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I drive a 21 year old Peugeot 205 GTi and a 14 year old Citroen Dispatch. You don't know the meaning of unreliable! 😉
 
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if your not servicing your audi and skada each year and relying on 20000 mile service intervals you have an expensive surprise coming soon.
 
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if your not servicing your audi and skoda each year and relying on 20000 mile service intervals you have an expensive surprise coming soon.
 
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Yep £137,000 car serviced every 20k......... Or every year because it only does 4k a tear. £3000 heating system and just the boiler is hoovered!
 
I drive a 21 year old Peugeot 205 GTi and a 14 year old Citroen Dispatch. You don't know the meaning of unreliable! 😉

dont you mean you own a c21 yr old Peu.................................................
 
Thank you all (so many) for your replies.
A few points, please, I wish to add.
a) Installation was carried to the highest possible standards. This is not our first house or first boiler. Boiler water treatment chemicals were added plus a small cylinder (water purifier?) added to the piping system. Three Corgi engineers, around 6 hours and £900 to install it.
b) Correctly so, customer service from Vaillant is not very good
c) From 1976 to 2004 we have never had such problems with any boiler. Four houses + two flats
d) When in 2008 the old boiler (I mean old as it was in the house when we bought it in 2004) broke down, instead of a £300 repair I felt it was a good idea to have a new, more powerful one instead
(now I have the wife nagging and telling me how wrong I was). Do you know how that feels like!?
e) Do you really service your car every year? I don't. It depends on mileage. Last gap has been a two years period as, since 2012, I must have done no more than 4000 miles in my car.
f) I have no personal dispute with Vaillant at the moment. I have made enough comments on Facebook at that time.
g) On count of probabilities, if the boiler was serviced every year and the above was still going wrong, who should we blame this time? (...the wrong type of snow)??? We should only allow British Rail for such "jokes".
h) As it happens boilers are meant to be working with water (no rocket science). I am no boiler engineer but for so many components to go wrong one after the other only indicates to me that there is (was) something drastically wrong with the components or manufacturing to start with.

I am passionate about watches and it has been my hobby for over 50 years. However I will be the first one to state that watches do not need to be serviced every year and that a £5,000 Rolex is no better than a £300 Tissot or Longines. I do not expect anyone to "spit on their plate" and tell me what they really believe is going on with my boiler. My personal experience with Vaillant (and two BMW 5 series) is negative based on personal experience/circumstances. This is why we now drive Audi and Skoda and this is why we will never buy a Vaillant again. Luck should not come into the equation and if this is just the odd one out, Vaillant should have also been more pro-active in providing 'some' and better customer service.


from around 2006 the installation of A rated boilers became compulsory. This had one major issue, older boilers had large water ways which coped with the standard british corroding heating system fairly well. Most A rated boilers have very small water ways to be very efficient, this type of appliance has major problems coping with the standard british corroding system. Because of these issues cleaning the system correctly before installing a new A rated appliance has become one of the most important jobs. Also keeping the system clean is very important, a system with poor condition can cause major running issues.

Your car analogy is a bad one. You have a direct human interaction with your car, you can tell when the breaks are failing, the engine is running rough, the clutch is slipping, the exhaust is blowing etc...... Unless your boiler breaks down or makes a strange noise how would you know how its working correctly or more importantly safely? Also consider that a car can require an mot on a yearly basis.

A boiler service wont stop all breakdowns, the first and most important things a service is for is to ensure the appliance is working safely. Checking the combustion is correct, keeping carbon monoxide and other nasties away from you and your family aswell as greasing the wheels. A gas appliance can kill wether its new or 20 years old.
Why if it breaks down do you feel its got to be some bodys fault? some time things fail, its the way it is.

i agree, i dont push vaillants to my customers once i found they sell there details to other companies.
 
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Glad most people are happy about their cars. My Audi is now 8 years old and Skoda is 9 years old. Fingers crossed - to date, no problems (sshhhh) :wink_smile:.
My 528 was a disaster and service attitude from BMW is diabolical (like if they were doing me a favour).
THANK YOU ALL very much for your time and input. I should have come to this Forum before buying the boiler.
It has been a real pleasure - "keep up the good work"!!!! Thank you
 
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