Vaillant Combi Gas Boiler 837 EcoTEC Plus

All it takes to stop my Vaillant working is a microscopic bit of dirt in the system, which eventually blocks the PRV and that's that. An engineer has to be called to fix the problem. Power flushing the system does not help, as it cannot remove every last milligram of dirt.

Not a boiler I would recommend.

I purchased this boiler 4.5 years ago in the belief that it was a quality boiler. It's been a very expensive mistake. Without any doubt this boiler has been the least reliable boiler I have ever had. Not only that but Vaillant's customer service is appallingly unhelpful. They have a couldn't care less attitude and even a letter to their Managing Director went unanswered. I have had nothing but trouble with this boiler through out it's life. AS I write I am awaiting yet another visit from my heating engineer to try and fix the F75 fault it currently shows. I have a bucket in place to catch the leaks. My advice is do not under any circumstances buy a Vaillant boiler. They take your money then abandon you. If I could give it NIl stars it would be too many.

We had a Vaillant EcoTec Installed in 2008. The boiler has failed frequently since then and our only experience of Vaillanr customer service was so poor that we turned to an independent engineer who has serviced since then. Now the boiler is reporting 'fan failure' and the cost will apparantly amount to about £400.

My advice to others is NEVER NEVER NEVER risk buying from this outfit in terms of product reliability or customer service. You won't get either from Vaillant. So much for German engineering!

I thought by installing a good well known boiler that my heating problems would be over, but I have had this boiler for only a year and the controls are so complicated that I have had to call in my Gas fitter 3 times. At this moment in time I have had no heating for a week as we changed the heating programme and it will not work at all. I have had enough and now relying on fan heaters to keep warm

Repaired under warranty twice in two years. Boiler has failed again after 2 years 3 months with same fault and Vaillant refuse to recognise that they have a problem even though they now do a F75 pressure switch kit to attempt to rectify a design fault.

Avoid as very unreliable.

Boiler was fitted in Feb 11 and in April 12 first the heating stopped- which local plumber fixed within the hour and then two days later hot water stopped and water started dripping- apparently due to faulty diverter valve. At this point I rang Vaillant on their 24 Hour emergency hotline (just before 9am). I was quickly disabused of the idea that my boiler would be fixed within 24 hours- all engineers were busy all day. I could be booked in for the following day -the engineer would ring me before 8.30am to confirm the time. Am I the only person with a boiler and a job? I had taken the day off to try and sort this, this meant I had to have another day off to sit in and wait- two days holiday lost. Because it was under guarantee I could't get any one else to come and do it and my local plumber said it would take two days to get the parts from Vaillant in any case

Being a grumpy old woman who rails aginst systems I eventually managed to get Vaillant to put me on a list for cancellations and the engineer did turn up on the first day- but I am certain that if i hadn't complained this wouldn't have happened- on the initial call I was told that cancellations were offered out on a first come first served basis so there was little chance of anyone coming out that day.

Moral: the squeaky wheel gets the grease but a 24 hour emergency service would probably be better provided by a local network than a national firm- if gas safe engineers can service why can't they offer emergency repair under guarantee.

Hello

My boiler was installed on the 19/11/2008 and from the start the heating was erratic, would not respond to controls or failed completely and that was for all 3 winters, the water had always worked correctly but last week the heating failed and the installer could not fix and today the water has failed, so rather than repair and breakdown again I am considering scrapping this very expensive piece of scrap metal, I cannot call it a boiler as that would simply be lying.

1/ Breaking down with regularity.

2/ The design is flawed in many areas.

3/ The components are cheap and not what you would expect for German Engineering and the price paid.

4/ The construction again is on the cheap but also unsafe, exposed electrical wires, many plastic parts that clearly should be metal and many other poor areas but the greatest error which has also been mentioned in the 831 review and Vaillant have been informed many times of this fault and they refuse to modify, high up at the back in the boiler there are 2 rubber pipes attached to copper piping by 4 crimping clips, these are cheap and used for speed of boiler assembly, required is all copper re the 831 review or some form of jubilee clip as the crimping clips do not apply a uniform pressure and at 2 points none at all, and bear in mind we have high temperature, high pressure so expansion and contraction movement all the time and these rubber pipes give way at the join eventually and that damages electrical parts especially the main circuit board as the water explodes and showers everything inside the boiler.

Now if anyone recommends a vaillant no matter which model or how qualified, say no as this has been my worst purchase ever, I have wasted so much time and money, do not waste yours.

Finally Vaillant customer service does not exist, even when the boiler was under guarantee they informed me the installer was responsible for the guarantee work.