Online boiler providers - good option or spawn of the devil?

[sxturbo]

I actually thought you *were* an installer! Take that as a compliment, I think!

Lol, unfortunately not, in another lifetime maybe.

I was in the same boat as yourself a few years back and done many many many hours of research. There is a lot of misinformation around, and there is more than a few old dogs who refuse to change their ways and will always only for 1 brand of boiler regardless, and discount many new innovations, mostly because they just don't like change. A lot of it is they just want to fit something as quick as possible and get paid and move on. Taking there time making sure pipe routing is good, etc etc is unnecessary, they know that 99.9% of people don't have a clue and as long as they have heating and hot water with no leaks that will be the end of it. Most people just put up with minor flaws.

I liken it to car owners most don't even bother getting them serviced, slight noises get ignored, funny handling gets ignored only when something breaks or it stops working completely to people then take notice.

I like things to be right, especially if I'm paying for it, it does wind trades up, they prefer to work for people who are clueless, and I can see it a mile off in their body language and lack of communication after the visit.

Luckily there is trades out their that have the same principles as me, they are hard to find mind.

 

[muggles]

Well, if you enlarged your coverage map to include North Wiltshire maybe you could! I could even sort out a t-shirt with the DIYnot logo on the front (and something about Worcester Bosch on the back)

Ah, I used to be down that way but I'm rarely seen there now. Just finished a job in East Garston fitting an air source heat pump and UFH into a cottage which was built in 1528, but that's probably a story for another day!

EDIT:Hmm, actually that might be in Berkshire!

 

[MJN]

I could've written that myself @sxturbo. Two peas from the same pod!

I did once get a builder to build me the shell of an extension (I can turn my hand to anything bar bricklaying, oh and plastering too!) and he said he actually appreciated people like me who did put the effort in to learn and understand the work he's tasked to do, not least given the level headedness this brings when unexpected issues arise and he doesn't get accused of ripping the customer off.

As you say though, finding the good ones out there isn't always easy. I've actually got an extended family member who is a registered gas engineer, but having seen his work and knowing what he's like there's absolutely no chance I'd consider employing him!

 

[MJN]

I forgot to ask you @sxturbo, out of interest what did you settle for in the end - bother boiler and controls?

 

[sxturbo]

I forgot to ask you @sxturbo, out of interest what did you settle for in the end - bother boiler and controls?

i ended up with an intergas eco rf and evohome controls,

i went for the evohome becuase i will eventually change all my trvs for smart ones, i just havnt got round to doing so......

in hindsight i wish i had gone for the xclusive but at he time the boiler was only a couple of months old and i was told as it was so new confidence hadn't been built up on its reliabilty with installers (remember what i said about heating engineers not liking change), and there was talk the touch panel on the front was giving some issues (this seems o have either not been a thing or was alleviated extremely quickly) and so was advised to go with the eco rf

 

[MJN]

Thank for that, I think I'll be going for an Intergas now and most likely the Xclusive so good to hear your initial concerns have now been assuaged.

I too have previously considered smart TRVs but have always been put off by the cost. I'm not entirely clear why they cost what they do. I do however have quite a few Shelly smart relays and they will soon be bringing out a TRV whose price I expect to be a bit more palatable so I might go for some then.

 

[sxturbo]

The Drayton wiser trv's are cheaper than the Honeywell (either £10 or £20/25 per trv depending on model) and the wiser does opentherm aswell.

I'm not sure how well it does opentherm, those who have the wiser seem happy with it, however at the time I was looking installers didn't like it, for reasons not mentioned, I think it's just that they didn't like Drayton.

I know when wiser first came about there were a few bugs and niggles, but the system was developed very quickly and the issues were soon sorted.

Looking again at it now and I see that they've developed wiser further and added underfloor heating and electric heating into their ecosystem making it a true viable alternative to evo home.

(Now that I'm looking at it again the Drayton is better value)

Honeywell appear to have stopped further development of their evohome system, there was talk of them bring out a big update but this appears to have been canned, where as Drayton are really pushing theirs still.