The Vaillant Podcast

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, we’re celebrating the plumbing and heating industry with some amazing installer stories.

Mike Lacey is joined in the studio by Todd Glister, co-host of the Heating & Plumbing Show on Fix Radio – sponsored by Vaillant – for a chinwag about some weird and wonderful tales from installers and colleagues.

The pair spill the beans about embarrassing rookie mistakes, youthful mishaps and getting up to mischief on the job.

Plus, there’s amusing animal encounters and a tribute to those customers who go the extra mile.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch

Want to know more?

Follow Todd on Instagram, X (Twitter) and Facebook

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub

Got a plumbing story you’d like to share? Get in touch on X (Twitter), Instagram or Facebook, or email us at [email protected]

Check out our YouTube channel

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

Tell us what you think about The Vaillant Podcast on our socials or email us at [email protected]

It’s a new year and a new start – so in this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, we’re talking about business planning.

How can installer businesses get organised and put plans in place to help them take on 2024 in the best possible shape?

Joining host Mark Wilkins is Lee Tilbury of Hampshire-based Neater Heat, who brings some brilliant business planning advice to the show.

They chat about managing increased workloads during the winter months, how using technology helps Lee to keep on top of tax, and look ahead to new legislation that’s affecting the industry this year and beyond.

Plus, Lee explains why it’s vital to get out to trade shows and reveals his favourite Vaillant products.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch

Want to know more?

We always recommend talking to your accountant for financial advice about the tax issues discussed in this episode.

Find out more about MCS, the Future Homes Standard and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme

Check out the trade shows coming up in 2024: PHEX, Homebuilding & Renovating Show, Fully Charged Live and InstallerSHOW

Discover the aroTHERM plus heat pump and the ecoFIT pure combi boiler

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub

Follow Vaillant on X (Twitter), Instagram or Facebook

Check out our YouTube channel

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

Tell us what you think about The Vaillant Podcast on our socials or email us at [email protected]

The festive season is also the heating season – and for many installers, working at Christmas is just part of the job.

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, we’re donning our Santa hats and pulling crackers for a Christmas special.

Joining ho-ho-host Mark Wilkins are three wise men: Essex-based gas engineer (and qualified pilot) Shoaib Awan of The Gas Expert Ltd, and Luke Sheppard and Simon Murray of Surrey-based Optimus Heating – a winner of Vaillant’s Heat Pump Challenge.

They discuss working on Christmas Day, navigating the busiest period for heating and plumbing installers, and maintaining a good work-life balance over the party season.

Plus, there’s chat about favourite festive memories, top Yuletide tunes and the best thing about a Christmas dinner.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch

Want to know more?

Follow The Gas Expert Ltd and Optimus Heating on Instagram

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub

Follow Vaillant on X (Twitter), Instagram or Facebook

Check out our YouTube channel

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

Tell us what you think about The Vaillant Podcast on our socials or email us at [email protected]

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, Mike Lacey is at the helm for the first time. He’s joined by Essex-based installer and social media star Ian Briggs of IRB Heating, who gives us his thoughts about the brand new ecoTEC plus boiler.

Ian tells us what it’s like to install and set up, how it improves on the previous ecoTEC plus range, and what feature he likes the most.

Also in the studio is Vaillant Technical Development Officer Piers Cooper, who’s been involved in training Vaillant’s army of service engineers on the new ecoTEC plus, as well as helping with installer training. 

He explains more about what our engineers like about the new boiler and the features that make servicing easier.

Plus, there’s chat about connectivity, getting active on social media, and Ian’s Vaillant-branded socks.

Our new ecoTEC plus is our first product range, incorporating new technology, which has been independently certified to operate with up to 20% hydrogen and other blended gas mixtures, preparing the product should the UK Government decide that these fuels have a role to play in our future energy mix.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch



Want to know more?

Learn more about the remastered ecoTEC plus boiler

Discover the myVAILLANT connect internet gateway

Find out about the sensoROOM wireless thermostat

Monitor your customers’ heating systems with myVAILLANT Pro

Sign up for online and in-person training with The Vaillant Academy

Login to your Advance account to grab yourself some Vaillant merchandise from our catalogue

Follow Ian on Instagram, X (Twitter) and Facebook

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub

Follow us on X (Twitter), Instagram or Facebook, and check out our YouTube channel

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, Mark Wilkins is joined by Paul Honeyman, Vaillant’s Head of Product Management in the UK, and Mike Lacey, Vaillant’s Head of Digital Technology, to take a deep dive into the brand new ecoTEC plus boiler, which launched in June.

Our new ecoTEC plus is our first product range, incorporating new technology, which has been independently certified to operate with up to 20% hydrogen and other blended gas mixtures, preparing the product should the UK Government decide that these fuels have a role to play in our future energy mix.Paul talks about the extensive research and development that went into the new boiler and explains what’s changed compared with the original and why. 

He also reveals some of the hidden functions and features that you may not be aware of, and tackles a few technical installation queries.

And Mike goes into more detail about the connectivity aspect of the ecoTEC plus and Vaillant’s new internet-enabled products. 

He discusses why it’s simpler than ever to set up a connected Vaillant heating system, why data is key, and what the future holds for smart home heating.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch

Want to know more?

Learn more about the remastered ecoTEC plus boiler

See the technical specifications and installation manuals for the new ecoTEC plus models

Discover the myVAILLANT connect internet gateway

Solving connectivity issues with myVAILLANT connect

Find out about the sensoROOM wireless thermostat

Monitor your customers’ heating systems with myVAILLANT Pro

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub

Follow us on X (Twitter), Instagram or Facebook , and check out our YouTube channel

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, we’re focusing on how Vaillant is leading the way in tackling the heat pump skills gap with Aspire – a brand new training journey that’s designed to give gas installers the knowledge they need to make the transition to low carbon heating. 

