BOXT vs Heatable: 2026 UK Heat Pump Installer Comparison

The single biggest difference is the quote process. BOXT's published heat-pump pricing starts at £4,799 with installation in as little as four weeks. The quote is generated from a short online questionnaire — house age, current heating, hot water demand, number of bedrooms — and BOXT applies the BUS grant on your behalf to produce a net price as low as £3,299. The price is binding before an installer visits.

Heatable runs an indicative-pricing-online, binding-after-survey flow. Their fixed-pricing-guarantee comes after a surveyor visit, which removes most of the mid-install-surprise risk but adds 1-2 weeks to the timeline. Heatable also accepts a wider manufacturer range, so the survey informs both the price and the manufacturer choice for your specific house.

The honest read on which to prefer: if your house is reasonably standard (post-1980 construction, normal radiators, no unusual hot-water demands), the BOXT instant-quote model usually works fine, and you save the survey-visit week. If your house is older, has unusual heating geometry, or you are sceptical of online-questionnaire estimates for retrofit work, Heatable's survey-led flow is the lower-risk path even if the headline price is similar.

BOXT installs Vaillant heat pumps exclusively — primarily the aroTHERM Plus. Vaillant has industry-leading warranty terms (the aroTHERM Plus carries a 7-year manufacturer warranty when MCS-installed by a Vaillant Advance partner, which BOXT is) and a 4.5/5 Trustpilot score across its UK product range. The COP/SCOP figures sit at the upper end of the air-source-heat-pump market.

Heatable installs across Vaillant, Daikin and Mitsubishi. This matters because each manufacturer is genuinely best at something different:

• Vaillant aroTHERM Plus — headline COP around 5.1, 7-year warranty, generally the best efficiency-to-price ratio in the UK market.
• Daikin Altherma 3 — SCOP 4.6-4.7 at 35°C flow temperature, particularly strong on the very-low-temperature output curve, well-regarded UK installer network.
• Mitsubishi Ecodan — most mature UK installer network, best cold-weather performance (rated to full output down to -15°C), highest real-world SCOP measured across recent UK winters in independent monitoring.

If you have a strong reason to want a specific brand — for example, a Mitsubishi installation because of cold-weather concerns in northern Scotland, or a Daikin because of low-flow-temperature radiator constraints — Heatable is the route. BOXT can only sell you Vaillant.

Both companies handle the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant on the customer's behalf — you do not need to apply separately. The grant is deducted visibly from the quote rather than reimbursed afterwards, which means your up-front cash outlay is the post-grant figure. Eligibility rules are set by Ofgem (current version: Ofgem v5, in force from 28 April 2026) and both installers walk you through them as part of the quote.

Warranty terms are broadly similar by manufacturer rather than by installer:

• Vaillant aroTHERM Plus (both installers): 7-year manufacturer warranty when installed by an MCS-accredited Vaillant Advance partner.
• Daikin Altherma 3 (Heatable only): typically 5-7 years depending on model and registration.
• Mitsubishi Ecodan (Heatable only): typically 5-7 years; some extended-warranty packages available.

Both installers carry their own workmanship guarantees on the install itself (typically 2-3 years on labour). The combination of manufacturer warranty + installer workmanship guarantee + the underlying MCS certification scheme covers most failure modes you might worry about.

BOXT reports 45,000+ five-star Trustpilot reviews across all its services (boilers, heat pumps, solar, air conditioning). The heat-pump-specific review subset is smaller but consistent with the wider pattern: communication is generally praised, installation quality good, post-install support competent. As BOXT's heat-pump business has grown rapidly through 2025-2026, the most recent reviews are worth reading in particular — the operational scaling is the main risk.

Heatable reports 13,786 Trustpilot reviews with an average score of 4.8/5 ("Excellent") as of March 2026 — operationally one of the highest-rated mainstream UK installers. Heatable was also the first UK boiler installation company awarded Which? Trusted Trader status and is a HIES (Home Insulation & Energy Systems) member. Some Trustpilot reviews flag aftercare follow-up as inconsistent; for a 10-15-year piece of kit this is the area worth checking before committing.

For both companies, the practical workflow when reading Trustpilot: filter to the last 3 months, read 10-15 reviews from each, weight reviews from customers whose installs were complex or non-standard more heavily than easy installs. A 4.8/5 score with thousands of reviews is statistically meaningful; the distribution of the negative reviews is more informative than the headline average.

Both BOXT and Heatable operate UK-wide installer networks (England, Wales, Scotland, with thinner coverage in Northern Ireland and the islands). The practical difference is lead time and which installer in their network ends up doing your job.

BOXT can install in as little as four weeks from quote in mainstream postcodes; expect six to eight weeks in more remote areas. The installer who turns up is from BOXT's national partner network rather than directly employed.

Heatable's survey-led timeline runs typically two to four weeks from initial enquiry to survey, then four to eight weeks to install — total six to twelve weeks. Heatable's installer network has a longer-established UK heat-pump track record (the company has been installing across multiple manufacturers for longer than BOXT has run its dedicated heat-pump operation).

If you are in a hurry — replacing a failed boiler, BUS scheme rules tightening, motivated by an unusually mild stretch of weather — BOXT's faster lead time tips the decision. If you have time and want the survey, Heatable is the lower-risk choice.