Reply With QuoteWhen we did the research a few years ago vaillant was the recommended brand that we went with.
It would appear that our old boiler has a water jacket leak, it's about 18 years old now so I suppose it's done it's service.
It's oil fired, no gas here, and we quite fancy having the boiler outside, it's a 3 bedroom house, some old very thick stone walls and some more modern cavity walls with insulation, modern version of column rads and underfloor heating in the newer parts.
What's out there that's any good at the moment, it's not something you need every day so would like to choose a decent boiler.
Might add that we also have a water softener, if that makes a difference as to which boiler.
When we did the research a few years ago vaillant was the recommended brand that we went with.
I have had one of these for just under 2 years now.
https://www.directheatingsupplies.co...l-combi-boiler
Much better than the old system it replaced, was recommended by local installer.
Both my neighbours had their oil-fired boilers replaced with air source heat pumps. They got some sort of grant that reimburses the whole cost over seven years. May be worth thinking about?
ATB
Jon
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Have had a Bosch combi for the last seven years without problem. My plumber who does the yearly service says that now he would advice Vaillant or Ideal . He says that while Bosch/Worcester were leaders 10 hrs ago, have not evolved while Vaillant and Ideal have kept improving with any new model.
Have the government introduced a new scheme yet to replace them green homes grants.Originally Posted by JonRA
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Have the government introduced a new scheme yet to replace them green homes grants.
We got a new oil boiler a couple of years ago, and we went for a Grant, we’d had Vailant before, when we were on gas, they seem to be the best gas boilers, but Grant seem to be more highly regarded for oil, it’s been good, we haven’t regretted it.
Our gas engineer recommended glowworm now
I'm not sure - I think my neighbours used this scheme https://www.gov.uk/domestic-renewable-heat-incentive and took up the offer a couple of years ago. The terms may have been more favourable then. The cost of their installations was 11k and 13K (one house is four bed, the other is five bed) and I believe they will get most or all back over seven years. I have just fed my details into the calculator and it looks as if I could get around 7K back (paid in yearly installments over seven years). The scheme concludes 31st March next year (by which time applications have to be in) and they are running an online seminar for interested applicants on Nov 9th.
By the look of it, the government are about to introduce a 5K flat rate grant to households to install renewable energy heating systems - I guess this will replace the above initiative.
for what it's worth I am using a Baxi combi seems to work just fine, I had the plumber replace the overly complicated timer with a good old fashioned pin slider timer after it was commissioned as I could not be arsed with the digital bollux
Last edited by toezapper; 21st October 2021 at 00:20. Reason: TYPO
I had a new 36kw Bosch put in for free a couple of months ago
It was done through a secondary company claiming back from my council who got a ton of cash from the green energy deal scheme from the big energy suppliers
I was able to get it for £0 as they were able to install underfloor insulation in my front and back lounges
If you have suspended floors you may be able to apply too?
Was very happy with service and install…. I paid an extra £300 to get a higher spec. boiler as we are having underfloor heating placed in an extension
Worth a look I’d say?
had an old ariston gas combi boiler - replaced it with a 32kw Vailant system boiler and 300L tank - defo recommend if you use hot water a lot. I can get a full tank of cold water to hot in around 30 mins.
That sounds like a great result. I always understood these schemes required you to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit, rather than any additional eco measure. Times are changing though so well worth checking.
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...p-installation
could you expand a bit on how this worked for you.
There seems to be a few recommendations for manufacturers above who do not make oil fired boilers.
When we replaced our OIL fired boiler earlier this year there were principally two choices of manufacturer for oil fired domestic boilers, Worcester Bosch or Grant. Both are well respected and there is not much to chose between then in terms of performance or reliability, but the Grants will usually be about £500 - £1000 cheaper for an equivalent comparable model.
Check the warranties though, as they often extend the warranty period for installations using their 'approved installers', so your chosen plumber may sway it one way of the other for you. We went Grant, as our installer was approved on their scheme, so offered a free extended warranty.
We did a lot of research into biomass (pellet) boilers, air source, ground source etc, as installing a new oil fired boiler in this day and age seems like utter madness, but they were just not suitable for our poorly insulated home at this stage, despite the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) 'grants', which are available (essentially a 7 year payback system to cover some/all of your 'extra over' costs of the installation). If your home is more modern than ours in terms of insulation and/or offers the ability to upgrade its thermal qualities, then the more modern systems may well be worth spending more time looking into. Do your research though, as it is an utter minefield out there at the moment and is changing every day as tech moves on and incentives seem to change every month!
Honestly…. I’m not entirely clear how it worked
They knocked on our door speculatively and filled in the paperwork…. They based it my wife’s school teacher salary…. Didn’t want to know my salary and there was no mention of a requirement to be on benefits
I have to admit it felt a little a ‘grey’ and I didn’t ask too many searching questions!
I would imagine they work hard to get people to qualify as opposed to not qualify and councils are sat on a mound of cash that is due to be closed out soon…
Worth a call at the very least?
As a result my father in law his getting his done (full grant) and my sister is getting hers done at a discount as she doesn’t have suspended floors
Worth a call at least I think?
Your boiler has to be 7+ years old
By the way the suspended floor insulation in a 110 year old house is a revelation!
Wolfie, is that for oil or gas?
I looked into something similar, but was told it was only for gas boilers as it was something to do with the big energy providers needing to reduce their carbon footprint (or something similar).
As mentioned above they knocked on our door
Have a look at boiler replacement schemes in your area and give them a call? It has been relatively straight forward for others I’ve mentioned it to…
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Yeah gas - and that was it - was funded by British Gas
Thank you, I thought it might be.
