Gas Boys (or Girls)... which boiler would you choose ???

[grib]

Hello all... I,m an oil fired heating engineer so have no idea about gas boilers except that I've had an Icos in my own house for several years which has been fine for me but loads of people seem to slag them off.

My problem is that I have a rental property and the Gas man went round to do the service and safety certificate and switched it off because it's leaking CO around the case. He did say he could fix it but as the boiler is at least 20years old I think it's probably time to give the tennant a nice new boiler. The guy I use said that he normally fits Combi's but I don't want that as I upgraded all the system myself to fully pumped to comply with the latest regs when I bought the house (don't worry didn't have to touch any gas !) so all I need is a heat only condensing boiler about 40,000 btu the will wall mount in a cupboard where the old one is. He wasn't sure what's a good "heat only" other than he'd fitted a few Pottertons with no trouble

So what would you gas experts recomend as a good quality, but reasonably priced heat only gas boiler that will keep my tennant happy for many years with minimal breakdowns.......

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[namsag]

One of the most reliable no nonsense heat only boilers is the Ideal classic.
It has a proven track record over the past 15 years. And is very reasonably priced.

Not to be confused with ideals latest boilers which are sh@te

 

[robertito]

Namsag....does your comment apply to both the HE and SE versions of the Ideal Classic ? It's an interesting post because on this site it is customary to slag off Ideal boilers as a whole.

 

[cider]

Personally Vaillant 400 series all day long.

 

[namsag]

Both the only difference on classic HE is an extra heatexchanger to get the extra heat out. All working parts same as the SE.

It is the only boiler that ideal make now that is good, designed before whoever owns it now bought the company

 

[mogget]

Personally Vaillant 400 series all day long.

Or its 'demon twin' Ultracom hxi (Glow-worm)

 

[DontAsk]

broag, nice boilers,small,quiet,reliable etc.
only problem is it is going on an old system with 20 years of carp in it.

 

[cider]

broag, nice boilers,small,quiet,reliable etc.
only problem is it is going on an old system with 20 years of carp in it.

Broag nice but can you get spares in norfolk?
Took me a week to get an igniter in Britol

 

[Mark Br]

broag, nice boilers,small,quiet,reliable etc.
only problem is it is going on an old system with 20 years of carp in it.

BB you haven't got yet another username have you?

 

[gas4you]

Although I fit Vaillant mainly, I would not entertain fitting the 400 series anymore. I have covered my reasons in previous postings.

The Classic HE is a robust boiler and I do occasionally fit these for a real budget concious installation where needed. I fit the Plumb Center optia version as it is a lot cheaper.

As I always state, my preferences are ATAG, Vaillant and Broag, in that order.

 

[grib]

Thanks everyone for all the advice..I checked the classic out but it looked a bit big. It would have fitted in the space we have but really tight. I've ordered a Baxi Solo which is a bit smaller and should be easier for the guy to install ( I hope ).... bet you're gonna tell me the're rubbish now and I'm gonna regret it for the next 10 years !!!

Thanks again

 

[grib]

only problem is it is going on an old system with 20 years of carp in it.

Forgot to say but when I bought this property it only had rads downstairs so I replaced ALL the pipework and radiators and fitted new rads upstairs so the only part of the system that was old was the boiler and the original flow and return to the cylinder which is where I started all my new stuff from. I even diconected the old pipes in the floor and dropped down to the new downstairs rad's. I also flushed everything ..so there is only about 3 years of "carp" ( ) in the system.

 

[Paul Barker]

You come on here asking which boiler ignore our advice and buy a boiler which has featured on consumer programs as a complete disaster?

my vote Ideal Classic.

My best advice to people who presently have any version of the Ideal Classic is "keep it".

Although when I was Alpha service agent I got to discover how bulletproof the Alpha regular boiler is.

Pretty sure almost any regular boiler is bullet proof.

Regular boiler, unvented cylinder, way to go!

 

[grib]

I didn't ignore your advice honest 1 ... I looked at the information about it and just couldn't see them squeezing it in the space and being able to get to anything to connect it... but maybe I should've let them worry about that.......

I just knew that I'd buy the wrong thing... story of my life

So how bad are they ?

 

[Paul Barker]

I'm sure they are fine now, for a very long time they had the worst pcb in the industry we all knew about it (except the twits still fitting them, but there's always a twit in this trade that will fit twodle) but eventually some consumer program did a feature on the problem and abracadabra at last they invented a pcb which worked properly, I think. . but you'll be able to let us know how yours behaves over the coming months..