"Doctor Drivel" wrote in message
reenews.net...

"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 10:26:33 +0000, Stuart Noble wrote:

rebecca g wrote:
Hi, I've got an ariston combi boiler that decided to die last week.
I've had a plumber round who has told me it's Ariston's only
unreliable
model that caused major headaches for everyone who tried to repair it
back in the day (mine looks like it was installed in 1992). Has
anyone
heard of a similar ariston problem or am I being conned into
installing
a new one? Does anyone have any idea how much I should expect to pay
in London to get a new boiler installed, including flushing the
pipes/radiators etc?
Thanks!



Most Corgis are just fitters. If the fault is obvious, and the part
readily available, they'll do it. Otherwise, they'll tell you the
boiler's too old and was a dog from the start.
See if you can find the local stockist of Ariston spares and ask them
to
suggest an engineer.
If you go for a new one, shop around. Easy to check boiler prices on
the
web. It's probably going to take 2 blokes half a day, so work out how
much you think they should be paid. The last Corgi I hired quoted £800
labour but eventually did the job for £350 so it's worth haggling.

I agree with most but not all of the above.
Firstly no boiler is unrepairable but as they get older they tend to
become beyond economic repair.

Often the manufacturers have a service division which whilst not cheap is
likely to be able to perform a diagnosis.

If you post the exact symptoms someone here is likely to make a good
educated guees as to which components have failed and what they likely
costs of replacement are.

It is true that Ariston are not in the upper half of the spectrum of
reliability.

I have an Ariston Microgenus. It is fitted off a cold tank for DHW and is
very reliable. 2 yr guarantee and 5 on the plate heat exchanger.
Everything
is easy to access inside. I bought it as it was at the time the smallest
sized, in casing, combi available. Well specced too.

The early Aristons were not that reliable, but the new generation are much
superior and they now give 5 years guarantee across the board to many
models. Alpha are doing the same.


Is yours the Microgenus 23MFFI? We had ours installed in July 2003. The
installer told us that it had a one year warranty but the Ariston web site
indicated that all of their Combi's had a two year warranty. The warranty in
the box was for one year with the option to extend it by a further three
years. I queried this with Ariston and they said that it must have been an
old in stock boiler that had been supplied and they sent me a two year
warranty form. I filled that in and took out the extended three year
warranty with Domestic and General. In December of last year a fault
developed the day after the
boiler had its annual service by the local service agent. They came back and
replaced the pressure relief valve and added the cost of the item to charge
for the annual service.
The service agent said that the boiler only had a one year warranty and that
I should claim the cost of the item back on the extended warranty. I phoned
Ariston who maintained that the Microgenus 23MFFI is the only Ariston Combi
with a one year guarantee. I phoned Domestic and General who said that as
the original warranty was for one year that my extended warranty was
invalid.
I waited until the two year warranty was up and wrote to D&G and explained
the situation to them. Fortunately they accepted that my warranty is valid
until 2008.
Ben.