which boiler is breaking down most ( just for fun poll )

[migoplumber]

just reading through existing posts this week, im seeing a vailants and ideals with problems followed closely by worchester. I know its relative to how many are installed, and obviously more of them are installed because they are well known and asked for by clients.

as installers, in your area you know whats been installed ( by yourself or comptetion ) and what your installing.

which ones for you are breaking down at this moment in time, which ones are trouble free, and what is the most common fault your finding, and to go a bit further, whats the final price for the repair to the customer (tax man not reading this by the way )

 

[Puddle]

Bit unfair as the better the boiler the longer it lasts and as it gets older you will get more break downs
Volkera suffered from this, they lasted years, many twice as long as other boilers
People used to say to me, these volkeras are rubbish always breaking down until I pointed they were twenty three years old and for a combi that is quite good. only the valiant sine 18 were better, many had paid for 3 boiler changes, while these owners were just paying for a repair every few years, they would rattle a bit and make some strange sound bit keep on going
There was a story of shouting yourself in the foot,volkera changed the size of the flue (one of the first to bring outer plastic flue out), so when you did a boiler change you had to make the hole through the wall slightly bigger, whilst all other makes kept same size, so straight swop, sales fell over night, do not see many now, even though now flue now standard size

Having said that and it pains me to say, as it used to be a great northern name is Ideal Boilers but you are never too big to fall as potterton showed
The rot set in with the response and has gone down hill since then
I will not go into cost to customers put even if you did not charge labour ,just for parts,it makes your eyes water

 

[Kip]

3 years of this job, 2 months as a self-employed man on my own and have only ever come across vailent and woschesters with problem. I fit ravenheats, everyone slates them for breaking down and having problems, but i have never ever come accross one with a problem until last week which wasnt the boiler but an electrical fault to the boiler (loose neautral conection). So they way i see it is the dearer the boiler the better it is isnt necassarily correct, yes the likes of vailant are german made and they are brilliant with mechanical engineering, as you can tell by their cars the bmw and the vw's it isn't quite correct with boilers, they are awefullllyyy expensive to repair, have to make technical issues and are even more expensive to install. My least favourite boiler by far.

 

[stevetheplumber]

without a doubt its got to be ideal there combis are crap took potterton years to make a half decent combi but ideal never have as said youll see a lot of vaillants because theres so many of them and many are so old same applies to worcesters
about 20 years ago there was dozens of new combis coming to the market some of which were unbelivably naff we had one catch light as the overheat didnt function if the boiler lost preasure anyone else rember dahlias, combi co or ELM's?

 

[migoplumber]

i always seem to find myself with the old floor standing ideal mexicos, a very simple boiler, but that many of them installed around this area, but again simple and inexpensive to fix. i would install one for myself at home, and theyre still popping around 85% effiecency! most of these have been in plus side of 15 years and i'd say they been very good value for money. pity they dont make them like that nowdays!

 

[wnjswozo]

kip your having a laugh,ravenheats are as good as ideal,called out 2 ravenheats,3 isars in last 3 days,1 worcester,usaul stuff divertors,high limit stats,frozen con pipe on worcester so not really boiler

 

[Kip]

They did have some poor models. The worst was the one they supplied to B&Q Whitestar? or Littlestar? Both as bad as each other. The newer models are good.

 

[jpm]

RavenheapValliant,Viessmann my boiler of choice.As budget Band A Main 30kw Combi.

 

[migoplumber]

jpm, what problems have you encountered specifics please! with ravenheat and vaillant. and how many viessmans do you look after/fit without problems ?

 

[theanalyst]

Newer Vaillants are spot on in my limited experience. As are Baxi platinums.
Some of the older Worcesters seem to be pretty solid. Except the C*ullinder*Dis

Ideal Isars and Ideal Icos are frequent breakdowns on our job sheets.