Boiler replacement advice Vaillant or Potterton

[sarahjones1975]

Do what the hell you like, this is a site to help DIY'ers. Personally, I could not give two hoots about what boiler you buy and what price it costs to install. You have managed to waste the time of a lot of RGI's on here

I'm not clear how i hve wasted anyones time? If I hadn't asked these questions someone else would have, and like me other people will search for biasi, potterton etc as these are budget boilers.

(hell knows why their giving you advice when its Daddy's money / problem)

It's my problem as my father is over 75 and I don't want him to be ripped off and shafted. Like I said I have already been shafted after paying £3500 for a complete systems install. The guy did not flush the boiler properly and now my pump and heat exchanger have gone. This on a barely 5 yr old Vaillant ecomax 835. At the time I didn't know what he was meant to be doing and let him do the job how he wanted. He was recommended by other people and I did not haggle on the price. I am determined that that will not happen again. Good people on here can help with stopping RGI like that wasting peoples money and giving the rest of you a bad name.

how can you put a doctor and a optician in the same wage band lol and yes they get a lot more than 125 a day. This is 2010 not 1970.

I didn't come up with those day rates just out of thin air. I am on of those and that is what I get after more than 5 years of experience/service.

Let's move past the cost of installation cost that some people are getting heated up about and critique my boiler choice and their price performance ratio.

Thanks

 

[Whitespirit66]

Doctors/pharmacists/opticians get £125/day

how can you put a doctor and a optician in the same wage band lol and yes they get a lot more than 125 a day. This is 2010 not 1970.

Erm, been 2011 for a few months now.

If I was a doctor, I would be very disappointed with £125 a day.
If I was a pharmacist, I would be very disappointed with £125 a day.
If I was fitting your boiler, providing that I had not run a mile because you seem like one of 'those' customers, I would be very disappointed with £125 a day.

 

[mickyg]

how can you put a doctor and a optician in the same wage band lol and yes they get a lot more than 125 a day. This is 2010 not 1970.

I didn't come up with those day rates just out of thin air. I am on of those and that is what I get after more than 5 years of experience/service.
[/quote]

you are a what? a doctor, pharmacist and optician? jack of all trades ay ?

 

[sarahjones1975]

..... will post later

 

[simond]

Did I read that you were not sure how you wasted anyone's time?

Well, you have wasted

have had 4 quotes at £250, 2 at 350-375 and a few at 3550-1000.

at least 7 Gas Safe installer's time. All for a job where the lucky man is likely to come out of it with £150.

How do you think the other 7 (at least) installers will cover their wasted time? They have to earn a living every hour just like you, so the wasted time cost is passed onto everyone else who does give them a job.

You are going to get a very moody, poorly expedited job for your money. A Magnabooster is not an alternative for proper system preparation, £250 buys you nothing.

It certainly wouldn't buy you a visit from 7 engineers if they knew you were a messer.

 

[lawrance]

She should have gone to specsavers!

 

[sarahjones1975]

If I was a doctor, I would be very disappointed with £125 a day.
If I was a pharmacist, I would be very disappointed with £125 a day.

Unfortunately that is the exact reason why we have to poach doctors and pharmacist from 3rd world countries, because people think what is the point of going to uni for 5 yrs with 5 yrs of debt and then earning £75 a day as a starting salary after tax, much better to do a bit of plumbing and get double that a day plus less risk of getting sued/killing someone. By the time the customer finds out that you have not flushed the system properly it is 2 yrs later and they have got no chance of sueing you for negligence. In my trade if I make the wrong decision I am shafted! And I get less money for it.

You have wasted 7 Gas Safe installer's time

You don't know the price of stuff unless you ask. Do you go into Tesco and tell them they have wasted your time because their fruit and veg is too expensive? Most of the quotes I got over the phone, I asked them for a ball park figure, and if it fitted my budget, then I would ask them to look at the job. It is not hard to describe what needs doing. It's a boiler swap! My time is valuable too. But I guess if you're on £350/day you probably feel yours is 3x as valuable as mine, maybe that's why you are getting upset?

