new boiler, which one?

[squildge]

We have a very old potterton neataheat boiler which won't light. The corgi guy came and said it needed a new pilot assembly and he couldn't get one, so we'd have to get a new boiler. The guy he recommended came and had a thorough look and said he thought a combi was the best option and left an alpha leaflet for us to look at. I've seen some comments on here about the alpha not being very good and wondered why not. Are there any other makes we should avoid? I'd like to really investigate this, as I'm hoping a new system will be problem free for many years, but need to get sorted asap as we have no proper heating at the moment.At least we have hot water, thank goodness for the immersion heater!

[saxy_jag]

Don't get a BIASI. We have one that's always going wrong, and a colleague at work had a similar problem with hers. The guy who fixes mine (contracted to the agency I rent from) hates them. He says they're cheap and inferior, always going wrong and developing niggling little faults all the time. They're also quite fiddly for engineers to work on - apparently you have to strip them right down before you can do the simplest little repair on them.

[gucciman]

off the top of my head i cant be sure whether the pilot assembley is still available for the netaheat or not, i worked on a netaheat last summer and we had to order a new gas valve and ignition control box for it so some parts are definately available.
i would be wary of people saying the parts are obsolete and you need a new boiler however, there seems to be a lot of this going on, in some cases its down to young engineers who haven't been trained on older boilers and are scared of them and in some cases people are just trying to flog you a new boiler to make money.
its well worth finding out for yourself if the parts are available, you can try ringing time and temperature which is part of the plumbase group, spares and controls in sovereign rd kings norton birmingham or ring baxi potterton themselves, you should be able to get the phone numbers off google.
as for your new boiler, its probably going to have to be a condensing combi to comply with the energy efficiency laws. theres no such thing as a problem free combi, they are very complicated machines that need regular servicing and you will have to spend on spare parts now and again, think of it like the way you maintain your car.
the best combis you can buy are from worcester and vaillant, the worcester bosch greenstar being regarded by many as the very best but my boss rates vaillants as highly if not more. halsteads are also decent boilers.
as cleversod says you need to pick a boiler with enough power output to satisfy your demands, any combi can power the heating but to get a good hot water flow you need a powerful combi. 28kw is probably the minimum power output you should go for and cleversods 37kw would give great water output.
beware of installers reccomending a particular boiler, it could be because they are getting a good discount on that paticular boiler from the plumbers merchants.

please let us now the outcome.

[gucciman]

what part of the world are you in by the way? i'm in birmingham and can give you the numbers of a couple of installers who won't rip you off if you live near.

[gucciman]

come to think of it ive ust re-read your post and if it wont light because of the pilot assembley then did the engineer try stripping the pilot assembley down and cleaning out the pilot tube and the pilot injector?
the problem could also be the gas valve or the thermocouple.
i'd be pretty annoyed if i forked out 2 grand for a new boiler when a 10 quid pilot head may solve it!

[tiggerblue10]

I haven't got much experience on boilers but I can reommend the Saunier Duval combi. I've had no problems with it for over 10 years. I got it for �600 at the time which was so much cheaper than all other quotes I got. They were all over �1000 and that was 10 years ago.

[gucciman]

cheap boilers are ten a penny, you can get a heatline boiler for 450 quid and they come with a 2 yr warranty, there newish on the market however and whether there any good or reliable or not remains to be seen.
the old adage that you get what you pay for applies here.

[squildge]

thank you for your answers. We live near Blackpool, so a bit far from Birmingham! I don't know what the engineer did, to be honest. The problem first happened a week or so ago, I called him out but when he came the next day, the boiler had lit again, so he gave it a service. Did take quite a while and said something about the pilot looking very worn. When it didn't come on again a few days later, he spent more time on it, i'm afraid i just left him to it. I might have got this wrong but I think he said that the electrode? was rusted into the pilot assembly? I know absolutely nothing about boilers, so might have got this all muddled up. I think the boiler must be 20-25 years old, so probably ready for a replacement. Thanks again, I'll keep you posted.

[cruella]

Avoid Ravenheat boilers.
They are always breaking down.

[gasman]

A decent Gasman worth his salts would easily make up a new poilet assembly or adapt a new elctrode, thermocouple or pilot. Just because the boiler is old does not mean you have to scrap it. Infact it is probably better than most new boilers. But if you do have to replace it then I personaly would avoid ALPHA, BIASI and RAVENHEAT as I am called out more to these makes than any other make. WORCESTER are the best ones around today.

[terence7556]

which report sep? 07 i think about boilers ,look in your library for it.
top was potterton baxi but this was compiled by users and not installers. all the brands mentioned by the previous gas lads are consistently recommended on a regular basis so keep that in mind when you make a decision good luck

[squildge]

Thank you again for the answers. I really appreciate the advice. I get it that the boiler may be able to be fixed, but I'm afraid my choice of engineers tends to be a case of open the yellow pages and stick a pin in. And I don't fancy paying another one for coming out and saying the same thing. Sounds like the worcester is the way to go. I am worried about the water flow being low, my brother had a new combi fitted recently and is really disappointed with his. He also said it takes ages for the hot to get through. I've read that some combies have a small tank to overcome this, does it make much difference? Thanks again. Oh, and someone else said that the unvented system was the new way to go, how much extra woud it be, any ideas? Head completely mixed up! Thanks everyone

[tezestwing]

You can have a new system that retains your beloved immersion heater and the water storage tanks above with a system combi boiler coupled up to your existing vented hot cylinder with extra control valves not to expensive when they are installed at change over, the only criteria would be how good a condition the rest of the system is, a decision you would have to make/obtain if you went for a sealed system boiler HTH Tez

[tezestwing]

infomation for you http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/index.php?fus eaction=boiler.selector HTH Tez

[squildge]

Thank you for the answers. We decided to go for the worcester 37cdi, being fitted tomorrow. Absolutely typical, though, I was freezing this morning and decided to try the boiler one last time. You guessed it - fired up and been keeping the house warm all day! uughhh!!!!!!!!