Getting a cheap boiler

G

Goldspoon

Hi all,

Present boiler appears to be ready for the knackers yard. It's a Gloworm Xtrafast 120 and has caused much irritation and misery this last year. Basically red lights flash every day and it keeps tripping out. Engineers (various) have cost over £300 this last year. A few days ago water start hissing out of a black plastic fitting. Engineer says part is £100 plus £50 to fit it but he says something else is also wrong and he cannot guarantee getting it going. So we pay upfront the £150 as "he cannot risk using his money". He says we are wasting our time with this boiler.

He has quoted £1300 to fit a new 30KW boiler (says it's a special price for me and he is doing a similar one for £1900 somewhere else). I have no idea at this stage of make or model and I'd certainly be researching further if I was to go ahead (which is not an option at moment due to being skint).

B&Q sell a 24KW boiler for £299. I can get it fitted at zero cost. It's a a Garda HE24 condensing boiler 90.754 BTU Flow rate 10.1 litres per minute. Now to me all I know this is going to be a cheap boiler and one get what one pays for. But... we are skint (saving to pay a tax bill end of Jan) and to be honest, at that price, I am happy if it lasts a couple of years.

Am I being foolish to fit it? Anybody know anything about these boilers?

Alternative is using electric heaters (we have 3) and joining the health club across the road for showers and using the kettle to provide washing up water.

House is two storey: 9 rads and two people living in it. Only one bath OR one shower running at one time.
 
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Not getting involved in this whether you can fit it as it will end up as ten pages but .
As for boiler stretch the budget a little further if poss to get a main stream make as they will last you longer and parts readily avialable and easy ish to fix when it breaks, PTS are doing potterton performa 24`s and Alpha`s for mid £400 including flue and clock.

Or what some people do who are not planning on moving is buy a standard efficeincy combi that are getting sold off cheap just now.
 
Biasi and heatline are ok boilers IF fitted professionally and correctly to a clean system.

DIY fitting is what gives these boilers a bad name in the reliability stakes.
 
Dave when you say professionally, I have to agree with you on that count. Have seen many an installation carried out by plumbers and 'heating engineers' that leaves a lot to be desired.
 
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Thanks. I am going into this knowing I am getting a cheap and cheerful boiler.

The pipework is good and clean I believe as I have drained and refilled myself a number of times and it has always run clean. I have also regularly used inhibitor. I am going to drain down myself and flush through with mains cold for a while prior to the job being done.
 
A professional who wanted to do the best job would power flush with a power flushing pump and a magnetic filter!

Its just because DIYers dont use professional techniques that those boilers get a bad name for reliability when in reality its the installer at fault!

Tony
 
the most important thing is to get it fitted correctly. it does not matter what make of boiler you get, if fitted wrong it will fail. i repair and fit heatlines all the time and have seen some truly horrible sights.

love to ask diyers "so who was the corgi reg'ed installer that fitted this boiler?" love the look of horror in their faces...

pay a good installer to fit your boiler and your boiler will have the best start in life
 
The B&Q web site also has a Heatline Vizo for £299 too - SEDBUK B. I would go for the Heatline, although prob nothing between them.

If you are fitting this boiler as temporary measure then fine, go for it. It should do. If you can muster up £90, fit a Magnaclean filter on the CH return pipe.

Flush the system with mains pressure water first. Close all rads except one, and flush through each one in turn.

When you have lolly, maybe fit another cheapish combi and double the flowrate. Then one combi does upstairs and one downstairs. That is the cheapest way of extending the system - and the best as it gives backup, zoning and high flowrates. Where can you get over 20 litres/minute for £600?

As many here state, a BIASI or Heatline fitted in a clean system will give good service. They are far from the best designed boilers, but they will do...and are cheap..and when using two to zone off and double flowrates will be efficient enough as you will have upstairs off most of the day.
 
When you have lolly, maybe fit another cheapish combi and double the flowrate. Then one combi does upstairs and one downstairs. That is the cheapest way of extending the system - and the best as it gives backup, zoning and high flowrates.

How will fitting a second combi increase the flow rate.
Total rubbish from the idiotic Dr again. :evil:

I only hope the diy'ers can see through his un professional advice.
 
A BIASI or Heatline fitted in a clean system will give good service. They are far from the best designed boilers, but they will do...and are cheap..and when using two to zone off and double flowrates will be efficient enough as you will have upstairs off most of the day.

Once again your lack of knowledge and qualifications shows itself. :rolleyes:

Why would you fit 2 combi's in place of 1?

If the house has two combi's that would not guarantee 20 litres a minute. :rolleyes:
 
The pipework is good and clean I believe as I have drained and refilled myself a number of times and it has always run clean.

I just love it when I hear those words and wish i got a pound for every time I heard them. I love to see customers jaws drop when after they have said such nonsense, I connect up my powerflushing equiptment and just circulate the water (no chemicals) and the water turns discoloured enough.

No amount of gravity draining is gonna let much if any dirt out except the stuff in the pipes and thats the water that exits conveniently. In fact, when you keep filling up and draining out, the water will be clean but your system dirty because your only shifting the mobile dirt and not the stuff caking up the insides of the radiators or the boiler.
 
As many here state, a BIASI or Heatline fitted in a clean system will give good service. They are far from the best designed boilers, but they will do...and are cheap..and when using two to zone off and double flowrates will be efficient enough as you will have upstairs off most of the day.

Can you suggest two design improvements which you could make with little cost impact on a Biasi M96-24 ?

Tony
 
Can you suggest two design improvements which you could make with little cost impact on a Biasi M96-24 ?

I am not familiar wit that boiler and it is not in question either. Please focus.
 
I can give you one Tony, they could beef up the union nuts on the connectors a bit. I slightly overtightened one and ripped the back out of the nut, gas inlet it was. It was my fault for overtightening a bit, but it was frighteningly easy to do. I called Biasi and they sent me a new one special delivery foc, so good on em for that.
 
I have seen a few installed and I am impressed by the quality
--- Remeha but not installed one :rolleyes:


I am not familiar wit that boiler
Biasi but not installed one :rolleyes:

As many here state, a BIASI or Heatline fitted in a clean system will give good service.

BigBurners "which boiler" survey. :rolleyes:

Note the wording "As many here state" definitely found whilst spending hours copying and doctoring qualified installers posts. :rolleyes:
 

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