Time for a new boiler... experiences?

[kindai]

So my 25 year old Worcester boiler needs replacing, parts are no longer readily available and a recent breakdown took 3 days to resolve as a specific part had to be ordered from elsewhere to get it going again.

Looking around there seems to be 3 main contenders.

1) Worcester Bosch Greenstar 8000 30kw. https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/greenstar-8000-plus

2) Vaillant Ecotec Plus 32kw https://professional.vaillant.co.uk...s/ecotec-plus-826-832-836-840-940-154176.html

3) Veissmann Vitodens 200 30kw https://viessmanndirect.co.uk/Catal...lers/Vitodens-200-W-30kW-Combi-Boiler-Z029712


Now from the 3, it seems like the Veissmann has the best potential for long term savings, it also has the Opentherm standards for control where as both Worcester and Vaillant use their own systems that require module adapters.

It aso has the largest step down modulation of the three, but, is that *really* going to save that much money unless I have every room in the house smart connected? In which case add another £1500 in automatic radiator mixers...

Anyway, thoughts from ocuk?

 

[BigBoy]

Personal preference is the Worcester, parts are easy to come by and will be supported for 15-25 years (parts)

Stay away from the Vaillant, plastic parts that will keep on failing.

Veissmann tend to be over engineered and have horrible software issues, Do the maths on the savings, usually cost of these boilers is significantly more than the other two!

15 years as a Gas man, stick to simple well made products (Bosch) Vaillant are cheaper for a reason and none of the installers I know like them (roughly 15 other boiler men in the Bath area), Veissmann are expensive on parts and are not supported for years like the Worcester.

 

[hotdog]

Ive purchased a viessman because of the stainless tank and had a 12 year warranty!

I however cannot fathom how to get opentherm to work in the UK - apparently completely normal in Germany but here it's some form of witchcraft!

Gave up in the end and it works off nest with standard trvs

 

[kindai]

Ive purchased a viessman because of the stainless tank and had a 12 year warranty!

I however cannot fathom how to get opentherm to work in the UK - apparently completely normal in Germany but here it's some form of witchcraft!

which model did you go for? How is it performing? Quick to heat up / time for water from the tap to be up to temp etc?

 

[Pho]

My boiler stopped working the other week so I've been going down the same journey as you!

After all the research I think it mainly comes down to what installers are available in your area. From what I can tell, to quality for maximum warrenty you need the boilers to be installed by installers trained by the manufacturer rather than any old fitter.

I also wanted a Viessmann because they're meant to be great, and have OpenTherm and all that. But I couldn't really find any Viessman installers local to me.

The Baxi 800 also came up in my research as it does support OpenTherm. But I don't think it supports pre-heating water so there's always some water ready to go when you turn the taps on, which I'd prefer.

But I think I'm actually going to go for the Vaillant Ecotec Plus 32kW (or maybe 36kW as I have about 20l/min water rate so I could benefit from it).

I'm a few miles away from Vaillant's UK headquaters and training centre so for me, there's quite a lot of local plumbers around for their boilers.

Both the Baxi and the new Vaillant range have stainless steel boilers.

 

[tamzzy]

I use the viessmann vitodens 111-w
It's a storage-combi boiler, good if you have a bigger home and if you semi-regularly run more than 1 hot tap at a time

 

[kindai]

Vaillant Ecotec Plus 32kW

So British Gas sent someone out today just to offer a quote.

When I said I was looking at the 3 listed above he said his preference would be the Viessmann, Worcester and then the Vaillant in that order based on his historic working, but did counter that in recent years their support has really gone up.

What has put me off about the Worcester is I saw video last night on the 8000, and it has a plastic manifold, and a flow sensor setup which is known to develop leaks over time from a previous model.

I use the viessmann vitodens 111-w
It's a storage-combi boiler, good if you have a bigger home and if you semi-regularly run more than 1 hot tap at a time

Dont really have that high of a demand 1 sink in kitchen, 1 in bathroom, and a bathtub. Shower is electric, though may ask them to put an outside hot water tap / switched valve in for car cleaning.

 

[Pho]

So British Gas sent someone out today just to offer a quote.

When I said I was looking at the 3 listed above he said his preference would be the Viessmann, Worcester and then the Vaillant in that order based on his historic working, but did counter that in recent years their support has really gone up.

You'll probably get a better deal getting quotes from local approved companies rather than British Gas.

The actual prices of the boilers are all pretty similar from what I've found. So what it really comes down to is warrenty, reliability, and servicing cost I think.

I think pretty much all of them require you to get your system flushed and have a magnetic filter installed in order to claim the max warrenty, so it's worth getting your installer to confirm they will meet all requirements.

I remember reading that to service a Viessmann they need to use specialist tools every couple of services or something which can bump the price up a little compared to other brands - it's a big vauge as I can't quite remember what it was! And also parts were traditionally harder to find in the UK, but I think they're much easier to source now.

Dont really have that high of a demand 1 sink in kitchen, 1 in bathroom, and a bathtub. Shower is electric, though may ask them to put an outside hot water tap / switched valve in for car cleaning.

