Boilers and kitchen cupboards

dander

Hiya
I'm currently in the contemplation stage of replacing my back boiler with a modern combi boiler - it's probably going to go in a tiny (as yet unbuilt) utility room extension. I heard something about there being rules about how far a boiler has to be situated from kitchen cupboards - can anyone clarify what these rules are? Does this mean that you aren't allowed to box in boilers to disguise them anymore?

Also - since the room isn't built yet, can anyone advise what I should be considering in terms of ventilation for the extension - it's likely to be about 3m square - should I make sure a room this size is built with air bricks somewhere if the boiler will go in there?

Thanks for your thoughts!

andrew-b

I think it's generally ok to put them inside a kitchen unit. The issue is you need to leave enough clearance around them to allow access for servicing. There shouldn't be any need for ventilation beyond what's required for building regs with any building extension. It's open appliances like gas fires where ventilation is much more important. Our Vaillant boiler manual has a diagram showing minimum clearances that should be around it. So basically follow whatever the manufacturers say in the manual....usually available for free from their websites.

If you want to actually put it inside a kitchen wall cupboard then what we found was Worcester-Bosch boilers will fit but Vaillants are a bit too deep for standard wall units.

We had the boiler installed in the kitchen before the kitchen was installed. It's now about a couple of inches from a wall unit on one side and the other side we've boxed all the pipes in right upto the side of the boiler leaving enough room to take the front cover off and a small cut-out in the boxing in to access the drain-off point above the boiler.

For a utility room i wouldn't bother about boxing the boiler in at all - seems like more money for not much point to me.

dander

Many thanks! I haven't a clue what make of boiler I'll go for yet, so that's certainly food for thought :-)

david29dpo

Some boilers are made small enough to go in a standard 500mm wall unit.

aliasojo

Whatever boiler you decide on...check out the manufacturer's website for tech specs and it should tell you stuff like this.

Our Worcester Bosch wont fit into a wall cupboard, it's a Greenstar 35i and is far too bulky. It needs a minimum of 10cm clearance at either side and a certain amount at the front but I cant remember what off the top of my head. As it's around 45cm across anyway, that's a minimum of 65cm needed width wise and it's around 38cm deep (plus clearance amount) so too deep for a wall unit. It's also around 86cm high, plus the height of the flue that comes out the top.

We're having to doctor 2 larder type cupboards to build round it to hide it in the kitchen as it's an eyesore tbh.

If it's important to you to build it in, best do some homework first. I wish I had. I just considered output etc......I wasn't prepared for how intrusive the boiler itself would be.