Vokera Compact 25HE Combi Gas Boiler Reviews
Latest Reviews
★☆☆☆☆
“Would not recommend to anyone!”
Written on: 20/03/2013
We had a Vokera Compact 25 HE Combi fitted 3 years ago now and have had nothing but problems with it ever since. Every winter without fail it has broken down. Lost count of the amount of times we have had an engineer out now. It was serviced (by a Vokera engineer) last July and last week it broke down again - red light on and no heating or hot water. Had a Vokera enginner out last week who said it was electricial fault and replaced a part on the Wednesday. Friday morning it had gone... (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“problems”
Written on: 15/03/2013
had the same problems as everyone else reading the reviews would never buy another started breaking down 3 months after install still breaking down two years later time to replace with a different make (read more)
★★★★★
“My experienced gas fitter of some 35 years states the...”
Written on: 01/03/2013
My experienced gas fitter of some 35 years states the Vokera boilers are the best around I think some of the comments on here are suspect but will leave it there for now. (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“On and off often”
Written on: 30/01/2013
It was instaled in June 2011. Since then, the heating and the water goes cold very often. It has taken the engineer through Domestic and eneral sometimes 2 day before he can come, changes something and off he goes. and off goes the heating. Since ecember it as gone off 11 times including twice today. I would not recommend it to anyone. WHEN it was working it was fine.... (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“vokera compact 29”
Written on: 30/01/2013
We had this boiler for just over 2 years. In this time we have had the engineer out 5 times from Vokera and our own plumber 4 times. It has been nothing but a problem since it was installed. The after care service from Vokera was initially ok but after constant complaints to them about wanting it replaced they continued to keep repairing it. It is now over the 2 year warranty - just - and they now want nothing to do with it so we are in process of referring this to trading standards. DO NOT... (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“Vokeras make mony off spare parts.”
Written on: 30/01/2013
Search around the internet, this is not a plumbers favourite. Mine lasted just outside of warranty before the main PCB failed. Cost of a new PCB £285, Don't buy. (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“problems -vokera compact 28”
Written on: 26/01/2013
This boiler was installed and bought for me by a plumber and it has been nothing but trouble from the start. Constant loss of water pressure, with periodic breakdowns. Many occasions with no hot water or heat and lots of repair bills to boot. I am replacing it now with a worcester bosch and good riddance (read more)
★★★★☆
“25 he ”
Written on: 24/01/2013 by psychochild187
had it for over 6 years gets the house hot and the water . it did need a new NTC sensor and i have has some tubes cleaned out but in a house with building work and dust and concidering the price . i am very happy at the fact i can find spares for it at low prices. most people dont like them ,, but its easy to copmare to a expensive boilder but the exspensive ones cost more to fix also. (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“our brand new boiler breaks down twice in 13 months”
Written on: 11/12/2012
quality of the product and the service is very poor. The history of our boiler problems is: We bought our house in October 2011. At that time we commissioned a plumber to install a new central heating boiler as the existing boiler was very old. The make and model the plumber installed is" Manufacturer : Vokera Model : 25 EHE Serial Number 20000438G0250078 The manufacturers details are: Vokera Ireland West Court, Callan, Co. Kilkenny Tel : 056 7755057 When the boiler was initially... (read more)
Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
I work for Vokera though not in Ireland.
Your boiler doesn’t fire after being fitted. Every boiler is tested electronically and filled with water before it leaves the factory. No 100% guarantee of success when it gets to you but what more can we do?
A year later and the same engineer comes back to do a service and it breaks down, I'm not sure you can put this down to Vokera.
He then spent 2 hours and then a further 3 hours with some parts trying to fix the boiler and gave up suggesting you call us. I can strip that boiler to it's component parts and reassemble it completely in an hour, probably less. Ours are simple boilers.
The fact that he couldn't fix it after creating a problem suggests to me he may also have been the cause of the first fault initially as we find many installers do not read the instructions when wiring and burn out the board by connecting the thing incorrectly. Quite possibly we ate the cost of changing the board initially to get him out of jail and you warm; we do it all the time.
OK, you called us in Callan at 8:40 on the Monday and we said we could get someone there next day which doesn't seem too much a delay, within 18 working hours.
So you wait an hour and a half and ring back to chase the service manager (who is not sitting around waiting for one call) and he rings you within 30 minutes. Still, it is Tuesday and you've been without heat for three nights but remember, after the service, not after calling Vokera.
