Saunier duval good or bad?

[malkie]

I would like your views on Saunier Duval boilers please. I am asking as i have been fitting these for the past 2 years as a cheaper option than the worcester 28i juniors which i find very expensive now as the price went mad when it went from a normal 28 i junior to the condensing model. I have fitted plent of S/D and up until recently had no trouble until a customer decided id fitted the bigest load of rubbish and has made a real big fuss over it and now says all the fitters told him there rubbish,so what do you think of them,i know there not the best but there not the worst by a long shot,cheers

 

[powell30]

Horses for courses i guess. I wouldn't fit em but hey, they are cheap and if thats what you quote on and the customers happy whose to bitch.

That said why did your latest customer kick up? I assume you told him what he was getting and priced accordingly?

 

[Deleted member 105431]

the themacondens are very good boilers imho, the semiacondens are well priced and good value. They are far better than the likes of Ravenheap, chaffeutrd, sime, ferrolli, elm leblanc, halstead etc etc. They are cheap but the analogy I use is "Vaillant are your mercedes whereas Saunier duval are your citroen."

 

[malkie]

I give him the option of a S/D and powerflush in place of his existing combi (ariston euro) for a price of £1.200 or a worcester 28i junior and powerflush for £1450 and i admit to telling him the following "Saunier duval combi is virtually the same as the glowworm combi on the market,if you look at them there almost identical inside and the casing is the only way you can tell them apart,so for that price your getting a boiler in the same class as the glowworm". I didnt write that on the qoute i just said that when talking about them as id been informed by a saunier duval rep that they were now glowworm,but because i had to change the fan then change auto air vent in side 2 months of fitting it he is going a bit mad,but all i can do is say "i give you the option"

 

[mickyg]

All the SD boilers in the last few years have been the same or slightly better than their glowworm equivalent. I've heard muppet installers say they wouldn't touch an SD with a barge pole, yet off they go from the merchants with a CXI in the van.. Just shows ignorance of a large number of engineers. The SD themacondense is a really good boiler, it is a mix of vaillant and glowworm stuff, the only bad thing being the notorious blue filling taps. The SD xeon HE boiler was a rebranded hxi aka vaillant 400 series, so can't be that bad. I even don't mind the old SDs that much, once you've worked on a few you find mostly common faults that are not to bad to repair.
Anyway, SD have pulled out of the UK market so you'll have trouble fitting them anymore! Just out of interest, what model boiler have you fitted for said customer??
As for worcester, I wouldn't touch one. I wouldn't fit anything I wouldn't want to work on as I like to retain my customers for future repairs and working on worcesters is a joke.

 

[muggles]

because i had to change the fan then change auto air vent in side 2 months of fitting it he is going a bit mad

You had to change them? Surely it's a warranty repair that should be done by an S/D engineer?

 

[mehran]

i believe they are made in Turkey with heatline boilers.

also SD are class as a top brand boiler in Iran... tell you customer that and see what he says

 

[Deleted member 105431]

i believe they are made in Turkey with heatline boilers.

also SD are class as a top brand boiler in Iran... tell you customer that and see what he says

the saunier duvals are made in Nantes, france.

 

[mehran]

mmm... i have seen a demirdokum Turkish manual of the Thema CONDENS which had saunier duvals name at the end of it. will have a look for it and pm you it if you like.

maybe demirdokum has a factory in france?

 

[mickyg]

maybe demirdokum has a factory in france?

or maybe they just stick a different badge on it in the SD factory
lets face it, rebadging is big business these days. speaking of which the Glowworm betacom C might be familiar to you mehran

 

[Deleted member 105431]

mmm... i have seen a demirdokum Turkish manual of the Thema CONDENS which had saunier duvals name at the end of it. will have a look for it and pm you it if you like.

maybe demirdokum has a factory in france?

I can't read Turkish so I wouldn't bother but thanks all the same. The Nantes site is huge and employs several hundred staff, I'm sure they just rebadge it for different markets.