Braemar Ecostar 5 Star Ducted Gas TQ Series

Absolute unprofessional customer service – I just had a horrific unprofessional experience with one of their customer service staff not listening to my inquiries properly regarding the warranty on my heater, constantly interupting me and threating to end the call with an aggressive raised tone and also refusing to put me through to a supervisor. I did not have my questions answered and… Read more

being told the warranty was expired back in April whereas the unit was installed in July so supposedly the warranty should also end in a July month. As for the quality of their repairs, the unit started showing the same symptoms of Ignition issues only after a year of use. To be fair the unit worked a few years within warranty period with minimal usage which probably deserves a bit more than 1 star however I wouldn't have even bothered purchasing it knowing I would be treated in such disrespectful manner by their team later on.

THIS UNIT CANNOT HANDLE COLD WEATHER!!!! – Had my TQ520 heating system installed new into my fully insulated house in April 2017. Every winter since installation, when the morning temperature outside is below 10, this unit will start and stop intermittently (in approx 3 minute cycles) until the house temp reaches 15.....only then does it keep running. So, consequently, the house is cold… Read more

for most of the day. We set the thermostat for 17 daytime temp but the heater has trouble even achieving this . This has been the situation every year since installation , and the filter is checked and cleaned very regularly.

My local service agent, "Precision Heating" in Vic has been called many times(10 times in 5 years, not including regular servicing) and tried many fixes but still can't solve the problem.

Tried calling Seeley but they clearly don't care, much less return you calls....they are of absolutely no assistance at all and do not support their product.

Best advice is .... don't install one of these pathetic excuses for a central heating system.

Totally unbiased owner review – As we all know, the majority of reviews posted are negative, and rarely do happy users take the time to post feedback. This is because our dissapointment and feeling hard done by causes the emotions that make us want to vent and who better than at those who we feel have done us bad. So this is my totally honest and unbiased review. After… Read more

reviewing all brands, we settled on this Braemar TQM 530N based on a thorough comparison of features, energy ratings, surveys and independant installers recommendation. I've waited two months before writing so as to test all the features and operation of the unit. This unit is replacing a Rinnai He30i which served us well for 22 years. This is an in roof mounted unit so out of the weather. It is quite small in comparison to the old Rinnai but the performance and quietness of 20+ years of technical improvements are obvious as soon as it is turned on. The LCD wall controller is clear and I found easy to operate in both manual and program modes. We have 4 zones and the wall controller allows you to rename each zone so you can select each or all zones. The Common Area is on all the time which is our Kitchen + Meals + Rumpus and the Zoning allows us to add Bed Bathroom 1+2, Bed Bathroom 3+4, Formal Lounge + Study so we're not heating the whole house every time the unit is on. The cost to zone is not expensive and I would suggest mandatory even if you only have one zone to add to the common area like bed rooms to take the chill off before you retire for the night. The cost saving in using less gas more than pay for the zoning which are just placed in the existing duct work. A terrific feature of this unit is the ability to vary the heater output fan speed as more zones are activated so the areas are heated quickly, meaning if only the common area is activated the fan isn't operating at hurricane speed...lol This variable fan speed wasn't available on the old Rinnai which was set at max regardless of zones. The installer gave us a run through the controllers operation to setting it up to come on early mornings when the temp had dropped inside to 16°C (outside -1°C) heating up to 21°C and after just over 2 months of Victoria's start to winter the unit has functioned as it should, perfectly. It maintains a set temperature beautifully and the fan can't be heard as it heats the areas. Other reasons we chose Braemar were, the unit doesn't require a drain as there is no condensation to worry about, the length of warranty and easy availability of more Braemar technicians locally should we need help, compared to other manufacturers whose offices are far away and bookings (on line) for help are a minimum wait of 10+ days whilst they group area call outs together for the technician, pity the consumer in winter with no heater. In summary the unit performs as expected and we are very happy with its quietness and variable fan speed. Given this unit is the same 5star energy rating as our old unit I'd expect similar gas usage but as that depends on how we operate the zones hard to be 100% accurate.

Solid unit, good interface – Last year we got ripped off by a local plumber and we wasted money and got put through poor service. With their work severely underperforming we got quotes from more tradesmen, and in that process we were advised that companies like Scandia Air Conditioning, are specialist AC/Heater technicians, and that the issues of other people here for this… Read more

line of heaters potentially comes from instances where a general plumber or electrician has made the installation, and not done the full process that manufacturers like Breamar would recommend.

We obtained a quote from Scandia and they were competitive and even had availability to replace the full unit in less than a week. They organised an electrician to come out too, so they could link up the existing AC unit and confirm the pre-existing zones into the system.

The heating we have now isn't perfect, but I do know that this is due to the nature of the vents and infrastructure in the roof, and not the heating unit itself.