Pleasingly there was no problem with the physical installation but there was a problem with a wire - I wonder whether it was damaged in the service, think about it, someone takes the case off and fiddles around and all of a sudden there's a problem with a wire? Our engineer jury rigged a cable to give you heat which was good of him. If the boiler went to red light after running for a while I'd guess the service trapped the cable to the heat exchanger NTC which will cause this fault.
I am sorry you have had the problems and understand your frustration but I don't think you are fair in your comments, but then I am biased and I also have a lot of experience with boilers and customers.
How you can say the boiler is not value for money when it has been made to work by us, possibly in spite of initial problems, repairs by us that you've paid nothing for after a service by someone else seems illogical, particularly when both times we've attended it has been within 24 hours of being notified of the problem.
Anyway, I hope it's all OK now. We sell more boilers than anyone in Ireland because they're simple reliable and value for money, we have a reputation to protect and actually, reading of our response times and how we tried to help don't think we did too badly, unfortunately the engineers can't carry every single component of all the boilers we manufacture on the van.
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Raym.'s Comment
Written on: 02/01/2013
Fair comments all,we have your boiler in our home and we've not had a murmur from it after 3 years,my friend has just changed his Vok. after 13 years only because he got a government subsidised job for free.He has a Worcester and has 2 callouts in the first 6 weeks.I once worked with contact with Joe Public and a good % of them are a real pain,regards R.M. Sussex.
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★☆☆☆☆
“save your money”
Written on: 27/11/2012
Best point - This boiler lasted it's full 2 year warranty. It should have been recalled! No way is this a value for money combi boiler. The idea is to save years of energy - it cost me £495 for the plumber to replace two main parts - the main panel and the ignition section (sorry I do not know the correct terminology - I am not the plumber)!! He said it was a very poor combi boiler to break down needing two main components replaced after just over 2 years. The plumber was embarrassed to... (read more)
Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
I've found this site and will work through the reviews. I work for Vokera.
I break this boiler every week in training for fault finding courses, It is a tough, simple boiler I find. Parts do seem expensive to the user (and to me because I'm old) but they're on a par with other manufacturers and cheaper than many.
Yours would have cost I think £139 for the main board and the ignition board now comes on it. £250 max if you bought the parts separately.
We do put a MOV on the board to try to protect it against power surges which I believe is the cause of most PCB failures. Do you live in the country by any chance?
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See next 10 reviews
Showing 1 - 10 of 22 Reviews
★☆☆☆☆
“Lack of Vokera support”
Written on: 02/08/2012
We had a Vokera boiler installed less than 2 years ago. After 3 months the boiler stopped working at which the plumber repaired with a new part after just over 1 year the boiler started playing up again. Our plumber found it extremely difficult to get any support or guidence via Vokera technical and customer support services. We now had the choice of more expensive parts or change the boiler, we went for the latter I have now entered into corerespondence with Vokera who are very arrogant and... (read more)
Paul1970's Comment
Written on: 25/09/2012
Vokera is such a poor company, rip you off and do not fix the problem.
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Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
I work for Vokera and hope I don't seem arrogant.
What I'm going to say I will probably have to repeat several times as I work down this list but it's a fact.
Over 90% of the breakdowns within the guarantee period of ANY boiler manufacturers product is caused by a installation error or in economies made by the customer to reduce installation costs.
This was the case when I attended a training course with Vaillant over 30 years ago and has been repeated to me by every manufacturer ever since.
It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not it is a simple irrefutable fact.
Yes, that does seem like I'm blaming everyone else but think on this, we had a special deal with a major energy supplier who guaranteed installation and servicing would be done correctly, we gave them 10 years, would we do that if we had no faith in the product? No, we do not offer this to the public as we have no control over how our boilers are fitted or by whom.
We do offer a free 5 year warranty to the customer if the boiler is fitted by an approved engineer that has attended our courses. Had your installer?
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Johncbs's Comment
Written on: 27/01/2013
I am not an absolute lover of vokera, but in there defense, if the appliance is installed badly, it doesn't matter what you install! no boiler is going to be able to get over a bad installation.
Not saying that is the case in your situation as there is not enough detail in your report.
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★★★★☆
“Good so far.....”
Written on: 10/06/2012
I bought my repossessed property 2 years ago knowing the existing boiler was condemmed and needed replacing. Some local plumbers were recommended by a friend who had used them to install a new boiler in his property. The plumbers advised me that you can get instances of poor performing boilers regardless of the make/price from time to time (as with everything) and this Vokera combi boiler was in their experience of having fitted many boilers fairly robust and no more or less prone to... (read more)
Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
Glad you're happy so far. Keep the boiler serviced and the corrosion inhibitor topped up and you should be fine. The office will supply the number of a local approved engineer if you ring them.
