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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Boilers! We need a new one. Should we go whole hog with British Gas?

36 replies

ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 10:26

There seems to be a sale on and we could get a new boiler have it fitted, with some discount and then do that monthly payment which would cover an annual service etc etc.

Our Vaillant is from 1990 and B Gas wouldn't take it on under their service contract because they say it's too old and too many parts are redundant.

He also said newer boilers are less polluting and emit fewer toxins etc. As we are expecting a baby in Sept and the boiler is in the cupboard in the room where the baby will sleep - I'm concerned about that of course!

Any advice would be hugely welcome! It's such a huge amount of money, I'd like to get it right!

OP posts:
foxythesnowman · 26/03/2008 10:36

Good God NO! They'll tell you you can have discount, money back by trading in your boiler and loads of stuff. When I got a quote it was still double the other quotes!

I got 3 or 4 plumbers (Corgi registered) to each give me quotes on expensive/mid-range/cheap boilers. I made my choice from this, then haggled over the price and got the most pricey for less.

The boiler and work should be covered for the next year, or two. So if you have BG Homecare you can take this part off the cover. We have halved our premium this way.

foxythesnowman · 26/03/2008 10:39

and if by any slim chance you are in London, I'll happily give you a recommendation.

fishie · 26/03/2008 10:50

i have never heard anything good about british gas boiler repairs or cover.

i have found that newer boilers need replacing all the time, whereas mine is at least 25 years old and works perfectly. just get yours serviced regularly and emission checked.

fishie · 26/03/2008 10:51

sorry meant to add you only have bg's word for it that it needs replacing.

ska · 26/03/2008 10:54

for what its worth, i am at this very moment having my 35 year old boiler replaced! the two chaps doing it are charging me £2000 less than BG quoted for exactly the same work and they also are on a contract to BG (so do work for them sometimes and work for themselves mostly) try rated people.co.uk to find a recommended corgi plumbernear you (or do what we did too, ask people in the road who they used). we had 3 quotes: BG was £2k more than both the other ones and we used the ones who could do it quickest. btw it takes 2 days min and we froze last night

ska · 26/03/2008 10:56

it is true that old ones may be fine, ours wasn't! it was either on or off so no timer etc. new ones are better for the environment cheaper to run etc. look at which? for best buys!

Original poster
ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 10:56

Thanks so much foxy and fishie!

Foxy I am in London so would be delighted with any recommendation at all!

My inlaws have been very happy with BGas but I think they bought a state of the art boiler which is so wonderful that maybe they would be happy.

All advice very gratefully received!

OP posts:
lilymolly · 26/03/2008 10:59

no no no to british Gas

DP is a heating engineer and he charges thousands less than BG and still makes a mint profit.

He is in Nprth East, otherwise I would have recommended him!

Get some 3 quotes from some CORGI reg plumbers. Get their CORGI number and check with corgi website that it is current and valid.
Also make sure you get a Good boiler, either a woscester, or BAXI or Valient.

Original poster
ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 11:01

Thanks Ska, I'm definitely going to shop around after reading all this. The last plumber I had here was such a cowboy and nasty with it, that I feel pathetically vulnerable in this task! But I will check rated people - good advice. Also will try to look at Which in the library.

I was going to call Vaillant and see if this boiler (now starts to sound not so old at 18 years!) might be fixed to work well.

But what about my nerves about a baby in the same room as the boiler in the cupboard? Feel a little paranoid about that!

Part of me want to get something ultra new and 'safe' so that they're less likely to emit anything noxious. But ds has appeared to be well and fine and he's slept in that room for 5 years. I have one of those carbon emission things on the wall too.

OP posts:
Original poster
ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 11:02

Thanks Lilymolly, all such great advice, I love mumsnet.

OP posts:
Original poster
ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 11:15

I've just joined ratedpeople.com, it looks really good! fingers crossed!

Any thoughts on an oldish boiler in a baby's room would still be very gratefully received!

OP posts:
fishie · 26/03/2008 11:19

i must say i wouldn't be entirely happy with it, is there anywhere else it could go? its not just the emissions but the noise etc, not very bedroom-friendly thing really. we live in a terraced house so have very little wall space for siting a boiler, ours is a back boiler.