I would say that the remote interface for the system could have more time options, as four brackets through the day is really not enough for the general pattern of movements we have as a family.

The heating unit and the specialist technicians who installed the device, are great, and I'd recommend them as an A-grade solution.

MagIQtouch control unit - needs technician when change batteries – When it works the gas furnace is wonderful BUT every 2 years you have to replace batteries in control unit leading to technician call out at $300+ to reconnect wireless controller to gas furnace The provider user manual doesn’t match installed product Reminds me of the American engineering in American cars My previous Brivis unit worked for 31 without a service call Show details

Four breakdowns under warranty in 12 months – We have been renting a house while we build a new place, and one of these heaters was installed new not long before we moved in. When it's working it heats well, although it is noisy. However it has failed four times in 12 months, and has had to have a new gas valve and two new igniters. All done under warranty, and service was fine, but the large number of negative reviews suggests that it may not be the most reliable system out there. Show details

Do not waste your money – Only ELEVEN months old, and twice the Thermister has faulted. No explanation as to why. Was told it was only a small part, so they just replace it. But will they pay my electricity bill in the meantime, or heat my house for me until they can spare 10 minutes to fix this? which is what it took in January. Now two more days to wait in freezing temps, with inside temp at 9. Regret this purchase. Would NEVER recommend this ever, to anyone.  Show details

New Braemar Ducted Heater- Model TQS523N is RUBBISH – Had BRAND NEW Braemar Heater(TQS523N) installed 24/09/20. Worked for a few weeks then sent the triangular warning sign and heat was cut off. Weather Freezing. Had to wait for service call for 4 days . Repair man came for minutes and said it was fixed. Has broken down again, and when rang for assistance, got told they couldn't see us for 5 days.… Read more

Again FREEZING WEATHER. So I warn anybody looking for a new ducted heater...Do not buy this or any other braemar product. I repeat this was a BRAND NEW heater Product.

Given up – We have had unit for 5 years and every year it has required repair. Just had a new fan unit replaced 2 weeks ago and now has failed aagain. We always get fault code 2. I don't want to spend any more money on this brand. I am going to bite the bullett and have it replaced. We had a Vulcan heater that was still going strong after 20 years and we… Read more

only replaced it thinking we were getting a better fuel efficient unit. If we did save any money on fuel it has gone into paying for repairs.

More than happy – Even after reading the reviews on this series of units, for some reason we went ahead and installed a TQM516 after our old unit failed. It was installed by a well known company and we couldn’t be happier with it. It Is actually quieter than our old unit on flat out and even so much better having the quiet mode set during the night. Coming towards the end of winter and it hasn’t missed a beat yet. Show details

Cost me 1200 to fix the senses – I ran out of warranty just 2 months ago and now have to spend 1200 to fix the issue. The product was purchased for 3500. I'm simply frustrated. Not happy Show details

This unit is crab and also warranty service. Feel sorry for my money and time. Strongly don’t recommend to any one – Every year it has an issue and you have to wait for their technicians at least one to two weeks to fix it. This year it stared noisy and called to fix it, waited almost one week and their technician came and told me he can’t fix because he doesn’t have the parts. Called the service centre again and they told me they ordered the parts and will call… Read more

me once the parts arrived. I don’t understand how they sell the goods that they don’t have the parts. I have young children and in this freezing temperature we don’t have heating. I strongly don’t recommend this product or this company to anyone. Their good is headache as well their service.

Keep the house warm efficiently – Replaced a broken Brivis (10 years old) with a smaller TQ516 in Feb 2020. At first I was a little concerned it’s too small but Coldflow assured me it’s sufficient for my house. The heater has been running very well and warm up the house reasonably quickly. I still need to find ways to verify if it’s as energy efficient as it claimed. So far my… Read more

gas bill seemed to be “a bit lower than last year” same period.

The MagicQTouch controller is easy to use and easy to program. Only drawback is that you can only have 4 different settings in a day. Brivis allows you to have more, e.g. (1) turn on at 6am, (2) turn off at 10am, (3) turn on at 4pm, (4) lower the temperature at 10pm, (5) turn it off at 12am.

Worst purchase ever – I have had this heater for 14 months with ongoing issues. The heater will not stay on for more than 5 mins before turning off. I have had the service tech out 4 times and they still have not been able to resolve the issue. They tried to blame the install but I have change everything they ask for and still the heater has issues. I’m concerned that… Read more

when the warranty runs out I’ll buy stuck with a lemon. Clearly they have fundamental issues with this product. Has anyone had any success in getting their money back?

Perfect unit to keep your house warm – We purchased a two year old house with this unit. As the days got colder we started to use it. At first it was noisey. I turned the fan speed down which made the unit overheat. Turns out the previous owners did not clean the filter and it was clogged which is why it was noisey. The repair agent told us to take the filter out because it was dirty… Read more

and restricting the air.