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★★★★★
“excellent boier ”
Written on: 21/03/2012 by Akx47
i had vokera in my house for nearly 9years still running like new so i would recomend some time you do get bioler which let you you down but thats with any boiler i had vaillant boiler in another property 4years later started to have problems these matchine can brake dwn anytime (read more)
Paul1970's Response to Akx47's Review
Written on: 25/09/2012
Well one of the 1m plus made should work on adverge?
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Dmichaels's reply to Paul1970's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
So Paul1970, you believe that 999,999 of our other boilers don't work or do you mean you're right and 999,999 other people are wrong?
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Dmichaels's reply to Paul1970's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
So Paul1970, you believe that 999,999 of our other boilers don't work or do you mean you're right and 999,999 other people are wrong?
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Dmichaels's Response to Akx47's Review
Written on: 20/12/2012
Pleased to see this although I find Vaillants no problem either. The man who does the work is the important factor.
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★★★★★
“vokera 28 combi gas boiler”
Written on: 21/03/2012 by betty37
I must say i had this boiler installed 12 years ago and although i dont hear anything good said about them i cant complain as mine only started playing up a year ago so ive had a fantastic 11 years out of it only replacing it now (read more)
★★★★★
“what a fab boiler”
Written on: 08/03/2012 by jkwblue
wow always thought worcester was best boiler.. not anymore value for money and very reliabe vokera was recommded by mate was really sure when price saved me 500pound made think had boiler in 2months great (read more)
Dmichaels's Response to jkwblue's Review
Written on: 20/12/2012
Thank you but it's not just the boiler, well not all of it, the man who puts it in is the important part and making sure he is paid a fair price to do a full job is the other important factor. Finding the right installer is often the hard part.
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★☆☆☆☆
“Vokera combi”
Written on: 07/02/2012 by joel1 (1 review written)
combi breaks down their engineer turns up and within minutes diagnoses new fan plate to plate heat exchanger main heat exchager expansion vessel and burner and more small parts ! told un-economical repair .Asked if service superviser would call back asked if engineer who called to appliance would call me. Neither happened. asked independant gas safe local engineer to call he replaced one part the plate heat exchanger supplied and fitted for 165.00. The Vokera service dept and the engineer... (read more)
Dmichaels's Response to joel1's Review
Written on: 20/12/2012
Do you really think all those items would have failed at the same time without cause? what would the odds be?
Although I don't believe all the parts would be necessary and certainly not at the same time I can tell you the most common fault of plate to plate exchangers, the main heat exchanger and the expansion vessel failing is dirt in the system. We see it all the time.
Poor installation. Did you have the system cleaned before the boiler was installed?
Was it installed on an existing system.
If the answer to the first question is no and the second yes then that's the reason. We do not send boilers out with dirt in them.
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Vokera_Suck's Response to joel1's Review
Written on: 22/01/2013
Vokera boilers are rubbish-nothing to do with incorrect installation just cheap and nasty stuff.
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★☆☆☆☆
“Vokera Compact HE”
Written on: 13/01/2012
Please, please, please don't even consider this brand as a new boiler option. The boilers themselves are worse than useless, as are their engineers. You may get a 2year warranty, but trust me, that means nothing. In the first 2 years I had 17 call-outs (the first within 2 weeks of installation). These people blame everything and everyone rather than admit that their products are rubbish. I am presently taking court action against them. You may as well go outside to the nearest drain,... (read more)
★☆☆☆☆
“What a load of rubbish”
Written on: 31/10/2011
These boilers should not be sold my any reputable retail business as they are substandard and generally rubbish (read more)
Paul1970's Comment
Written on: 25/09/2012
100% true, zero back-up from the company
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Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
OK, lets have some information from you then Paul1970
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Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
I work for Vokera; why?
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★☆☆☆☆
“We have had a vokera combi 28 for 3 years and are...”
Written on: 11/11/2010
We have had a vokera combi 28 for 3 years and are still having the same problem since it was installed, the warrently was extended by 6 months but the problem is still the same. Boiler fails to come on and has to be reset as its shut down, when it does ignite it bangs like its got a gas build up, loads of engineers have looked at it but don't seem to be able to fix it for more than a few days at a time then it start playing up again. Am in dispute with Vokera, never again will I have a... (read more)
Guest's Comment
Written on: 16/07/2011
Have they been installed correctly??