You are going to get a very moody, poorly expedited job for your money. A Magnabooster is not an alternative for proper system preparation, £250 buys you nothing.

Maybe you get help an old person get value for money. Maybe you can write down exactly what should be done and how it should be done so I can check off that the job is done right and my parent does not have to pay again out of their pension money. And please don't say get it done off the guy that wants £1000 - more money does not necessarily equal better quality. If you write down what needs doing I will go through it with the guy and if he says it's going to cost £25, £50, £100, £150 extra, I will be happy to give it to him. The most important thing is that it is done right, and I told the people that quoted me that at the time.

Let's get abck on topic please....

 

[simond]

The topic was whether you should have a Vaillant or Poxi Batterton.

And as is usual here, opinion was divided. You then decided that you wanted something cheaper, and most of the advice here was that you were misguided.

You haven't been charged for this call.

Do you go into Tesco and tell them they have wasted your time because their fruit and veg is too expensive?

PS: I get my veggies from Waitrose, because they treat the farmers better and look after their own staff well. And my view is, if they look after their people, their people will look after me. That is the way I work with my customers. I don't fit cheapo stuff because I don't want customer dissatisfaction.

Regarding your heating system decisions, you seem to have shot yourself in the foot a few years ago, and are currently reloading.

 

[Agile]

Sarah implies that she is a Doctor or Pharmacist. Few doctors earn less than £40k ( based on a 48 y.o. doctor I know who is pretty useless ). Pharmacists often more.

Sarah's father is 75 y.o. and generally that would mean that she is likely to be over 35 and well established in her career.

Since Sarah has been brought up by her father I am very surprised that she does not want to give him ANYTHING towards getting a good boiler fitted.

A sceptic would say that she may well inherit her father's house sometime anyway.

I do sometimes come across old people living in dire circumstances in council housing while their children live in great comfort in 4-5 bedroom houses in good areas but still do nothing to help their parents. Thats odd!

 

[sarahjones1975]

Few doctors earn less than £40k based on a 48 y.o. doctor I know

After tax, NI etc that is 30,000 = £125/day so thanks for proving my point and he is 48 years old therefore after 20 years experience!

who is pretty useless

You can often judge people by the company they keep Only joking!

Since Sarah has been brought up by her father I am very surprised that she does not want to give him ANYTHING towards getting a good boiler fitted.

If I felt like that I'd just wait for the Warmfront scheme, or take him to the hospital and then get social services to fix the boiler

Anyway I have bought a Ideal Logic Plus 24kW for £732 inc VAT including flue and clock + 5 yr guarantee. I know that most of think that they are crap, but it seems like a good deal if there are no problems. If it breaks down, I'll just call on the warmfront lot

The safe bet for budget boiler would be the tried and tested Potterton Gold, the Biasi would have been a good gamble but I don't like to live life on the edge especially with our recent winters.

Strangely the old Ravenheat has come back to life. CH is working fine but the DHW is not that warm, or as warm as it should be. I wonder if it is the diverter valve, had a new pump fitted a few years ago so that should be OK. As it's running I'm thinking of using it for a system clean. I have read about powerflushing and some of you recommend just a DIY mains water flush before a new system is installed. I am thinking of flushing the system twice with mains water, then putting in Sentinel X400 for 7-14 days and then reflushing twice with mains water again before the new boiler is installed. They system was power flushed 6 years ago by warmfront so should not really need another one as it's a sealed system. I'm going to fit the Fernox TF1 afterwards and also get the RGI to put in 22mm brass T on the central heating flow and return pipes so I can conveniently flush the system when I feel it needs it. Anyone with any comments on my plan?

he Biasi is new to the market but has not so far got many negative reviews.

Tony: rumour has it you install quite a few Biasi's. What is your view of the Activa? Have you installed any?