Now we have a very warm and quiet house. At first, I thought there was something wrong because the house was warm but the machine was quiet.

Very disappointing! – Q5X20 installed in July 2018. After a couple of adjustments with zoning the system worked fantastically. After only three weeks there was a malfunction (which has not shown up as an error on the system) and the unit was no longer able to heat my small, split level lounge area. Several attendances by the installer who has made changes to the… Read more

ducting and also by Seeley's Service Manager who states there is nothing wrong with the unit. Can no longer achieve desired temperature in the lounge whereas previously it could heat to 24 degrees. The system is very noisy and runs for hours trying to achieve a 3 degree increase in temperature of the room. Even though the unit had worked well for a short period, I'm now told that I can't expect to heat this zone as well as the rest of the house due to the split level - go figure! This has been a huge waste of money for me plus the cost of needing to run additional heating to keep warm. I will move house before spending another winter here.

Perfect choice for us – Old weatherboard 3 bedrooms with open plan lounge kitchen. 5 outlets. Very quiet, heats up the house quickly and efficiently. I got it from Coldflow. We are very happy with it. Show details ·  1

Perfect – Just had my ducted heater installed yesterday by Joel from Coldflow heating and cooling. He did an awesome job and the unit works perfectly. Except for the sound of air getting sucked into the inlet we hardly notice the unit on at all. Very happy with the choice and price. Show details ·  1

very noisy under the unit – I would never buy another Braemar anything. Technician tried everything to quieten it down but could not. Seems to be harmonics causing it. Old 15 year old unit was much quieter. DOnt know how efficient it is yet but will be even more upset if its more expensive to run than old unit. Only bought this one because of the efficiency rating.  Show details

Piece of crap , waste of money – I bought this to replace my 15 year old vulcan ducted heater which was a 2 star rating. This braemer unit is a 5 and half star rating , so it should use less gas . My bills were coming $250 more a quarter instead of being less on my old heater . I rang braemer to tell them and they said they have to charge me for call out fee cause the heater is… Read more

working . I wish i didnt change my old vulcan heater as it was still working . But i thought i could lower my gas bill , worse decision i ever made , there customer service are very rude , plus my neighbours keep complaing that its too noisy and i got a notice from the council , i put it on quiet mode and my bill came even higher , i wish i can throw this piece of crap heater in the tip were it belongs

Too noisy – Unit is very much noisy. Breamer technician said he cannot fix this any more. My old unit wasn’t making any noise compared to this new unit. I have gotthis unit installed from Effficient pure plumbing. And they have installed the fan incorrectly in the unit. After calling breamer technician issue is still there. Would not recommend such a unit after spending so much.  Show details

Buy a Brivis! – We were talked into this unit to replace a 22 year old Brivis Buffalo 120, which failed after a power surge. Installed 12 months ago, so we’ve just received our first gas bill. Nearly had a heart attack! Be warned- the 5 star rating and claims of saving you $353 a year on gas are not true. Our 22 year old Brivis was more gas efficient than this… Read more

Braemar unit. Our gas usage has increased 25%, with no other changes. Retailer refuses to help, and it has been hard dealing with Braemar to get answers. I regret buying this unit, especially after reading the false claims of efficiency!

Don't waste your time and money! – Have had nothing but trouble with this unit since it was installed in April. We had 5 warranty repairs within the first few weeks and months and now this winter the problems have started again with the same error messages the assured us had been fixed. We got a lemon of a unit and I regret buying a Braemar, would never buy another one again!! Hate to think what I will be paying once the warranty is over!  Show details

Heating: OK. Controller: Terrible – The heater unit works well, although is a little noisy - mainly because the installer installed it right under our bedroom :( But heat-wise it does a good job. The MagiQtouch, however... there is nothing magical about it. There is nothing user-friendly about it. And there is certainly nothing sophisticated about it. It is basically a 1980s… Read more

user interface - and a poor one at that. Flexibility is not in the dictionary of their software designers. The program mode offers you two times to turn on and off your heater. The max fan speed is a complicated aggregation of three different settings and is totally non-intuituve. And controlling zones is extremely inflexible. And sadly, because Braemar refuse to follow any form of industry standards, replacing it with a smart thermostat like a Nest or Ecobee is near impossible. I wish I had researched the controller before spending so much money on this. I was told it was a better heater than the Brivis, but I now wish I had bought the latter. At least I could have had a decent controller...

Braemar........would not recommend – Had this unit installed 14 months ago. Broken down three times with the same problem. Broken down for a fourth time now and service agent unable to come out and look at it for 12 days, in the middle of winter in Victoria. Would definitely not reccomend this product. Very unhappy.  Show details