Reasonable Pricing? New Boiler and Heating Controls Upgrade

Demosthenes

As the title says - any opinions on the quote in the image?

Lenar3556

Ya, seems ok.

If it were me I would go for a Grant Vortex rather than Firebird Envirogreen, but that’s a personal preference. There would be very little in the price.

Demosthenes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121317582#Comment_121317582

Any particular reason for the Grant Vortex preference? Longer warranty? The firebird models seem to have better efficiency on paper.

My current setup is a system boiler with the expansion vessel beside it outside, so I am a little confused as to why they have opted to go with a more conventional Heatpac model and move the expansion vessel indoors. I asked about this and using a systempac boiler instead but they just said they wouldn't recommend them.

Lenar3556

The firebird uses a rather unconventional down firing arrangement and there was at a time a significant issue of sooting up. Cleaning it out was a big challenge as some parts of the combustion chamber and flueway was inaccessible. The solution in many cases was to over air the burner a little, but this impacted efficiency.

In fairness to firebird, they have made modifications and changed the burner to incorporate a post purge system which I gather has significantly improved the situation.

Firebird now use an Elco burner, and while there is nothing wrong with it, it’s less less common and parts may not be quite as readily available as Riello which Grant use and installers will be very familiar with.

Overall I would rate the vortex as a better buy.

System boilers are fine, but often the expansion vessel is undersized, and a secondary expansion vessel is required anyway. Onboard expansion tends to be more labour intensive and expensive to service/replace, so in many cases an independent expansion vessel is simply a better job.

You have to take the published efficiency figures of either boiler with a pinch of salt. There are many variables including temperature, burner settings and the achievable flow and return differential temp which impacts the extent at which the boiler can condense. This is true of both firebird and Grant and there is little or no real world efficiency difference.

Calahonda52

OP, Lenar is on the money here under all headings.

I concur with the Grant over FB anyway

Price looks okay

Wearb

I also agree with Lenar.

I would like to add that overairing - besides inefficiency- is very detrimental to boilers and to that boiler in particular. It results in damage to the baffles and heat exchanger.

I have numerous boilers of both types on my books and with all condensing boilers, I strongly advise annual service.

Because of the acidity of the condensate, they can start to rust very quickly if problems not quickly spotted.

My last two paragraphs are aimed at HE boiler owners in general rather than this thread in particular.