P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Snow Hill]

30 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

It plainly isn't.  But somehow, people have got it into their heads that the inflated pricing that big companies use is normal.  Smaller installers are usually very much cheaper, but obviously it has to be a reliable one.

 

I'll go for Worcester Bosch again. No hesitation. With a long, potentially 10 or 12 year warranty if installed by an accredited installer and the services are kept up.

 

Vaillant do equally well every year in Which? surveys, and engineers say they're easier to work on, although perhaps marginally less reliable.

 

The boiler I need costs around £2k, but I'll be amazed if I get a quote below £4k for a straight swap.

Just got a quote for around £2500 including install for Worcester Bosch boiler, the same online company that installed my daughters boiler back in February, I house sat whilst in was installed, very professional. BoxT is the company., took 5 hours to straight swap, a bit of a re jig of pipes and a new flue.

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Snow Hill

[Eglesbrech]

Well the gloaming is just coming down here about now. It’s so nice to have some daylight and more to come after Saturday. It has been a very long winter but spring is most decidedly here at long last, sunshine and lighter nights.

 

Out in the garden in the sun again today tidying up.

[brian1]

Couldn't wait,minced beef and kidney with baked dumplings.

[brian1]

4 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Now there’s a subject - boiler replacement!  Ours is about the same age, and I’m having the same thoughts, though Worcester Bosch put a new heat exchanger and fan, plus various bits, into it in 2019 and tell me it should be good for another few years now.

 

What staggers me is the cost - not so much of the boiler itself, which seems pretty reasonable, but the labour charge for a straight replacement taking about a day and a half.

 

Brian will know why, maybe?

Brings back memories Harry.I haven't worked since 2013 but we were the A team,2 fitters and a mate,occupied flats in Islington,move all furniture to the middle of the rooms including beds with lazy sods still in them,rip out 7 rads,boiler ,cylinder,tanks and all pipework and replace with new condensing boiler and all the above including new gas run in 8 hrs.We used to get a minimum of 300 quid each plus 100 in scrap.Those were the days,must be better now,lol.

[brian1]

I must add that Vaillant used to be the best but once they took over Gloworm they used more common components across the 2 brands,IMO reducing quality.When I left the game Worcester Bosch were at the fore.

[mickey1959]

35 minutes ago, brian1 said:

I must add that Vaillant used to be the best but once they took over Gloworm they used more common components across the 2 brands,IMO reducing quality.When I left the game Worcester Bosch were at the fore.

They are the best 👌 

[Snow Hill]

2 hours ago, brian1 said:

I must add that Vaillant used to be the best but once they took over Gloworm they used more common components across the 2 brands,IMO reducing quality.When I left the game Worcester Bosch were at the fore.

The service engineer yesterday said to go for Worcester Bosch as they are the best.

[wowzz]

20 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

The service engineer yesterday said to go for Worcester Bosch as they are the best.

Which is the same advice we were given.

[terrierjohn]

35 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

The service engineer yesterday said to go for Worcester Bosch as they are the best.

I wonder how much gas engineers choices are influenced by the kickbacks they get from the suppliers, or am I just too cynical.

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I wonder how much gas engineers choices are influenced by the kickbacks they get from the suppliers, or am I just too cynical.

To be fair, our guy just said that in his experience they were of a far superior build quality than other makes. He was not trying to sell one to us, but just giving his opinion. 

The question, without being morbid, is, would I pay 50% more for a Worcester Bosch at my time of life ? Not sure that having a 10 year gurantee or whatever, is a major selling point !   

[terrierjohn]

47 minutes ago, wowzz said:

To be fair, our guy just said that in his experience they were of a far superior build quality than other makes. He was not trying to sell one to us, but just giving his opinion. 

The question, without being morbid, is, would I pay 50% more for a Worcester Bosch at my time of life ? Not sure that having a 10 year gurantee or whatever, is a major selling point !   

