Vaillant

This review is about the Vaillant ecoTEC+ 800 series combination boilers.

The Vaillant ecoTEC+ 800 series boilers are the choice of many installers all across the UK, they are undoubtedly the best main stream boilers on the market.

Vaillant have been in the heating industry for over 130 years which means they have a lot of experience in manufacturing very good quality products. Vaillant boilers are made in Germany.

Enough about Vaillant now lets talk about the actual product.

Appearance:

These boilers are made to fit nicely in any standard kitchen unit, they have an attractive glossy white case which is made of metal.

The dimensions are:

824 and 831 models:

Height: 720mm
Width: 440mm
Depth: 335mm.

837 model:

Same as above but 403mm deep.

Functionality:

Combi boilers supply hot water on demand, so when you open a hot water tap the boiler fires heating up fresh mains pressure cold water.
Combi boilers cannot usually supply two outlets at once unless they have a very high hot water performance.

The Vaillant combi boilers have a very decent hot water performance, the 831 model is capable of delivering hot water at 12.7 litres per minute and the 837 15.2 lpm.

The boiler will modulate according to the demand, in simpler terms the boiler will only produce as much heat as it actually needs to in order to get the house to the correct temperature, this saves gas.

Controls:

If you want an efficient system it is vital to have the correct controls, the Vaillant control options a very flexible, you can go from a simple plug in timer that plugs into the boilers control panel, to a complex weather compensated controller that will run the boiler at the lowest temperature possible according to the outside temperature.

The control that I tend to fit Is the VRT360f, this is a wireless controller that allows you to set timed hot water and heating, you could have different temperatures throughout the day and night. With this controller there is no need for a separate thermostat and timer.

| do admit though that the Vaillant controls that are optional are not the most user friendly around.

The actual control panel on the boiler has two knobs; one for setting the CH flow temperature and one for setting the hot water temperature.

The CH knob adjusts the temperature of water flowing through the rads, it is best to set this just hot enough for your house to reach the required temperature.

There is also boiler display system which gives information to the user and the installer.

It displays the current flow temp, burner ignited symbol and a few other things that show the boiler is working correctly. It also displays fault codes in the event of failure.

The controls are well laid out and clear.

Noise:

These boilers are extremely quiet in operation, one of the quietest boilers around, in fact if it was fitted in a cupboard it might be hard for you to tell if the boiler is running.

Build quality:

This boiler has a fantastic solid feel to it, the control panel lid is no longer plastic but it is metal.

The knobs are very solid and shouldn't break in a hurry.

Ease of use:

You will only have to tweak the CH knob every now and again as the weather gets colder or milder, the hot water temp knob will need to be adjusted from time to time too.

There will be a plume of water vapour visible from the flue every time the boiler is on. The flue should be sited so it the plume doesn't cause a nuisance.

The boilers flue options are very flexible too.

Overall a very good boiler and it beats the overrated Worcester boilers.

A lot of problems are down to poor installation e.g. not cleaning the system properly.

The users manual is easy to understand.

The boilers come with a 2 year warranty and 5 years on the domestic heat exchanger.

Expect to pay near a £1000 for the boiler.

If you need any help do not hesitate to leave a message in my guest book.

Update:

A customer had this boiler for three years and never had it serviced, the boiler had a major fault which Vaillant said was "beyond economical repair", two days later they sent a new boiler and fitted it the same afternoon!
Perhaps I was wrong about the customer service.

There was a recall on these boiler a few years back, provided that it had been registered Vaillant would come out and replace the faulty part FOC.