Boiler Advice

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Lanarkshire
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Currently have a baxi 100/2he plus boiler which seems to be on its last legs (noisy and leaking and badly installed according to more than one engineer)...

Been covered by British Gas on their home care cover for several years...and 3 out of 7yrs, an engineer has either condemned the boiler or mentioned the flue was badly fitted. However, usually this decision is reversed by the supervisor when they come to re assess.

This year, we have decided to cancel the cover due to BG increasing our cover to approx 40 pm. This is despite them trying to get out of covering any repairs by insisting we get a powerflush done. We got this done and problems were still there. It has taken 12 months of constant replacing of parts to get to a stable level of running. On average BG came out every 3 weeks due to boiler shutting down. Current position is, that the boiler has been working problem free since February. But am worried problems might start re occurring this winter.

The house in question is large (6 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 shower room(1 elec, 1 tank fed). Fuel bills are approx. 3k pa, Approx 19 radiators and supplied by 2 hot water tanks and a cold water tank.

With Winter drawing in , we were thinking if we should consider a new boiler to hopefully avoid the boiler cover costs and breakdowns and possibly reduce the heating bill. Or get boiler cover from another firm and look to make efficiency savings elsewhere in the house, possibly new TRV's?

Anyone have an opinion on the valliant ecotec plus 400's boilers?
Am i able to shift from open vented to system boiler as ive read that the ecotec plus 600's are built better? But then i also hear that system boilers are more prone to fail. Confused.
 
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Your boiler is not very old and is condensing.

Just your bad luck it is not very reliable.

I also suspect the BG engineers are not that experienced at repairing.

If you must have cover then Baxi would be a better bet.

But a good local independent called as needed would probably be cheaper.

Tony
 
Yeah the BG engineers seem to work from a laptop schematic as to possible faults, and then replace parts one by one till they find the cure.

Not very impressed to be honest.
 
Some areas will have bad BG engineers just as some areas will have bad independent engineers... seems that you drew the short straw as I'd consider myself quite adept at fixing these boilers after so many faulty ones! They are, to be honest, a terrible design. Notoriously unreliable and hard to work on. Even with regular and thorough servicing (as a minimum the sump/heat exchanger needs water running through it every time, and sump removal to clean with new seals every other service) you will still be plagued by ignition problems at the very least.

Even if you get someone else to cover the boiler, be prepared to USE the cover so make sure it's not one with an excess!

Baxi/heatteam are well known for just throwing parts at boilers to fix them but the main advantage is that they carry all the parts on their van so no waiting for an order at least!

If it were me and I'd just moved into a house with your boiler (or one of the many variants using the same heat exchanger) I'd be replacing it as a priority. That's having worked on 100's of the damned things and seeing how terrible they are. Condensing or not (remember Tony, these boilers started appearing ~10 years ago now, not that new!) they're ****.
 
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What would you recommend as a replacement?

I've been looking at Valliant ECOTEC PLUS 428 or 438

or one of these Worcester Bosch boilers
Greenstar 40CDi Classic Regular
Greenstar 30CDi Classic Regular
Greenstar 30Ri (whats difference between this and one above?)
 
Keep in mind that if you go above 30kW (as your current boiler is) you "might" need pipework upgrades and a bigger pump to get any actual benefit depending on what you already have. Oversizing a boiler creates a whole set of new problems with circulation etc (the Vaillant 438 is well known for being very picky about this and will throw up faults if not installed correctly).

Not many on here will recommend either Worcester or Vaillant (at least with the 400 series anyway) as they seem to spend more budget on advertising than R&D to make good boilers ;) .

You may also have the problem that your current boiler doesn't need a permanent live feed to it, where most (especially "system" boilers) now do. Extra wiring may be needed.

Intergas boilers are well recommended on here, very few moving parts, resistant to sludge in existing systems (not to say it shouldn't be cleaned) and doesn't need the permanent live feed either. Not got much personal experience with them but I can see the perks.
 
The house in question is large (6 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 shower room(1 elec, 1 tank fed). Fuel bills are approx. 3k pa, Approx 19 radiators and supplied by 2 hot water tanks and a cold water tank.
Is that just £3k on gas? If. so it seems very high.

Is the house old with very poor insulation?

If so, you should do something about the insulation before buying a new boiler as you will then need a smaller boiler and get permanent savings on the gas bill.

Your boiler is normally set to give 75,000 BTU (22 kW) output. An internal change is required if 103,000 BTU is required (30.18 kW).

Do you know if the boiler has been changed to the higher output? There may be a label on the boiler or something on the Installation Manual.

Don't assume that your existing boiler was correctly sized. In the past there was a tendency to oversize everything. The Gas Board called it "Guaranteed Warmth".

Use the Baxi Whole House boiler calculator to size your boiler. This is based on the Energy Saving Trust's calculator, so the results are not biased.
 
Approx 3k for both elec n gas. Hob and oven are gas.
House built in 1989. timber frame construction. No insulation underneath and none in walls. Don't think we can get any put in either.

I'm assuming it is the higher kW output based on rooms and bathrooms.

Majority of house is empty during the day but dad loves to keep the heating on 24/7! He likes it tropical.

If a boiler install can be avoided then happy to look at new trvs. Perhaps these motorised ones that can be adjusted on a timer.
 
House built in 1989. timber frame construction. No insulation underneath and none in walls. Don't think we can get any put in either.
Although not as stringent as current Standards, the heat loss requirements for a house built in 1989 are still good.

You really should use the Calculator I recommended earlier. It will only take 10 minutes or so.

If a boiler install can be avoided then happy to look at new trvs. Perhaps these motorised ones that can be adjusted on a timer.
Your boiler is between eight and 10 years old, so it shouldn't need replacing yet. In any case, spares are readily available.
 

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