Boiler installation - advice needed please!?!

[Warrilow37]

Hello all,

We are in desperate need for a boiler installation. We have been without central heating all winter and can't cope much longer. We were let down by a company called Glow Green Ltd (please do not use them under any circumstances). They even left us without hot water for two weeks and our 1 year old son lives with us.

So, now that we have had our money back from them we really need a boiler fitted asap, we have the money just can't seem to get someone out to do it being this busy time of year.....Help?!?!

Maybe saying where you are in the country might help?

Also I assume you have a stove, kettle and probably likely an electric shower too (which heats it's self)... So you were not left without hot water. Just the convinience of it on tap 🙄

How do you know the op has an electric shower?? The last 4 rented houses I've lived in, 3 didn't have an electric shower. I think they are quite unusual. And washing a 1 year old with a kettle full of hot water isn't that appealing in an unheated bathroom...

Whereabouts are you?

Try Checkatrade to source a tradesperson local to you. Contact quite a few for a quote as some will not respond.

Hi,
Yes we have a kettle and stove but trying to bath a 1 yr old with those is somewhat troublesome. They absolutely left us with no hot water! So imagine running a house hold where you are both full time working parents with a dog, a one year old son and one of you is also studying outside of working. Thinking of time and needing to have the convenience of hot water as you call it actually becomes a necessity! Plus parting with £2800 to have your hot water taken away and no heating installed isn't great at all!
We are in South Wales.
Ta,

Moral of the story ... Don't use Glow Green Ltd.

I'll try checkatrade. Thank you.

Does anyone have any specific recommendations at all please? We are in desperate need and I don't want a repeat of last time :( literally can't deal with that level of stress.

Look at the Gas Safe register if you have gas, or OFTEC if you have oil. Both will list officially qualified and registered boiler engineers across the whole of the UK.

www.gassaferegister.co.uk www.oftec.org.uk

We are not on the has mains (the whole area is quite remote) and were looking at an electric combi boiler as we are getting solar panels installed and it makes the installation far easier.

We used Aqua Plumbing 62 Dynea Road, PONTYPRIDD, CF37 5DP Tel: 07765590532 and can recommend them. They only fit Baxi boilers.

Sorry cross post. Not sure if they do electric boilers

Thanks Murinae I'll have a look at them.

Use Boxt, if you haven't already got the boiler? They've got a pretty big database of installers so might be able to help you quickly.

Used TSL few year ago, they were good.

try googling check er trade complaints and see what you find out.

Of course this is the wrong time of year to buy a boiler. Get plenty of simple, inexpensive electric heaters to tide you over. I have no knowledge of electric boilers but they will be very expensive to run due to the price of energy from electricity being very high. No doubt there is a reason why you aren't getting oil-fired.

Have you already got a hot-water cylinder? If so you can use it for baths and showers, using the immersion heater.

Look at the websites of good boiler manufacturers. Look for their "find an approved installer" and put in your postcode.

You have more chance of getting someone competent.

Also try the company who supplies your gas and electricity. Many utility companies do CH installation now. They are not likely to go bust or run off with your money, and if you have a complaint, you have a fair chance of getting it put right.

I know it may not help if you are in a hurry but have you checked the government website as you can get free boilers if you are on certain benefits. Whether you own or rent.

Cost = £2,800 V free. Could be worth enquiring about?

Buy an additional kettle it two in the meantime for baths etc to speed up the amount of boiling water for bathing etc? Totally get it if you can’t be bothered though.

Could you ask local people for recommendations via sm?

I generally do that then get three quotes after doing a bit of research on each company.

Go with the one offering the best boiler and service for the best price, and only pay once the job is done to your satisfaction.

What system did you have before? Are you talking about now having radiators which have water circulating through them which is electrically heated? That seems crazily inefficient.

It would be much simpler to install electric convector heaters in each room (each of which just draws its own electricity supply), cheaper to maintain (pretty much zero maintenance) and certainly no more expensive to run (probably very slightly cheaper). Your hot water then just needs to be supplied by an electric immersion heater in a copper cylinder.

We had a new combi boiler put in a couple of weeks ago and we found someone on a site called my builder. I was really pleased with his work and the price, so it might be worth having a look. I hope it is sorted for you soon, it's rubbish having no heating or hot water :(

Boilerplan were excellent with us. And fast. And clean.

Wow Glow Green (the company we originally tried to use) are soooooooo bad. They reported our trust pilot review as obviously it looks bad on them....

Glow Green's reason for reporting

Review breaches guidelines.

Rhys

1 review

1 star: Bad

Reported 11 hours ago

Do not use this company . . .

Before explaining my experience, It's very telling that 7 out of the 20 reviews on here have been reported by Glow Green so that you cannot view them. They seem to take a similar approach to their social media pages having deleted mine and other previous customers complaints about them.

My wife, 1 yr old son and I have had a horrific experience with Glow Green. If you are looking at these reviews please do not use them under any circumstance. We moved into our property in march but had to wait until October to get a boiler fitted as we were waiting for a bonus from work at that time. As it's a busy time of year for that type of work we decided to go with Glow Green who promised us the world....they however delivered us less than nothing.

Prior to dealing with them we had hot water via an emersion heater in the hot water tank, but the only heating source was via an old Ray Burn which was out of action. We have an 8kw log burner in our living room but of course that won't heat the whole house. We parted with £2800 at the start of November and we promised the work would be completed within 2 weeks. Time and time again they didn't show up, delivered the wrong parts and failed to keep us informed of anything. The only thing they actually did was remove the insulation from the current tank meaning that the emersion heater wouldn't heat the water enough for us to get hot water. They left us without hot water for 2 weeks and still haven't installed a heating system. We have finally been refunded our £2800 but have been offered nothing in terms of compensation or reimbursement for the heaters we had to buy (they told us to buy them), our electricity bills, phone bills, time spent on calls because they refused to call back as promised and no compensation for the illness and stress this caused us all.

I'm gutted I have to leave even 1 star as a rating, and bad is certainly not strong enough of a word to describe this company.

I have an ongoing complaint with the ombudsman and am talking with the BBC about the matter as many other customers have been in touch with us having had the same experience.

Thankfully we have x-ray (BBC) on the case and hopefully British Gas can sort a boiler soon for us!

Get on the Gas Safe website and go through all the Gas Safe registered engineers in your area. That’s the only easy way I can think of. Unless of course the company mentioned above can help.

It's very telling that 7 out of the 20 reviews on here have been reported by Glow Green so that you cannot view them. The other 1-star reviews all say "reviewer contacted" so it looks as trustpilot are basically checking with the reviewer and re-instating the review if the customer's experience matches what they've said in the review.

www.gastechheating.co.uk

These guys did ours, we are south wales. We has ours put in the week before xmas, they were excellent. They did a relatives last year agsin with no issue.