Oh ye of little faith in your longevity.

[lincslady]

You knowledgeable people might be willing to give me advice - my old boiler (not me, the other one) may be on its last legs, and it if goes wrong again my very good boiler man says it would have to be replaced, as the bit with water in would have gone, and could not be replaced.  This would be OK, but he also says he would have to renew all the pipes and radiators, and cylinder.  It is not so much the cost, but the upheaval - I am fairly old, and now live alone.  I wonder if this is really necessary, or if a new one  could function,  maybe not quite as well,  with the existing ones.  I say this because he admitted that he would not want any other specialist to come along and see that he had not 'done his job properly'.  Hope you don't mind having your brains picked on here!  My family don't know enough to advise.

 

As quite often these days, awake at  3 a.m.🙂

[lincslady]

P.S.   Should have said - oil fired boiler (live in the countryside).

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

You knowledgeable people might be willing to give me advice - my old boiler (not me, the other one) may be on its last legs, and it if goes wrong again my very good boiler man says it would have to be replaced, as the bit with water in would have gone, and could not be replaced.  This would be OK, but he also says he would have to renew all the pipes and radiators, and cylinder.  It is not so much the cost, but the upheaval - I am fairly old, and now live alone.  I wonder if this is really necessary, or if a new one  could function,  maybe not quite as well,  with the existing ones.  I say this because he admitted that he would not want any other specialist to come along and see that he had not 'done his job properly'.  Hope you don't mind having your brains picked on here!  My family don't know enough to advise.

 

As quite often these days, awake at  3 a.m.🙂

How old are your existing pipes, radiators etc ?

I can't see why replacing a boiler requires,  in essence, a totally new central heating system. 

Are you able to get any recommendations from your neighbours for other plumbers. You definitely need to get two or three quotes,  rather than just go with your existing plumber.

Hopefully Brian will be along shortly with his advice. 

[Harry Peterson]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

To be fair, our guy just said that in his experience they were of a far superior build quality than other makes. He was not trying to sell one to us, but just giving his opinion. 

The question, without being morbid, is, would I pay 50% more for a Worcester Bosch at my time of life ? Not sure that having a 10 year gurantee or whatever, is a major selling point !   

Are they really 50% more? I thought the gap was much smaller than that. Having kept an eye on this for a few years now, I wouldn't touch anything other than WB or Vaillant - simply because their reliability is so much ahead of most of the others, and a broken boiler is such a major hassle.

[Harry Peterson]

3 hours ago, lincslady said:

You knowledgeable people might be willing to give me advice - my old boiler (not me, the other one) may be on its last legs, and it if goes wrong again my very good boiler man says it would have to be replaced, as the bit with water in would have gone, and could not be replaced.  This would be OK, but he also says he would have to renew all the pipes and radiators, and cylinder.  It is not so much the cost, but the upheaval - I am fairly old, and now live alone.  I wonder if this is really necessary, or if a new one  could function,  maybe not quite as well,  with the existing ones.  I say this because he admitted that he would not want any other specialist to come along and see that he had not 'done his job properly'.  Hope you don't mind having your brains picked on here!  My family don't know enough to advise.

 

As quite often these days, awake at  3 a.m.🙂

I'm not that knowledgeable on this, but I'd agree with Wowzz.  Do you live in a hard water area, though?  If that's the case it's possible that the cylinder might need replacing - but that's rather less disruptive than replacing all the pipework as well.

 

A friendly, genuinely local, plumber could advise - or Brian when he's up.  He's the best bet.

[brian1]

If the rads are in a bad way and cylinder is not efficient fair enough they need replacing.Normally after a power flush the pipework should be ok.But a lot of new boilers are pressurised and the existing pipework might have microleaks that are ok with tank fed systems but get worse with a pressurised system.Without seeing myself,I don't know but I rarely replaced pipework when upgrading a system.Only with local authority contracts did they insist on a total renew.Brian.