Might be worth considering if you want to upgrade your shower to use a thermostatic mixer shower in the future.

My house also has a 10kW electric shower but once the new boiler is in I'm probably going to switch to a Mira Platinum or something as electric showers are horrid in the winter as the flow rate is poor.

This is where if you have really good incoming water flow you might benefit from a higher output boiler.

 

[kindai]

You'll probably get a better deal getting quotes from local approved companies rather than British Gas.

In fairness, they arent a million miles off other online quotes ive had.

I remember reading that to service a Viessmann they need to use specialist tools every couple of services or something which can bump the price up a little compared to other brands - it's a big vauge as I can't quite remember what it was! And also parts were traditionally harder to find in the UK, but I think they're much easier to source now.

So their latest refresh, the boilers are all near identical in parts / replacements. Just comes down to small things and quality of life enhancements.

 

[Hagar]

We just went for a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 1000 30W budget friendly combi boiler, has a stainless steel heat exchanger, five year warranty and has been 100% reliable giving strong hot showers and central heating. Fitted last May. It is compatible with many controllers i believe but we just use a basic one not having smartphones etc.

 

[Grimley]

I had a Worcester Bosch 8000life 35 combination boiler installed about 4 years ago. I have it serviced every year by the same people who installed it for the sake of the warranty. I wanted a boiler that had a long warranty and would work with a google nest.

 

[Coran]

Would you consider the heat pump route? If so, worth getting an online quote from Octopus.

Do I recall you got underfloor heating put into your extension? If so, that should really help.

Boiler is obviously the easy route but not the environmentally friendly one!

 

[Semple]

So my 25 year old Worcester boiler needs replacing, parts are no longer readily available and a recent breakdown took 3 days to resolve as a specific part had to be ordered from elsewhere to get it going again.

Looking around there seems to be 3 main contenders.

1) Worcester Bosch Greenstar 8000 30kw. https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/greenstar-8000-plus

2) Vaillant Ecotec Plus 32kw https://professional.vaillant.co.uk...s/ecotec-plus-826-832-836-840-940-154176.html

3) Veissmann Vitodens 200 30kw https://viessmanndirect.co.uk/Catal...lers/Vitodens-200-W-30kW-Combi-Boiler-Z029712


Now from the 3, it seems like the Veissmann has the best potential for long term savings, it also has the Opentherm standards for control where as both Worcester and Vaillant use their own systems that require module adapters.

It aso has the largest step down modulation of the three, but, is that *really* going to save that much money unless I have every room in the house smart connected? In which case add another £1500 in automatic radiator mixers...

Anyway, thoughts from ocuk?

I had number 1 fitted about 3 weeks ago, although went for the 35kw version as we've got 3 bathrooms. No complaints so far, lack of opentherm might be a bit annoying but you can still wire it up to a smart controller.

I did local quotes and Boxt came out with a competitive quote so picked them.

 

[hotdog]

I got a vitodens system boiler...

I also did the heat pump gov quote and was told I needed rads the size of walls to compensate heat loss - ridiculous.

Still to this day don't understand open therm - I think it's a con in the UK !

 

[robj20]

I got a vitodens system boiler...

I also did the heat pump gov quote and was told I needed rads the size of walls to compensate heat loss - ridiculous.

Still to this day don't understand open therm - I think it's a con in the UK !

Opentherm working fine for me on my Ideal boiler, just wire up and it works. What do you think the con is?

 

[alexakasloth]

We have an Ideal combi boiler (Logic+ 24 IIRC) that was installed 7-8 years ago. It's had one problem in that time which was a small leak last month on the DHW inlet pipe.

I think when it requires replacing I would replace it with one that has some preheated water and a stainless heat exchanger. The Viessmann boiler you linked to looks very good.

 

[tamzzy]

I think when it requires replacing I would replace it with one that has some preheated water and a stainless heat exchanger. The Viessmann boiler you linked to looks very good.

If your household regularly uses more than 1 hot tap at a time, but cannot fit a separate hot water tank then a storage-combi is well worth it. I have one and can recommend.

 

[Mason-]

My brother used to do heating for a living and always swore by Vaillant, he did move out of the industry about 6 years ago though so not sure how things have changed.

I installed a vaillant system boiler last year and it’s been great, only 1 year old though.

 

[robj20]

We have an Ideal combi boiler (Logic+ 24 IIRC) that was installed 7-8 years ago. It's had one problem in that time which was a small leak last month on the DHW inlet pipe.

I think when it requires replacing I would replace it with one that has some preheated water and a stainless heat exchanger. The Viessmann boiler you linked to looks very good.

The Ideal Vogue has preheat function and stainless exchanger, mine has been faultless. I kept hot water pipework to hot taps in 8mm and as short as i could really helps with the speed of hot water delivery.

 

[alexakasloth]

@robj20 good to know about that. The pipework is as short as can be, the boiler is next to the kitchen sink, and the bathroom is right above.
I think for me it's knowing that the boiler has a stainless heat exchanger would make me feel more confident it would last longer and I'm at that point where I would rather spend more for that. Whereas before having just bought a house and paying for everything else it was definitely about watching pennies.