Host Mark Wilkins is joined by Laura Needham, Vaillant’s Head of Training, to reveal what’s covered in the learning pathway, the online and hands-on training options available and the rewards awaiting installers who complete the programme.

And co-host Simon Whysall pops in to recap the key takeaways from the first three episodes of our mini-series.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch



Want to know more about heat pump training?

Learn more about Aspire

See more about our survey of installers’ attitudes to heat pump training

Read more about the Heat Training Grant (England only)

Find out more about Vaillant’s industry-leading online and in-person training options

Discover Vaillant’s range of heat pumps

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, we’re taking a dive into the world of connectivity and smart heating. 

To demystify the concept, Simon Whysall caught up with Mike Lacey, Vaillant’s Head of Digital Technology, for a live chat in front of an installer audience on our stand at InstallerSHOW in Birmingham in June. 

Simon and Mike explain how smart home technology has lots of benefits for installers and homeowners. They talk about how Vaillant is putting connectivity at the heart of our heating systems with the remastered ecoTEC plus boiler and the new myVAILLANT connect gateway. And they field a few audience questions, too.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch



Want to know more?

Discover Vaillant’s range of smart home-ready products:

The remastered ecoTEC plus boiler

The new myVAILLANT connect internet gateway

The new sensoROOM wireless thermostat

Monitor your customers’ heating systems with myVAILLANT Pro

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

In this episode of The Vaillant Podcast, we’re continuing our conversation about the heat pump skills gap and what we’re doing as a manufacturer to support installers who want to retrain and diversify into low carbon heating.

Joining host Mark Wilkins is Victoria Matthews, Vaillant’s External Affairs and Policy Manager, to discuss the results of our recent survey, which revealed what our loyal installers really think about upskilling in heat pumps.

How many gas installers are interested in taking up heat pump training, and why? What are the barriers stopping them from doing so? And what support do they need?

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch

Want to know more?

See more about our survey and read the full report

Read more about the Heat Training Grant (England only)

Learn more about Aspire, our brand-new heat pump training pathway

Find out more about Vaillant’s industry-leading online and in-person training options

Discover Vaillant’s range of heat pumps

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook

About The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives. From mental health to marketing, and from fitness to finances, installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing.

In the first episode of a four-part series about the heat pump skills gap, we’re discussing why the UK urgently needs to train more heat pump installers and what we’re doing as a manufacturer to support installers who want to diversify.

The UK government has set a target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028 as part of the drive to decarbonise home heating, so training the nation’s gas installers in low carbon technologies is a top priority for the industry.

Vaillant estimates that we need to upskill 100,000 installers to hit the government’s target. But with only 1,500 accredited heat pump installers in the UK right now, how do we bridge this skills gap within the next five years?

In this episode, host Simon Whysall is joined by Mark Wilkins, Vaillant’s Technology and Training Director, to look at the reasons why we have so few heat pump installers, how to boost the take-up of low carbon technologies among homeowners, and the roles of the government and the heating industry in supporting installers to retrain in renewables.

Produced by Ed Adams, First Touch

Want to know more?

Read more about the Heat Training Grant 

Learn more about the Boiler Upgrade Scheme  

Find out more about Vaillant's industry-leading online and in-person training options

Discover Vaillant’s range of heat pumps

For industry hot topics, stories and more about how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit our In The Know installer hub and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook

Listen to more episodes of The Vaillant Podcast

Future Talent: A conversation with Mark Wilkins, Neil Jones, Emma Bohan, and Sean Davidson

The Vaillant Podcast is a heating industry podcast designed to support installers with every aspect of their working lives: from mental health to marketing, fitness to finances; installers can tune in to learn how to enhance their earnings, learning and wellbeing. 

Having enough trained heating engineers is essential to the long-term success of the plumbing and heating industry and will play a huge part in achieving the Government’s target to decarbonise the nation’s homes. But how can we attract future talent and ensure the industry in on track to achieve targets of 600k heat pump installs per year? 

The skills gap is much talked about, so what does the journey for new talent keen to join the industry look like? This episode will look at what apprenticeships can offer those starting out; how they work, and how have apprenticeships evolved to include low carbon technologies? We’ll also look at what installers thinking of taking on an apprentice need to consider and what support is available.  

Joining host Mark Wilkins on this episode of The Vaillant Podcast are Neil Jones, Emma Bohan and Sean Davidson.

Neil Jones is the Senior Product Manager at the Institute for Apprentices and Technical Education, an employer led organisation that supports technical education and apprenticeships in the United Kingdom.

Emma Bohan is the General Manager at IMS Heat Pumps, a company with over 25 years’ experience and one of the leading Ground & Air Source Heat Pump installation experts in the UK. 

And finally, Sean Davidson, one of seven apprentices currently employed by IMS.

Episode links and resources

For more information and courses from the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education (IFATE), visit: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/

For advice on the online and in-person training options from Vaillant, visit: https://www.vaillant.co.uk/for-installers/training/

For employers looking to hire an apprentice or, for people looking to become an apprentice, visit: https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/#

To find an apprenticeship, visit: https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship

To listen to other episodes of both The Vaillant Podcast and the Technical Series visit: www.buzzsprout.com/840097

For more information on how Vaillant is proudly supporting installers, please visit www.vaillant.co.uk/businesssupport and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.