Viessmann Boiler Nightmare

[Atethehalloweenchocs]

Will try to keep this brief. Bought a new boiler in Feb 2022 to replace an old one in a house I bought. Went for Viessmann as a good brand. It stopped working on Friday, turned out to be frozen condesor pipe (I called the installers who had put the pipe outside, they claimed they had to do it like that and that their work is only covered for problems in the first 12 months). I have since been told that is nonsense and will be getting it moved.

I called Viessmann, and ended up booking an engineer. I then did some reading, realized what it might be and managed to thaw the pipe. Since I could then reset the boiler back on, I called back and cancelled the engineer visit.

On Saturday I woke up with no heating or hot water again. And a different fault code When I called back I was told that the fault code it was showing was about the condenser pipe and was not covered by the warranty. I ended up booking my own plumber who could not come until today.

My plumber took the boiler apart, said it was not the condenser pipe, and that the boiler had not been serviced. Explained I had it serviced in August (I had forgotten to book it by February, so paid an extra £190 to reinstate the warranty). The plumber made a face and asked if I watched the guy from Viessmann when he was here, and showed me the clogged part which should have been cleaned out. He thinks it was not properly serviced.

So now I have had to pay for my own plumber to come for something that I feel is a problem Viessmann should have sorted. This boiler is 23 months old and this is the second time it has broken down.

II requested a call from a manager to discuss this. No one has called me back.

In addition, over the last few days, I have been given two different answers about when the boiler service is due - several people have said it would be February, when it was installed, and a supervisor told me it would be August when the last service was done.

I am so sick of them. And sick of being in a cold house with no hot water, when I thought replacing the boiler would be a smart thing to do. What should I be asking Viessmann to do to make this right?

Maybe go on trustpilot and report. They always seem to respond there.

Also there is a complain to the CEO page on the web somewhere. You could get the CEOs address and write to them.

BUT ... it does sound like you are using a mix of Viessmann and non Viesmann people to do your jobs/servicing. This is problematic, because when you go down that route each party will blame the other when things go wrong. If you want the best service you should really stick to using Viessman engineers.

You don't say who your original installers were, whether they were Viessman, Viessman approved or not. But it sounds like they did a poor job.

I also think it is highly unlikely a boiler properly installed in Feb 2022 would get clogged so quickly unless there was something amiss with the installation. What part was clogged ?

Sorry about your issues but I'd always use a known & recommended local installer to fit a boiler, ime the manufacturers own ones are people who can't get work elsewhere or have just qualified.

Good gas/oil plumbers will be working for themselves and making a load more money and have a reputation to protect.

Thanks @GasPanic . Boiler was initially installed by an approved Viessmann installer. Serviced last year by a Viessmann engineer. The only reason I had a non Viessmann plumber out yesterday was that Viessmann refused to come saying that the problem was not covered by the warranty. But the problem was not what they (or the fault code) said it was. The part that was clogged was the burner.

And the last service was August 2023. I just dont understand how this could have happened.

Your situation sounds weird.

Firstly because I don't understand why a burner less than 2 years old would clog. Either it is because there is some problem with the combustion system or some problem with the fuel. For example if you have an oil boiler and use some questionable oil. I think it would be very unlikely a gas boiler would clog in that short a timescale, and if it did I would have thought that would show in the combustion tests on servicing, as for it to clog quickly surely it would be generating a fair amount of soot from incomplete combustion. If it has now been "unclogged" then to me that hasn't solved the problem, just postponed it.

You say Veismann "refused" to come out. Whereas my guess (?) is it's not that they refused to come out, it's that they refused to come out for free under the warranty. Personally in that situation I would have probably paid for them to come out and listened to their explanation of what the problem was. You may have found after them looking at the issue and understanding it they would have realised it was in fact a warranty issue as they would have had to come up with some explanation of why the burner was clogged in such a short timescale and why a different fault code was showing, but you didn't give them that opportunity by going to the independent.

Like I said, if you get different people from different organisations to do the servicing/repairs, you are likely to get into a situation where one won't recognise the expertise of the other, or one will blame the other for problems/issues.

Anyway, I hope that if you continue to complain to them they may do something about it. As I said, they seem to be fairly responsive on Trustpilot to wanting to fix issues customers have. Good luck.

Was he sure it was the burner that was clogged?

My boiler broke down and it was a clogged siphon trap - which should have been cleaned out during it's service, but wasnt. The siphon trap got clogged which caused a failure on my boiler.

Very weird how a burner is clogged after such a short space of time. Did your install fit any filters on your system when they fitted the boiler? Some heat exchangers can scale up and become blocked, but this is over a long time, not a matter of months.

I think it would be very unlikely a gas boiler would clog in that short a timescale

Its a gas boiler. I agree it would seem unlikely, but that is what happened. As for postponing the problem - well, I am certainly not confident it will continue to work.

You may have found after them looking at the issue and understanding it they would have realised it was in fact a warranty issue.

I spoke to a supervisor and a Viessmann technician came today (the guy who serviced it last year). He thinks the problem is with the installation, done by an approved installer (they dont do installations themselves). He thinks the freezing weather meant the condensate froze and this back up caused the problem. He said there was no reason for the condenser pipe to be run outside - there was an easier way to do it which would avoid the possibility of the pipe freezing (my plumber said the same). The engineer spoke to the installing company to discuss it and point out another problem with the pipe and the drainage. I could hear how rude the person was to him then with me. She claimed several things that were not true - eg. they had no choice to use the condensate pipe because that was where it was (it was not, the boiler was moved and they put the pipe in). Also claimed they had not done the work at all, until I could give them details and prove they had. Also said that after 23 months it was not their responsibility. I am going to get a written report from the Viessmann guy, put my complaint in writing to the installing company and then take advice from the CAB depending on their response. But the upshot is, I still have a very new boiler not working reliably.

I am beyond frustrated - I am getting over Covid, and for the second time in 23 months had no hot water or heat. I have had to pay call outs and will have to pay for the pipe to be moved. And apparently, none of this is anyones responsibility.