Urgent boiler recommendation required

[alext05]

Morning all. I need an urgent boiler recommendation, as yesterday afternoon our Ideal Response 80 was declared unsafe due to a cracked heat exchanger during an annual service.

I live in a 3-bedroom flat that has 6 small radiators and one bathroom. Ideal Response did the job well enough but had many problems aver the years.

The service engineer who visited us yesterday was pushing hard for an install of Worcester Bosch 24i Junior (he said it was the same as WB 25SI but without hot water controls) and I have reluctuntly agreed to it within the next couple of days.

Having sleapt in a cold flat, it cleared my mind, and I think that going for the entry level 24i boiler might not be a good ideqa after all, although I might be wrong.

For obvious reasons, I did not have time to do a proper research into what currently are good reliable boiler are at the moment on the market or get the quotes, but understand that Worcester Bosch and Vaillant are both reputable brand with good customer satisfaction rates.

I would like to go for a mid-range boiler, and wanted to find out what would be a better boiler: Worcester Bosch 25SI or a similar Vaillant boiler (would this be Vaillant ecoTEC plus 24 or some other?).

Thanks for your help.

Alex

 

[hazetimesfive]

how much is the entire quote?

 

[alext05]

WB 24i Junior with flue for £962 (including VAT) from MP Moran plus £600 flat fee for the install.

What would be an average price for an install from a reputable installer?

I am starting to think that the engineer might be suspect, although Gas Safe registered.

 

[hazetimesfive]

average price for a straight forward combi swap 1600-1900

a CDI boiler is better than the junior, if it was my house I would want

a CDI boiler, magnetic particle filter, TRV's if you don't have them.

having said all that, i don't mind the junior, its alright, the SI is decent too, but the cdi is that little bit even better, and probably worth the extra money in the long run.

 

[hazetimesfive]

you can get the 28 cdi online with flue and DT20

£1,110.44 inc VAT, which is not much more really, guess it depends on how long you can wait

 

[m1key00]

Sounds like a good price to me, although we would always recommend a magnetic filter of some description on the pipework , also a power flush of the existing system. Also the boiler would need to be registered with building control.

As for the boiler, 24KW is a little small, maybe look at the Vaillant pro 28, or the ecotec 831 combi is a fantastic boiler, with the right installer you can get a 7 year warranty.

 

[alext05]

deleted - posted the same below

 

[hazetimesfive]

not really a fantastic reason, but I would forego a powerflush in favour of a filter.

 

[alext05]

Thanks, hazetimesfive and m1key00. Much appretiate your quick responses.

Well, after living with Ideal Response, I think I can live a few days without heat in order to get the right boiler.

Would CDi 28 (or Vaillant Pro 28 ) be much bigger than 24SI as I don't have much room in the kitchen to play with?

The engineer did not mention magnetic filter. With regards to powerflash, he said that we do not need to do it when I told him that I used Sentinel x800 (for a week) and sentinel x400 (for a month) in the system over the last couple of years. I currently have Sentinel x200 in the system.

Also, he did not recognise the cracked heat exchanger until told about it over the phone by Ideal tech Support. The boiler flue was discoulored from overheating and I told him at the very beginning that overheating seems to be a problem. Is this something that is easier to diagnose for an experienced enginner?

 

[alext05]

Having researched more the recommended boilers, I am now deciding between CDi 28 and ecoTEC plus 831. Both seems very good boilers, with CDi28 being a bit smaller. I am not sute what the other major differences.

Would be good to hear a couple of more opinions which one of those two would be a better choice (reliability, servicing, customer care).

If they are equal, please let me know so, and I'll then decide based on what I can get installed quicker by Gas safe engineer.

Many thanks

Alex

 

[hazetimesfive]

I like the cdi compact, but I have no experience of the vaillant, however I'm pretty sure vaillant are not what they used to be.

Worcester end support is pretty good.

 

[alext05]

Thanks again, hazetimesfive.

Just wanted to clear something. I was told by Woscester tech support that CDi model is an old model and CDi compact is the new one that has been out for about 3-4 months.

I understand that your recommendation is for CDi Compact and not CDi (as per your last post), is that correct, as you used both terms in your posts? Is CDi Compact looking as a relieble boiler so far, taking into account it has not been out for a long time? I did not reliase this, and as one of the first users of Ideal Response feel a bit uneasy about it.

Secondly, I was told that piping might need to be increased from current 22mm as CDi Compact and 25Si will draw more gas than Vaillants, for example. This will obviously push the cost up and might make me think about Vaillants, rather tha CDi Compact I was about to settle on.

Can anyone give me some brief cons and pros of CDI Compact versus ecoTEC 831?

Thanks

Alex

 

[Agile]

ALL boilers of the same power will need the gas supply upgraded!

I would never recommend a boiler without a hot water temp adjustment!

Make sure the instal price includes cleaning the system. Thats the most important feature of a reliable service from a boiler!

Tony

 

[alext05]

Thanks, Tony. Happy to accept that it might need to be upgraded.

I had by now two quotes and an appointment scheduled for tomorrow, but still cannot decide between those two boilers.

In the meantime I have read a lot of info on these forums about Worcester Bosch and Vaillant boilers in general and it seems to me that (I am picking mainly on negatives):
- Worcester Bosch are made with a lot of plastic (many unhappy comments about that) and often hard to service;
- Vaillant's quallity has gone down in recent years with some dreaded F75 error and leaks, ect. Also their customer support seems not as good as WB's.

Apart from the original engineer, the installers I spoke to seems to more inclined towards Vaillant's due to ease of repair and their diagnostics tools.

Finding it hard to make a decision. Any further advice would be much appretiated.

Alex

 

[JohnD]

if you already have a 22mm gas pipe, how long is the pipe run to the gas meter? It would usually be big enough.