Original poster
ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 11:24

Fishie, excuse ignorance, so where did you site yours?

OP posts:
MrsBadger · 26/03/2008 11:32

our current house has the boiler in the loft, whihc is a bit counter-intuitive, but it saves a lot of space in the kitchen etc and is easy to vent through the roof/eaves/outside wall.

In fact our new house has an ancient old boiler in the downstairs hall (?!) and we are considering moving it to the left when we replace it.

MrsBadger · 26/03/2008 11:32

to the loft, even

we could move it to the left but it'd end up in the garden...

fishie · 26/03/2008 11:35

that's a good idea mrsb. i might do that if we need to replace.

ig, ours is in the fireplace, venting up chimney, in kitchen. hot water tank in cupboard under stairs but you would be having a combi i suspect?

i have heard that the emissions and energy saved by condensing boilers and the like are so small as to not make any different during the short life of the thing. but i may be entirely wrong or out of date.

RubyRioja · 26/03/2008 11:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CoffeeCrazedMama · 26/03/2008 12:53

Ipanemagirl - I am in London too and have a Vaillant. We have always had it serviced by Bradley Weekes Vaillant Boiler service (number was left by the previous owners of our house). They are fab and will give you impartial advice as they only service, they don't supply (unlike BG who in my opinion and experience know plenty about flogging new products and nothing about maintaining gas equipment).

When we did need a new one (old one was over 25 years old and BW kept it going well) they were able to recommend a good (small) company to install - but only after me asking them if they could recommend anyone. This was about 4 years ago and was about £1400 to install. I would get good impartial advice before replacing - we only changed because it was getting expensive to run and to pay for replacement parts - it was at no time dangerous because of the annual service.

Twiglett · 26/03/2008 12:59

BG are trying to tell me that my Potterton Combi boiler is old at 11 years

They fixed soemthing 2 months ago and have been out 5 times since to fix another problem and failed ... each time the BG engineer tells me something different .. each time the BG engineer reinforces how very old my boiler is ... and try to intimate there is a problem that is not covered by insurance and a new part (same part) will cost BG man 1 says £250 after looking it up on laptop, BG man 2 says over £600 love

I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them

I told them I wanted a senior engineer, I was going to get a corgi engineer to check the work and bill them for the work ... the woman laughed and said 'well I don't think you'll get any money out of British Gas'

although interestingly enough they fixed the problem yesterday by replacing the pump under the insurance guarantee

CaptainUnderpants · 26/03/2008 13:11

Our potterton combi is 17 yrs old - but does need replacing . Interestng thread .

OrmIrian · 26/03/2008 13:16

No. They count on you panicking and taking their 'offer'. When we had this problem a few years ago they offered us a deal that with our customer discount would have cost us about £1750. Local plumber fitted a top of the range Vaillant for £1600. Had to wait a few weeks though but BG couldn't have come round any quicker.

So far their maintenance agreement has been quite good though. No complaints with that. They warned us a few years before that our old boiler was obsolete and it would become impossible to get the parts soon. And they were right.

Original poster
ipanemagirl · 26/03/2008 13:45

Well I've got a man coming from rated people com tomorrow so I'm going to get lots of quotes and compare! Going off BG for sure!!

OP posts:
MashedUpMum · 26/03/2008 13:57

Please don't use BG. Not only did they quote us around 2K more than the nearest quote, but the BG salesman who gave me the quote was the most horrible person I've ever allowed into my home.

He told me that if I didn't pay for the boiler to also be moved further away from the window I would be letting fumes into my house, which "while they wouldn't kill an adult could kill a dog - or something around that size", he said, while eyeing up my 9-month pregnant belly.

This, by the way, tunred out to be wrong, as I checked with every other plumber who came to give me a quote and it turns out there are specific guidelines about distances from windows. But what a disgusting man to try and scare a pregnant woman into a sale.

foxythesnowman · 26/03/2008 14:32

Want me to email you my plumbers details? We are SW London.

OrmIrian · 26/03/2008 16:04

But of course BG give you free parenting tips .

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