Brivis Buffalo BX Series

Biggest Piece of crap Sold – Unreliable Crap, need to set fire to this boat anchor and post on youtube, not even 6 years old and motor has failed Time for VCAT to act Next not fit for purpose Show details

Brivis Bx 526 – Original one gave 20+ years service , new one 3 years old , worked first year , needed service tech $ 250 second year , this year needs a service tech again . Rubbish do not buy one . Show details

Not like the old buffalo – The heater blows cold air into the house for 85 seconds after the burners switch off. I have had technicians out and they say it’s normal. A bit of a waste to blow cold air when you try and heat the house. Show details

All good! – Just thought - in case it helps anybody - I would offer up a review of this unit, as we've had ours in place for over 3 years now. We replaced a 30yr old original Buffalo type unit (that came with the house that we bought) with the BX526. Our setup is under-floor (concrete slab) fixed ducting to most of the house. I can't offer any comment on… Read more ·  1

how the supposed 5-star rating of the BX526 compares to the original unit (which I daresay would've scored about 0 stars in today's ratings!) in terms of performance or running costs as our original unit was pretty much already knackered from when we inherited it.

All I can say is we've had the BX526 running through 3 Canberra winters now and it hasn't skipped a beat - and as you can probably guess it does need to run hard and long in our very cold conditions to maintain ideal temperature inside what is a fairly large house. I can't complain with regards to the performance or reliability of this unit; it's behaved just fine. Our installer at the time did recommend that we upgrade the size of the internal air intake, and that seemed sensible to me as the new model was, on paper, considerably more powerful than the original.

The one negative is the whole system does seem quite noisy/blowy when operating - from an air-flow "whooshing" point of view - but I think that has a lot more to do with the type of ducting/vents that we have. (In our last house the gas heating system was ducted through ceiling vents and seemed quite a bit quieter and calmer overall, so that's what I was used to.) It probably also doesn't help that our air intake grille is located right alongside our open-plan lounge/dining area. However, I have been able to play with the maximum fan speed of the system - I ended up throttling it back a bit and have gained a considerably more acceptable level of noise/whooshing, without any noticeable compromise in heating ability throughout. So I'm happy.

Of course, in the few years since we installed this unit, gas heating in general has rapidly fallen out of favour, but I think I would still recommend this unit to anybody with a similar setup to us. I still haven't come across any other practical or sensibly affordable way to get 30kW of heat into a large house in a cold climate, particularly if you have a fixed/permanent under-floor ducting network already in place.

Not sure what people are complaining about!!! – Replaced my Buffalo 20 with the BX520 about 4 months ago, got a 3 bedroom house with two living areas plus a study. Air wasn't as hot as the Buffalo 20 when the heater was first installed, but being an engineer I know that the more airflow passed over the heat exchanger the more heat is pulled off it. This extra air spreads the energy taken form… Read more ·  1

the heat exchanger further therefore resulting on colder air, however you still have more energy being delivered to your house, it's actually pretty simple. People clearly just like to complain. If they bother to look in the manual for the heater you can easily adjust the duct temperature, which I did. I set mine to 60degC (from I think 50degC) and now it heats the house faster than the Buffalo 20 and my gas bill has dropped from $581 to $326 during my winter quarter and it has been really cold and wet here in Gippsland. Also Upgraded my controller to the one with the dial so I can program it to come on and off and change to different temperatures at different times of the day and days of the week. I think it is brilliant and wouldn't hesitate to buy another one!! One down side is that it is a bit rattly, if you have the choice install it near your laundry or bathroom or toilet, not you bedroom. I used that foam tape you can get from Bunnings to put between the lid and outer body, that quietened it down significantly.

Excellent replacement – We replaced our current Brivis buffalo heater that has been in the house for 20 plus years. was a little concerned after reading some of the reviews but was explained by the fitter J & S heating in Tullamarine that the current return air vent was too small. Since its been in with the larger air vent it hasn't missed a beat and its quieter. Show details ·  1

Poor reliability - matched by poor service – This unit was purchased and installed in August 2014, and after I booked a maintenance service became faulty with an error code 60, and couldn't be reset and didn't work. As a result the heater didn't work and we had no heat over Easter and for the three weeks it took to get a service person to attend. The service technician found that the fault… Read more

was due to a faulty PCB or 'Motherboard'. Thankfully it was under warranty - otherwise it would have been very expensive.

I had a Brivis Buffalo which worked flawlessly for over 20 years - this one failed after less than 3, and the Brivis/Rinnai service is atrocious. As I had also requested a maintenance service I paid for that but was overcharged with the full service fee of $239, when the correct 'under warranty' fee is $179. I have tried for over two weeks to get a response via email without any success. Called their 'Customer Service' number today, after waiting finally spoke with an unhelpful, uncaring person who referred me to email another department.

I don't think I will ever buy another product from this company Brivis/Rinnai - the combination of premium price - poor reliability and poor service are not worth rewarding.

Do not buy the heater from Brivis – Got my old heater replaced for Brivis Buffalo 5 BX520. Second day the heater stopped producing heat. Called up Brivis technician for check up. He said everything is fine, didn't check the heater at all just said everything works fine and I need to get the heater upgraded for stronger one when this one was recommended for my single story house. … Read more

After a week called up a private heater specialist. He opened the heater up and he found unit to have factory faulty supply air sensor He told me he used to work for Brivis for 30 years but they sucked every worker and got cheap Chinese people to save money that have no clue what they are doing. Avoid the headache, customer service is a pain in the posterior and you won't get a refund even if its under warranty.

Why are people so vitriolic ? – I too have had a Brivis buffalo for over 20 years. It was a very reliable appliance. When it was no longer serviceable I had it changed over to a BX520. It works well just like the old one. When I get services from the company the service guys are all experienced and of course they know all the error codes. What some people don't tell you is… Read more

that they just put in a replacement heater as cheap as they can and then the wife asks for a few more ducts, so they put them in too. They dont care when the technical guy tells them it will be undersized they just put them in. and then they complain because the heat is less in the other rooms. They just blame the manufacturer. Im OK because Im a technical guy, but some people have no idea, choose the cheapest solutions and then go crook because its not sized right.

Be warned this heater is hopeless – Had a Brivis Buffalo for 23 years and it was excellent so when it finally died we replaced it with a BX520. This heater is hopeless. Cannot get it up to 21 degrees in winter. May be claimed to be more energy efficient per hour but it has to run much, much longer to increase the temperature by each degree, consequently much more costly to run. The… Read more

installer came back and checked the temperature settings and fan speed which were both OK. Now stuck with this model which hopefully will fail within the warranty period. Be warned do not buy a Brivis BX520

The old brivis was great / this new one is rubbish – We had a brivis for 15 years and were so happy that, when it died of old age, we didn't hesitate to replace it with a new model. Big mistake. This heater is hopeless. We can't get it up to 20 degrees on a cold day and we get constant error messages which require us to reset. Customer service can't even tell us what the error code means. This is… Read more

the 4th call-out in 6 weeks and we are asked to wait a week. The next call will be to consumer affairs. Do not buy a Brivis !!!!

New unit after 3 weeks properly working stop end error#50 Contact BRIVIS – Be aware !!!!! The name should be changed to RABISH. Two week waiting on warranty service is unheard off. But it is a new standard for Brivis warranty services in winter in Melbourne. I've just replaced my old Buffalo20 unit. It was working 23 years every season with only two service calls Never ever will recommend this brand to any one. … Read more

What happen with the old Brivis and 3 day service?

Pensionier have to wait two weeks in cold for warranty repair.