Recommendation for a combi boiler ? - rented flat

[carlsbergy]

I rent out a two bed flat that has a very old boiler and I plan to replace it for a combi earky next year. Generally I find tenants tend to ring more often than not when boilers go wrong. Can anyone recommend a reliable combi boiler? Any thoughts on the Potterton Performa which I had a look at on the Potterton website?
Thanks

 

[gas4you]

Depends if you want to go cheap or quality boiler?

Potterton cheap, Vaillant, Worcester are quality. Have a look at the Broag Remeha Advanta plus, getting a good reputation and very reasonably priced as well.

 

[ChrisR]

Get something common and ordinary, so it's easy to fix if it goes wrong. I'm not sure I like all I hear about Worcesters at the moment.

 

[simond]

I'm with Dave.

The Remeha shares many of the components you'll get in the Vaillant at a cheaper price.

Worcesters have had a bad 18 months for reliability but seem to be better now, and their customer service is the best in the business.

 

[fitz1]

the potterton or baxi or main (same boilers) are probably one of the easiest to work on and repair and parts compared arnt bad.p.s. the main is the cheaper one.

 

[carlsbergy]

Thanks for the advice

 

[namsag]

The question of what is the better boiler always brings up vaillant and worcester for the life of me i honestly cant say they are more reliable or better build quality than the most popular boiler out there just now ie the baxi 105HE/potterton performa HE/main HE which is the same boiler with different names. .
And other than the PCB annd the case they contain mainly the same parts from the same suppliers , but can be a 400 quid price difference so where does the price difference come from

 

[mehran]

It does not matter what the hell you get as long as you don’t get some half arsed installer which happens to be the cheapest around at the time.

As long it’s fitted well on a clean system, with the right sized gas pipe and good controls (room stat, tvr's...eg) any boiler should do the trick.

If it was me and I wanted to fit a "budget" boiler that was half way reliable then biasi B rated boilers (m96 models) would to the trick, or if you really want to push the boat out a viessmann with a 5 year guarantee or similar boiler.

As a landlord you are the most likely to get a cheapest boiler (heat-line vizo is the popular choice at the moment) by the cheapest installer
So you end up with a half arsed install that will last 1 year at most without it breaking down.

I really like heat-line boilers, as they are simple honest boilers that are easy to fix. But as a service agent I say 90% of faults I see with them are down to installation faults.

So it is ok to get a cheap(ish) boiler but not ok to get it installed cheaply if you know what I mean

 

[Agile]

The Performa has two serious potential problems, the DHW switch and the diverter which has a propensity to stick.

But as Mehran says its the quality of the installation which counts and not the boiler.

I also like the Heatline and the Biasi as reliable economic boilers when fitted on a clean system.

Tony

 

[namsag]

Well fitted hundreds and had one stick so don`t think it is that common

 

[carlsbergy]

The reason I asked for recommendations is that I would rather pay extra to get a boiler that gives me no problems, of all problems I ever get with tenants it will be a boiler not working. A friend recommended Potterton hence asking about the Performa. Not all landlords believe in fitting cheapest all the time!

 

[namsag]

The performa is one of the most reliable boilers out there and lets be honest all boilers go wrong at some stage and the performa is about the easiest to diagnos and parts are not expensive or time consuming to fit. In the past 6 years i have probably fitted 300 plus of the performa/105e/he boiler(same boiler differnt names) and have had less than half a dozen boards go and 2 gas valves and not a bad failure rate on boilers upto 6 years old.
And have one in my own house

 

[mehran]

I live in a area where there is loads of 105e/he and our local parts centre are selling pcb's by the boat load, he had to order in 10 in one go to keep on top of demand. He got 4 in one day and sold all 4 in the space of a few hours and I was the 5th but he had sold out by then.

Not saying they are crap though as there is tons of baxi in Hartlepool. Looks to be 3-4 year boiler that are needing new pcb by my guess

 

[namsag]

Fitted 2 boards in past fortnight and they where on 3 year old boilers ,as baxi outsell any other combi probably 50 fold the failure rate is minimal,board has been redesigned so hopefully that means they have spotted the fault

 

[mehran]

does baxi sell 2.5 million boilers in the uk a year?
btw i have a baxi 105he in my house, so it cant be all bad