New Boiler Ratings: Which brand makes the best boilers?
Boiler Reliability Rankings
The only provider of impartial reliability ratings for boiler brands, based on homeowner surveys, is Consumer Reports. They provided their most recent rankings in 2023.
Unfortunately, these rankings aren’t very useful for homeowners in the Lower Mainland. The brands that got 5/5 reliability ratings (Burnham, Crown, New Yorker, U.S. Boiler Company, and Lennox) are mostly focused on 80-85% efficient boilers which are not available in BC, since 90% is now the minimum standard.
The three brands that are focused on high efficiency combination boilers (Lochinvar, Viessman, and Triangle Tube) received weaker ratings, but these manufacturers make more sophisticated systems designed for larger homes, so that’s not surprising.
Some of the most popular brands in BC, such as Navien, Super Hot, Rinnai, and IBC, are not listed. The most popular brands of boilers in BC are mostly made in Canada, Japan, or Europe, whereas most of the brands in the Consumer Reports survey are based in the USA.
Our Boilers
Navien is the main brand of boiler we install. We have found them to be reliable in general. We have found most of them have 0 breakdowns within the first 5 years and most still have 0-2 breakdowns after 10 years.
These breakdown numbers only refer to the boiler itself. They do not include failure of the water side components (such as zone valves, external pumps, expansion tanks, etc.) or thermostat problems. These factors will depend upon your home’s specific system.
We also install Triangle Tube, mainly for larger homes with high heating demands.
Efficiency, Noise, and Other Factors
With official AHRI efficiency ratings of 95%, and steady-state efficiencies of up to 98%, you can’t do much better than the Navien and Triangle Tube boilers we install. They can also modulate down to as low as 17.5-20% of their maximum capacity, another figure that’s hard to beat. All the boilers we install are also among the quietest boilers you can find in their classes.
The Importance of a Quality Installation
The US EPA has found that improper installations of heating and air conditioning equipment can reduce efficiency by up to 30%. Consumer Reports once found that, although the reliability of the furnaces made by different brands varied by less than 25%, using a general contractor as opposed to a heating contractor increased breakdowns by more than 50%.
Although these figures are for furnaces and air conditioners, due to the higher complexity of boiler systems we believe that a quality installation can only be even more important.
At Good Guys, our regular training sessions ensure our installers have the knowledge to perform top quality installations. We allow them to spend the time necessary to design, install, and set up your system for optimal performance.
To schedule a free quote on a new boiler, call 604 GOOD GUY (604 466 3489) or use our online form.
Learn more about your new boiler options on our boilers page.
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