New GCH boiler

Princedomino

Well-Known Forumite
Looking for a new boiler. I’m sure I’ve seen 1 or 2 local companies advertising for £1000. I cut the adverts out the paper and have promptly lost them. Any recommendations or who to avoid. Many thanks.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I can't find much below £600 retail, and that is very low powered and excludes all the fittings needed plus obviously the labour. I'd be very sceptical of one fitted for a grand, how many radiators is it needed for?
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
I can't find much below £600 retail, and that is very low powered and excludes all the fittings needed plus obviously the labour. I'd be very sceptical of one fitted for a grand, how many radiators is it needed for?
I paid just over £3.000 for ours, we only have 5 rads, of which 2 have been turned off. The one before that was £2.000, lasted as long as it took to finish the loan payments for it.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I paid just over £3.000 for ours, we only have 5 rads, of which 2 have been turned off. The one before that was £2.000, lasted as long as it took to finish the loan payments for it.

I can find boilers as low as £400 +vat for a 24kw, so it's doable. No idea on the warranty/quality though.
 

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
Like many things you get what you pay for.
A friend had a cheap boiler fitted a couple of years ago ( they were planning on moving). Boiler lasted a couple of months after guarantee expired. Parts required weren’t available & manufacturers weren’t interested. Ended up paying for another boiler, they had a decent make installed as they changed their mind about moving
P. S. We had our boiler etc replaced a few years ago by Brain Bros. They won’t use cheap boilers & we’ve had no problems with ours. I’d certainly recommend them.
 

Princedomino

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks for the replies. These were local firms but tbh it was over a year ago or more that I cut the adverts out of the paper so prices will have changed. I’ve researched a bit more since and have a better feel for the price. I’m intent on using local firms so will get some firm quotes now from Parsons and others. Any firms to avoid. Thanks.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Whatever you do pay a lot of attention to the brand of boiler fitted and do some digging on their expected life, it's not a job you want to repeat often. I have a vaillant which must be 15 years old minimum (I've been here 11 and it was far from new) yet it runs brilliantly. I've had the heat exchanger changed once and cleaned out another, and a load of wasps removed from the flue, but otherwise it's been great. Unfortunately the heat exchanger is a common casualty with our water.

Looking around you pay more for a vaillant than some of the others by quite a margin, but the few plumbers I've had out have said they last.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Unfortunately, they don't make them like they used to.
I remember being introduced to the term 'Value Engineering' in the 1980s.

It boils down to taking something that works well, buggering it up to save fourpence and leaving it to barely work at all - though, hopefully for as long as the warranty lasts.

Early versions of most things are often much better, before the bean counters can get at them and remove the 'unnecessary' quality.
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
I remember being introduced to the term 'Value Engineering' in the 1980s.

It boils down to taking something that works well, buggering it up to save fourpence and leaving it to barely work at all - though, hopefully for as long as the warranty lasts.
Built in knacker factor.
 
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