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Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
3 gas boilers in 20 years but it's ours that are rubbish? A good engineer with LPG accreditation should be able to set them up.
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★☆☆☆☆
“This was preinstalled in my new flat, so I didn't get...”
Written on: 27/06/2010
This was preinstalled in my new flat, so I didn't get a choice. The longest it has run without a fault is 2 months, I'm now waiting for the fourth repair visit in 6 months. Each time it's the same, it loses pressure and shuts down, usually when I'm in the middle of a shower.
On the plus side, I'm saving money on my gas bill since I rarely get the chance to use any.
Even when it is working (for a week or so after being repaired) it never shuts up, hissing and gurgling in the middle of the...
(read more)
Andy Martin's Comment
Written on: 26/01/2011
Over the years, when I was gas registered, I have installed a lot of Vokera boilers without too many problems. Recently though, I had my Gas Safe installer replace an old existing boiler with a new Vokera Compact 29A, all seemed fine to start with, but then I had a call out to the boiler because of a similar problem to yours. I tried all kinds of things to remedy the fault, eventually, after spending many hours on it, I found that the boiler was leaking water internally and disposing of it via the condense drain. I had tried to get Vokera to look at the boiler but all they kept saying was that it was a problem with the pipework!
<br/>
<br/>Things finally came to a head when, in the middle of the cold weather Dec 2010, the boiler finally stopped working.
<br/>There were young children in the household and the lady of the house is expecting another.
<br/>I managed to contact our local Vokera rep. who said he would arrange an engineer to fix the boiler, lo and behold, no one turned up.
<br/>Somebody had to make a decision, so I arranged to replace the boiler.
<br/>
<br/>Everything is working fine now, but Vokera refuse to reimburse me for all the time spent trying to sort out what was their problem all along.
<br/>
<br/>THANKS VOKERA I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND ANOTHER OF YOUR BOILERS.
<br/>If you're looking for aftersales service FORGET IT you won't get it from them!
<br/>
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Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
Where are you Andy Martin?
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Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
I know your problems are solved by now but a tip for other people if their boiler is losing pressure.
Look outside for a small pipe that is the relief vent, it'll be on the other side of the wall to the boiler. See if there are any drips. If you're not sure put a piece of tissue paper up there.
Could be many things but that's where I'd start. Get a good engineer to check the system over.
If it is usually when you're in the shower then it'd be linked to hot water production and get the engineer to check for a blocked plate or the charge in the expansion vessel may need replacing.
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Showing 11 - 20 of 22 Reviews
★☆☆☆☆
“I would consider yourself lucky! My boiler runs for...”
Written on: 05/04/2010
I would consider yourself lucky! My boiler runs for only 2 weeks at a time in between engineer visits. Each time an engineer comes to fix a fault, I'm left with another one. At one point I was told I had a "bomb on the wall!"
Thankfully this boiler has a 2 year warranty. I figure its going to take me 2 years to resolve the problems. However, on the plus side, I'm losing an awful lot of weight by constantly running up and down stairs to try and obtain heat!
My advice on purchasing a...
(read more)
Dmichaels's Comment
Written on: 20/12/2012
I work for Vokera. If you truly had a bomb on the wall our engineer is compelled by law to shut it off. Any registered engineer is. Don't think it's the boiler, got to say it.
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Abbiegeorgina's Comment
Written on: 03/03/2013
I have been reading all the reviews as i need a new boiler and was advised by help link to purchase a vokera, but on reading all the reviews i think i will go with another make.
Why do u keep blaming everyone else for the problems they have commented on regarding these boilers?
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★☆☆☆☆
“Had the boiler for 2 years & it has broken approx 5...”
Written on: 02/12/2009
Had the boiler for 2 years & it has broken approx 5 times now leaving us with no heating or hot water... Is useless.... Vokera charge a bomb to come out & fix it too (not like I've got them to at £160) ... Would never have picked this boiler if I'd have known how many problems we'd have. (read more)
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Johncbs's Comment
Written on: 27/01/2013
I am a heating specialist, pressure loss will occur regardless of the make of boiler, and they will all shut off at low pressure, resulting in a periodic shut down! sounds like its your heating engineer thats your weakest link.
PS the worcester will do the same.
Also this is a review for the "VOKERA Compact A boiler", the compact 28 is a totally different design, by the way.