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[bluekarin]

It looks like we might be about to get a new boiler. Ours packed up 2 years ago, just before the first bad winter in living memory and we have survived with eco electric heaters, our pretend woodburner (a glorified fan) and candles. We want to get one around the £500 mark if possible so wondered if anyone could recommend a make to me. I thought I had asked about this a while ago, but nothing came up when I searched.

[Egluntyne]

My son, who is a plumber always recommends Worcester Bosch boilers.

[The Dogmother]

I have a Worcester Combi boiler that's about 8 years old; it's still going strong and gets serviced every year.

[Daphne]

In our old house we had a Worcester that was 20 years old by the time we left and still going strong The guy who used to service the system said they were the best because they were built to last.

[majorbloodnock]

We've only recently had to change our boiler, since our Potterton, at just under 20 years was starting to be rather demanding on the maintenance costs. The company we ended up choosing recommended a Worcester Bosch, saying that the market is pretty much dominated by two companies - the aforementioned and Vaillant. We cross checked their advice before agreeing, and any advice on t'interweb seems to resoundingly agree. There are no end of recommendations for those two manufacturers, and no end of horror stories about other brands - mainly cheaper ones.

 

Our situation is that we have a two bedroom cottage with no water tank, and we have a strong preference for combi boilers anyway. Typically, it seems both Worcester Bosch and Vaillant models for this kind of work are around the £850 mark. All this, incidentally, also agrees with a certain consumer association's findings ( ), and their list of best buys doesn't include anything other than those two brands, so three sources that corroborate each other makes me feel prevailing opinion is pretty unanimous.

 

Of course, the precise model of boiler will depend on your needs, and specifying the correct one and fitting it properly is where the plumber adds his or her value. However, if they're muttering either of the brand names above, that's a good start.

[The Dogmother]

Having had both types of boiler int he past, I love my combi - got hot water when we want it, and the boiler works really well. Having said that, the heating isn't on much, mostly just morning and evening for a couple of hours from the end of October through to about March-April so that will probably prolong its life. The logburner provides tons of warmth in between and boils the kettle too.

 

I'm struggling to remember the name of the boiler in the flat in London - French sort of name I think and it was absolute rubbish.

[majorbloodnock]

....I'm struggling to remember the name of the boiler in the flat in London - French sort of name I think and it was absolute rubbish.

Strange coincidence. We had a French-made combi boiler when we lived in London too. Ours was an ELM Leblanc, and it never worked reliably from the start. Unfortunately, it was a rented flat, so the boiler wasn't ours to resolve, otherwise I'd have thrown it out of the window years before it eventually got replaced.

 

When we moved from rental to a house of our own, we remembered the lessons we'd learnt and got something well-known and respected, which, at that point was a Potterton. I don't believe Potterton's quality or reliability have dropped since then, but Worcester-Bosch and Vaillant seem to have raised the bar higher, hence their current standing. However, I'd be absolutely astounded if ELM Leblanc are still in business, so I agree wholeheartedly with DM.

[The Dogmother]

That was it! Was that in SE london by any chance?

 

LeBlanc... pile of rubbish from the start Luckily I was selling that flat after a couple of years so was able to coax it along until then.

 

Steer well clear of them.

 

ETA just done a search out of interest and found this comment about them online:

But the rule of thumb with a leblanc is 'if it works, don't touch it'. It WILL either drop the pilot, leak or crumble into pieces.

happy days!

 

This is interesting though: "Bosch Thermotechnik started its activities in the French market by taking over e.l.m. leblanc and Geminox in 1996" Guess they're still around then

[majorbloodnock]

Nope. We were in SW London. Mind you, it doesn't mean to say it wasn't installed by the same plumber; perhaps they got a job lot and tried to get rid of them quickly.

 

From what I could gather at the time, there was never anything fundamentally wrong with the theory of the Leblanc's design; it was putting it into practice that introduced all the problems. It makes sense that Bosch buying it up and applying some typically German quality control and efficiency to it could have made a success of the whole shambles. Nonetheless, what you found is absolutely spot on for the ELM Leblanc we had - regular leaks and constant pilot light problems. Bad, bad, bad.

[The Dogmother]

On a positive note, I learned a lot about boiler workings when I had the LeBlanc and am now happy to sort some issues myself.

[Bantambabe]

Our Worcester boiler (oil) is the original one that was put in whenour house was built in 1973. Every winter it waits til the coldest spell and then packs up fr a few days, but the engineer always gets it going again and says it's got a few more years in it. Prob not very efficient compared with what we could get these days, but can't afford to change it whilst there's life in it.

[Ms Marple]

We had a new boiler installed around this time last year - Worcester Bosch (Greenstar 40CDI)

It is superb. I like combis too but our house too big for them to be effective. We had a Vaillant combi in two of our houses and they were also very good.