In article ,
Tony Hogarty writes:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I spoke to several manufacturers when I was choosing a boiler.
More than one said to me that whilst condensing boilers are around
10% of the home market, they are pretty well all DIY installations.
Got into a conversation with some gas fitters at a trade counter.
They all said they would try and talk someone out of fitting a
condensing boiler, but if someone really wanted it, they would fit
it but would not commission or service it -- that had to be arranged
with the manufacturer.

Which probably explains why people have no faith in British plumbers! Did
they give any reasoning behind this bizarre behaviour?

Yes. Some of it was bull****, but I wanted to hear it so I
didn't try and correct anything.

The main reason was lack of reliability and expensive repairs.
I can't argue with that -- I don't have the necessary data.
Bloke behind the counter said one of the manufacturers was on
fourth redesign of condensate drain in a year and third redesign
of something else and someone else's heat exchangers usually
failed just after warantee and cost over half the cost of the
boiler, and the tale of woe went on. Basically, after fitting,
they have to keep going back to sort the boiler, which gives the
fitter a bad name, so they don't fit them. I asked specifically
about the Keston (which I chose) and Ariston (which I looked at
because it was the smallest one made). There was some agreement
that Keston was probably as good as you'd get now, but ones
which are 3 years old are badly suffering failed heat exchangers.
Then a comment that whilst it used less gas, it had a 1kW fan
in it bull**** alert so it just used more electric instead.
They were very scathing of Ariston's, but I can't remember why.
Also, I presumed from this conversation most gas fitters don't
have a flue gas analyser (and when I spoke to Keston, they also
assumed the gas fitter wouldn't have one). Reading between the
lines, this is why they can't commission or service them.

So, what are the issues?
I can believe that boilers based on conventional technology
which has matured over very many decades are probably more
reliable than boilers based on new technology. There seems
to be a problem (or at least a believed problem) in condensing
boilers not lasting out or very far past their warantee period
without expensive repairs required.
I suspect gas fitters have been using the same traditional
brands for condensing boilers which they use for conventional
boilers, and it seems to me those brands probably aren't the
best -- they certainly entered the game late.
Gas fitters are conservative (which is not unreasonable when
your salary depends on it) and/or gas fitters don't understand
condensing technology.

--
Andrew Gabriel