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Are they really 50% more? I thought the gap was much smaller than that. Having kept an eye on this for a few years now, I wouldn't touch anything other than WB or Vaillant - simply because their reliability is so much ahead of most of the others, and a broken boiler is such a major hassle.

Our Baxi cost around £1700/£1800, and we have been quoted c£2700 for a WB. However,  the Baxi price was 4 years ago, so, in fairness I guess the differential is probably nearer to 25% rather 50%.

If that is the case, than I would agree that it is worth paying the premium.

[brian1]

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I wonder how much gas engineers choices are influenced by the kickbacks they get from the suppliers, or am I just too cynical.

A mate of mine who I worked for sometimes used to get a free holiday to Vegas and other exotic places from Gloworm.

[mrsgoggins]

3 hours ago, brian1 said:

A mate of mine who I worked for sometimes used to get a free holiday to Vegas and other exotic places from Gloworm.

 

My late father-in-law had all sorts of incentives, I think it was via Vaillant, including out to NY on Concorde and back on the QE2 with a stay at the Waldorf Astoria for he and MIL!  I should add that as well as being an engineer, he once worked as a salesman and definitely had the 'you can trust me' vibe (well, unless it was with your wife 😉) so I guess he sold a quite a few systems.  On the other hand, he was not a rogue (women aside) and wouldn't have pushed something that wasn't good.

[lincslady]

Brian, wowzz and Harry - thank you all for your advice.  My 'boilerman' is a local, lovely chap, and totally trustworthy.  When I asked him a few years ago if we might need a new one, he asked how old I was!!    as he had had eventually to renew one for an old lady who sadly died a week later!  I may make it last me out, but think I will ask him if a new one would be pressurised.  Don't know how old the system is, but the pipes are single narrow ones.  I think it is just that he wants to do the best job possible; he is not greedy for money at all.  (Unlike our local Heathaus, who we used previously, and were pricey and horrid).  Apologies for taking up space here for a personal matter, but you have been very helpful.

[indiana123]

34 minutes ago, lincslady said:

.  Apologies for taking up space here for a personal matter, but you have been very helpful.

 

Absolutely no need for apology..I am sure.

 

Not a subject I have a clue about, but I think they (mostly the boys) have enjoyed a chat about something different.

 

 

Anyway, I am about to post a more girly subject... in a minute!!!😀

[zap99]

8 minutes ago, indiana123 said:

 

Absolutely no need for apology..I am sure.

 

Not a subject I have a clue about, but I think they (mostly the boys) have enjoyed a chat about something different.

 

 

Anyway, I am about to post a more girly subject... in a minute!!!😀

Make sure it's ' Clean '.🤣

[indiana123]

I did a long post and it disappeared.

 

This is just a personal thing, unimportant, but gets me every time.

 

OH and myself love mixing with younger people.  Indeed before his retirement our weekends were very social with an age range of 4 to 90 plus.  If we go somewhere and we are the oldest we couldn't care less.

 

We love chatting to 20/30 year old friends.. 

 

BUT

 

Just lately I have found that, with casual acquaintances, or shop people and the like, if I open me gob to make a comment (sorry I mean if I speak to  give an opinion or comment) they say, 80% of the time  "Aaaaw Bless  to me.   AAAW BLESS!!!  Whats that all about.  I'm not two years old! And I have a bit of a brain.

 

Is there a saying that does that to you?

 

🙃🤣😄

 

[lincslady]

Not really, I get treated much the same as everyone else.  I was taken aback when my boiler chap asked me how old I was, but he did have a good motive!  And he does talk to me as if I am fairly compos mentis.  Do you think for some reason  you give off an air of being doddery?  I find it is important not to be apologetic to people, by suggesting I might not be up to it because of age.  Just be as positive and firm as anyone else.   And wear bright colours and jeans, if you feel like it!  That is my motto, anyway.