Vaillant or Worcester Bosch?

[NewTalker]

Seems prices vary for a new boiler, and more premium for Vaillant but it's for the long term so more interested in experiences of what's best. Most energy efficient is more crucial than price.

I have Valiant. I wanted a WB.

I had it serviced recently to keep the warranty. I asked the engineer which parts on that model broke and he said he had yet to experience any break. I asked him which he thought was better and he said Valiant rather than WB which surprised me.

If you are interested in energy efficiency they all seem much of a muchness to me. The biggest problem with condensing system boilers is running a flow temperature which is compatible with both heating the cylinder (70C IRRC) to prevent legionella while maintaining the optimum efficiency for heating (lower so the condensing actually happens and the boiler operates at max efficiency). I haven't found a solution to this to date. What you probably need is a boiler that senses hot water demand and switches the flow temperature from low to high and vice versa. I don't know whether there are any solutions in the marketplace for this - it does not seem to be typical.

Combi boilers solve the flow temperature issue, but unfortunately have more moving parts integral to the boiler so are probably more likely to go wrong than system boilers. On an S type or Y type driven heated by a system boiler you of course have the divertor valve as well, but because it is external to the boiler it is often easy to replace by yourself.

This Vaillant boiler I'm looking at ahead of the colder season. A combi is really what's best I'd say. Though is the Bosch a better option for energy efficiency?

Our Worcester Bosch has had the same fault every year for about three years in a row and has just developed the same fault again. Our plumber says he doesn't recommend/fit them any more. It does at least have a decent guarantee, so we've not had to pay for any repairs, but it is a pain!

I have a WB. I have the service:maintenance plan on it (it's 10 years old this year, I've had the service plan about 3 years now) that includes the annual boiler check & any issue with it. It's about £17 pm. & they're a lovely company to deal with.

i actually had my annual check yesterday (& it was a woman! Only 1%!are women she said) and she declared it to be in brilliant condition.

when I need a new one it'll be WB without a doubt!

I don't think there's difference (if any) between brands to make any significant difference?!

Asking any technician which is better is pointless as they'll all say different things depending on their training, job training, history.

vailant was considered not as good as Bosch when I was growing up, so I wouldn't get one now, but in truth there's probably not much beteeen them!!

I have a Vaillant (combi) that went in in 2009 and never given me any trouble. Only once had to have a repair - which was just a minor part that was leaking water out the condensate pipe and causing it to lose pressure. That was a few years ago so I can't remember the cost to fix but it was not significant. Apart from that, it just churns out the heat and water quite happily.

We used to have a Vaillant for 16 years, but recently is has kept throwing error messages, so we looked for a replacement. The installer recommended Bosch, so we gave it a go.
It was installed on Thursday and died half an hour later. The engineer arranged a Bosch specialist to come out on Friday, who established the issue is probably with the PCB board, but he didn't have any with him, as he used up the only piece he had for the day - then he left. When I called Bosch on Saturday, they booked another engineer for Tuesday, so we have no heating or hot water for 6 days courtesy of Bosch customer service. Installers told me the PCB board is the most common cause of issues, so engineers should be driving around with a healthy stock, but that costs money, so Bosch only give mobile engineers one board per day...

Based on that I would never buy a Worcester Bosch boiler ever again. The unit may be great (remains to be seen), but the customer service is non-existent. I have no experience with Vaillant's customer care, but I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

In case you are contemplating Viessmann as well, I learnt it is a fantastic product, but it is planned for soft German water, so it comes with rubber pipes instead of copper. The hard water in the UK does not cope with rubber and these become brittle over time, leading to bursts.