How to have a new boiler installed without being ripped off?

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My boiler is on its last legs and with a baby in the house it seems wise to get it replaced before the winter.

I've had quotes from British Gas (very pricey and not great reviews on trustpilot) and Help-Link. I am happy with the price quoted by Help-Link but in doing a safety check on Google I have come across some discussions saying that they contract out the work so there's no guarantee of quality and that they encourage the tradesmen to rush the job as they don't pay enough. This is obviously off-putting.

I'm just not sure how to go about buying a boiler and ensuring that a decent job is done. This is a huge amount of money for me and I just cannot afford to get it wrong.

I don't know anyone locally who has recently had a new boiler so I have no way of finding a reliable independent plumber/heating engineer for the job, hence my starting off with national companies.

Can anyone suggest how to go about this?

I ended up going through MyBuilder and got a good plumber there. If the contractor suggests which boiler (s) you should use for your situation, you can look up the cost of that boiler online. Then lookup what a plumber should charge in your area on Google and compare the quote. Is it just the boiler you are replacing or getting other things done at the same time? I think if you are just getting a boiler replaced and kept in the same position as the old one, it is usually fairly straight forward and may take a day to replace. If you are changing from an old tank system to a combi boiler, there may be additional work required to get new larger pipes and increase the flow to go through the boiler. This may require someone else to put in a new supply pipe from the footpath for you.

Oh and ensure your plumber is gas Safe registered. They should provide the paperwork when done. To be honest I don't know much about the scheme but I would rather expect it is an insurance against faulty workmanship.

Firstly, avoid MyBuilder and CheckATrade type websites, they are very difficult to leave bad reviews on and a good gas engineer doesn't need to scout about for leads. They tend to be new companies or those that don't have a lot of repeat business/word of mouth.

A cheap boiler/installation is often a false economy, and as you've found BG and Helplink aren't known for their quality installations and BG are very expensive.

Worcester Bosch make the best gas boilers, they aren't the cheapest but they're good, if you go on their website you can search for a local installer and contact them directly. Get them out and obtain a written quote, you can get up to 10 years warranty on WB boilers (different companies can offer you different lengths of warranty, 10 years is the longest and companies that can offer this have to install a certain number of WB boilers a year and are closely monitored by WB so a long warranty is a good sign).

Word of month is the best way to find a reliable engineer.

Venys, being Gas Safe registered is a legal requirement, you CANNOT legally remove the cover of your boiler unless you hold the relevant qualification. Your engineer will also need to be Gas Safe registered in order to get the relevant building regs certificate signed off and sent out.

www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/boilers/find-an-installer

www.gassaferegister.co.uk/find-an-engineer/

Meltor Peltor gave sound advice. We got a Worcester Bosch although there are a coupke of other good brands too. The plumber I got on myBuilder was a new immigrant I think or things were quiet. I can't get him back now though as he is too busy!! My builder ended up using him for some of his jobs too. So it's not all bad.

Thanks for the advice.

I've settled on getting a Worcester Bosch as I know they've got a good reputation.

I've been stung my tradesmen found through MyBuilder etc. in the past so definitely won't risk such a big job on someone found through one of those sites.

I'll ask around my neighbours and see if anyone can recommend an installer and then check that they are one of the approved installers for WB.

Thanks again

Fair enough. I am sure you will find someone good.

My boiler was fitted last summer by Helplink.

I had a direct contact line to a person in the office who was overseeing the job. I rang on a Sunday expecting to leave a message but it forwarded to the woman's mobile at home!

She was lovely, I explained I would ring back on the Monday but she said no this is what I am paid for. She took down the details and rang me back on Monday when she had access to the computer.

I had a new Worcester Bosch boiler fitted, alterations to the gas pipe feed, new pump, new pipework to pump so changing a Y plan to an S plan or the other way round, magna clean fitted, 10 new radiators and 2 towels radiators fitted (we supplied those.) There were 3 guys and it took 3 days.

During the instalment I was contacted by the woman to ask if everything was okay with the fitters, and then again just after they finished to check that we were still happy. Then again a week later to make sure everything was as it should be.

I genuinely couldn't fault them, we did had an issue much later, they were straight back and sorted it.

I have just had the annual service done, rang one day, they came the next. It was £79.99.

I went with Helplink because my friend's boiler died and I was amazed at how great Helplink were with hers. We both got £25 M&S voucher for the recommendation.

That sounds good Potatoes

It must depend on who the local installers are for the quality of the work, but it's good to know that the company itself looks after their customers. I'll give that some more thought.

I have just used my builder for the first tune and had brilliant election, he had just left working for huge company and was starting to work alone. I looked on check trade and found worsecter bosh registered boiler fitter. Again he was great, I got three quotes first. However although it works now, it broke down on us within the few months right in winter, we have had to fight to get engineers out quickly and by third or fourth one they re built it an hopefully its ok now. Big disappointment is though

BTW there are bad reviews on my builder and you can see when trader joined so joined 2014 only 20 reviews I avoid.