We live deep in the sticks, so do not have access to mains gas (or water, or electricity for that matter), so are totally off the radar of the energy companies. Hey ho.
Can you advise the company name that you dealt with please? I'm certain we'd not qualify for anything (and rightly so) but it would be good to know if a similar scheme is available in our area.
It was called Breakspeare Energy - based out of Loughborough
Thank you. Something to Google later on.
From a quick look at CH they were only incorporated on 20/01/21
Last edited by deepreddave; 19th October 2021 at 17:26.
Yes…. I googled them too! It raised my suspicions too, but, they were great to deal withThank you. Something to Google later on
From a quick look at CH they were only incorporated on 20/01/21
Had a follow up inspection and everything…. Were very accommodating
Last edited by Wolfie; 19th October 2021 at 18:39.
Anyone heard of these, or indeed, had any experience of them, have a guy coming out on Monday to quote for a new boiler and he mentioned these were on par with Worcester but cheaper, and they come with a 10 year parts and labour warranty.
https://navienuk.com/why-navien/
Our installer mentioned these as the 'wildcard' option, as they are in many ways better (on paper at least) than Worcester Bosch and Grant, but they are still a relatively new player over here, so don't yet have the longevity in service in this country to be a known track record of reliability, customer service and to a lesser extent parts availability. They are South Korean I believe.
We wanted an external system boiler, which Navien do not offer, so that ruled them out for us.
I've also contacted our local Worcester approved engineer for a quote, apparently that comes with a 7 year warranty if fitted by an approved person.
We've also decided to leave it sited indoors as we're not short of space and the oil boilers don't tend to give off that smell like they used to, hopefully it opens up our choice of boiler as well.
My experience with Worcester customer services has been excellent. When the primary heat exchanger on our boiler broke after 8 years they came and replaced it for just a minimal call out charge. They also replaced anything else that looked like it might need replacing including the front cover, flue, probes etc. It was virtually a new boiler.
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Price for Worcester is approx £4K plus vat, haven't got a clue whether that's good or not as it's not something you do every day.
For an average size house, a new boiler would be less than £2500, fitted (unless there's been a huge Covid price increase).
Two months ago. System boiler, no tank as megaflow already there and didn't need replacing. Included a new gas pipe from the mains. London pricing I'm guessing.
Old boiler was on the ground floor, new boiler is in the bathroom, so added some cost by moving it.
We’re having a new Vaillant Combi Plus fitted next month with the seven year warranty. Total cost is just under £2.5K fitted by approved installer. Went for Vaillant as it’s manufactured in the UK, has a stainless steel heat exchanger and parts are generally easy to come by if required.
Last edited by SlipperySam; 23rd October 2021 at 09:24.
The problem we have is that we don't have gas and certain manufacturers don't make oil boilers, so were limited in choice.
My plumbers/heating guys, who have just done the underfloor heating in my house, say they only put in oil Grant boilers now. They reckon Grant are top of the pile currently. I asked the about an oil combi, they smirked and said that would be a bad choice!
I have a 26 year old Worcester system which is still going very strong, and now heating the UFH in my old stone house nicely.
But when we finish the inside project, I'm going to ask my guys to move us to an External Grant Boiler.
Why did they say a combi would be a bad choice?
Vaillant came up as recommended when we were buying.
Having said that had had some issues but was rectified under warranty.
Have you tried a British Gas quote to compare with?
Valliant don't do an oil boiler as far as I'm aware, British Gas don't quote for oil boilers either, according to their website.
I've only found 3 manufacturers of oil boilers, Worcester, grant and Navien, been quoted £4K plus vat for Worcester, Navien guy coming by Monday to have a look, just got to find an approved Grant installer to get a quote from them.
I'm trying to use an approved installer for the extra warranty, 7-10 years depending which boiler you choose.
Too much gubbins packed into the one box, parts unreliable as it makes up such a small part of the market. Oil boilers generally reliable in simplest form and oil boiler houses generally 4+ bedrooms (because rural) so suited to unvented cylinders and thus combi not ideal.
One of them then said "make us lots of cash in callouts though...."
Just opinions I guess, not facts, both guys are in their 50s and super experienced
We have a Warmflow oil boiler in one of our properties in Norfolk. It can be installed in a housing outside the house if needed.
It’s been fine, just usual servicing and odd part replacement.
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Our current boiler is a Warmflow, I'll also see what they offer currently.
Our neighbours use an oil combi and are happy with it. They have quite a small house though. We didn’t consider a combi.
Update, Navien oil boiler with 10 year warranty is £4K including vat.
We now have 4 quotes in, so decision time I suppose.
Worcester @ £4050 plus VAT 7 year warranty
Worcester @ £4546 Inc VAT. 5 year warranty
Warmflow @ £3962 Inc VAT 5 year warranty
Navien @ £4167 Inc VAT 10 year warranty
If you haven't yet use boxt to get a quote.
I used it recently and then was able to get pretty much the same price from a local plumber when I gave him the boxt price (WB 12 year warranty as gas not electric).
They don’t offer oil boilers yet.
Worcester price seems about right but I’m sure mine came with a 10 year warranty as long as it was serviced each year by the installer.
Had the option of free trvs also but weren’t suitable for my rads.
We've gone for the warmflow, that's what we've had for the past 18 or so years and its served us well, hopefully they've improved over the years so should serve us well again.
It's a local guy that's carrying out the work and will probably be servicing it as well, so any warranty work shouldn't be a problem.
Thank you to all for your help and info.
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