Our house came with a Keston 130 (badly) condensing boiler installed
when we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. It has been nothing but trouble
though not all of the problems have related to the boiler itself - the
accompanying pump was underspecced for example and we subsequently
replaced it with a 25/55 model that greatly lessened the amount of
cycling that the boiler was doing.

We have had the majority of radiators in the house replaced since we
moved in (I think there are only two panels that were there when we
arrived and one of those is switched off) but although our system was
supposedly flushed we still seem to have a fair amount of crap moving
around. There is a 'trap' near the boiler that we have emptied a
couple of times and found quite a lot of 'grit' in the cup.

The Keston has always been a noisy beast and in the last week it has
got significantly noisier. Keston say the fan is failing which will be
£360 plus fitting (presumably plus VAT as well). Given the noise,
the problems we've had with the boiler and the difficulty in finding
anyone willing to work on it other than Keston themselves (who are
currently only doing warranty work) I'm of the view that this might be
time to call it a day and replace it.

What do people recommend in it's place? It's a large, end of terrace,
victorian house with original sash windows - it needs some serious
input. The boiler is in the airing cupboard on the first floor - which
is off a bedroom and below a bedroom so something quieter would be
better. Should we consider changing anything else at the same time?
(we had the hot water cylinder replaced less than a year ago.)

Anything else to think about? My intention is to source the parts
myself and find a heating engineer to fit (so recommendations in South
London would be useful).