's safe and the obvious solution?[/i]

 

[gas4you]

Most plastic pipe comes with a 25 year warranty anyway, modern stuff even has 50 years on some makes. Don't worry about it. 90% of new build is all plastic except the gas!

Yes the gas pipe outside is safe but should be labelled 'gas'. Although not required in regs, if you are running it down the wall in a driveway it would be beneficial to add some form of extra protectioh over it.

 

[chuckalicious]

Interesting, I might call both people and ask them their thoughts on the plastic pipe again. I don't want to be fleeced by someone trying to make some extra cash from something that doesn't need done.

How would I know if it was the pipe was "barrier" type and not Acorn?

 

[chuckalicious]

Can I ask, regarding my first quote.

The guy didn't mention the plastic pipes, which may or may not be an issue, I'll call and speak to him about it. However, he thought it was best to replace the radiators, however the second guy didn't think there was any need to replace them. He felt that with a good clean, they would belt out more than enough heat (not his words ) and would also negate the need to redecorate the rooms where different sized new radiators were fitted.

Now, I don't know much about radiators, but the 2nd guy felt that the sizes were more than appropriate for the rooms, and that the placement was also fine, and that they were of the same brand as he would replace them with (Dani something or other??).

Now, my point to this post is, the first quote included 11 new rads. The guy stated that I could knock about £1500 off the quote if we weren't taking new rads. Now, I can afford that quote if I didn't take new rads.

So really, what I want to know is, is it acceptable to keep existing radiators, especially when they are matched into the decor of the house? Bearing in mind they are currently hooked up to the one sided microbore valves, and would be converted to normal TRVs.