Combi Boiler or not - bathroom expansion

mrjibbles

Wow!

Cheers Debblie for such a long and detailed reply. You have written so many things myself and my girlfriend would never of thought of. Also I wonder how many we would of been advised about when going to buy one without asking here to.

I cant say thankyou enough, to you and to the others!

fantastic!

Rob and Lorna

moneysavingplumber

Is the extra space really necessary? Most people that have done this with me over the years often don't really have space that is particularly usable after the cupboard is gone. If you have enough space as it is I would proceed with caution for all the reasons already pointed out. What hasn't been mentioned is that if a combi breaks down you are without hot water and heating. If a regular boiler packs up and you had the foresight to ensure an immersion was fitted to your cylinder then you will still have hot water. Combis also tend to break down far more often than regular boilers and are generally more expensive to service and repair. Even high flow combis are disappointing in performance in my opinion, compared to a well-designed stored water system. Baxi did launch the 105e Instant boiler to offset the cold water draw off wastage which was fine, until people got their gas bills showing how much the preheating was costing. Some combis incorporate heatstores but once these are exhausted they revert to normal flowrates/temperature rise and defeat the object of having a combi in my opinion.

Combis have their place but I would research thoroughly before changing over.

skintchick

I switched to a combi but put the boiler at the back of the airing cupboard and kept eh cupboard as storage.

For me, as my previous boiler was a back boiler in the lounge, it enabled me to remove the chimney breast and make the room much larger.

Canucklehead

moneysavingplumber wrote: »

Is the extra space really necessary? Most people that have done this with me over the years often don't really have space that is particularly usable after the cupboard is gone. If you have enough space as it is I would proceed with caution for all the reasons already pointed out. What hasn't been mentioned is that if a combi breaks down you are without hot water and heating. If a regular boiler packs up and you had the foresight to ensure an immersion was fitted to your cylinder then you will still have hot water. Combis also tend to break down far more often than regular boilers and are generally more expensive to service and repair. Even high flow combis are disappointing in performance in my opinion, compared to a well-designed stored water system. Baxi did launch the 105e Instant boiler to offset the cold water draw off wastage which was fine, until people got their gas bills showing how much the preheating was costing. Some combis incorporate heatstores but once these are exhausted they revert to normal flowrates/temperature rise and defeat the object of having a combi in my opinion.

Combis have their place but I would research thoroughly before changing over.

Hi...I've often wondered what systems RGIs who post here have in their own homes...we have a 30kW condensing combi (Glow-worm:eek: bargain price, couldn't resist:D), Boiler Buddy, scale inhibitor (v.hard water down here) with TRVs and a wireless programmable (Drayton)...1 bathroom property, shower people as opposed to bathers, no water meter, converted cylinder cupboard to hall cupboard/pantry, boiler installed in loft.

Next property will have a Viessmann Vitodens 200-W 35 kW combi unless we put in 2 bathrooms then a system boiler(Viessmann again) with unvented cylinder

MSP???

Canucklehead

dander

Personally, as someone who lives alone, I love a combi - they're so much more economical that heating endless hot water which doesn't get used. BUT having recently had my ancient back boiler condemned, I can vouch for one further bonus of a hot water tank style system - the immersion heater. With a combi, if something goes wrong with your boiler, you lose everything, heating and hot water, whereas with a seperate hot water tank, you can at least still heat your water by electric.

That said, my replacement boiler is still gonna be a combi!

jcorbygas

Hi Canucklehead - hope you're Ok - not long till our other halfs and us can have a bit of a break - although we are having to leave the country to do so!!
Although OH is a gas engineer the house we live in has an existing conventional oil boiler - old but big, but obviously we have trvs, good insulation, timers, lagged tanks etc etc and we find it reasonable to run, and problem free (fingers crossed)
When it does eventually die we will probably put another oil boiler in, as it will probably cost us a lot to get us put on gas (we use bottles for the cooker) and would involve ruining our drive.
We would not want a combi boiler as we have 3 bathrooms and there are 5 of us and we have 2 airing cupboards - 1 with boiler in and 1 with cylinder in, but it does take quite a while in our existing system for water to get to the kitchen sink I suppose.
Anyway, that is our set up here.

Jackie

zarazara

We have a combi boiler and find it great. its quie cheap to run and theres always lots of hot water when we need it and we arnt paying to store the hot water in a tank.

moneysavingplumber

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi...I've often wondered what systems RGIs who post here have in their own homes...we have a 30kW condensing combi (Glow-worm:eek: bargain price, couldn't resist:D), Boiler Buddy, scale inhibitor (v.hard water down here) with TRVs and a wireless programmable (Drayton)...1 bathroom property, shower people as opposed to bathers, no water meter, converted cylinder cupboard to hall cupboard/pantry, boiler installed in loft.

Next property will have a Viessmann Vitodens 200-W 35 kW combi unless we put in 2 bathrooms then a system boiler(Viessmann again) with unvented cylinder

MSP???

Canucklehead

Haha, we're in a rented flat at the moment, and I've suffered all sorts of systems over the years! Currently no gas so we have a Direct Megaflo (had to replace bottom immersion a few months back) with electric convectors, okay except the timer modules don't work properly!

Out of interest my folks still have the same Baxi Bermuda that I fitted for them in 1994, and the most they've had in terms of repairs aside from normal servicing is an unblock at cold-feed, replacement cylinder (previous was from 1983), a synchron motor and a Grundfos 15/50!

We're hoping to buy next year and my ideal ch system would incorporate a decent woodburner or Rayburn via a Dunsley neutraliser with probably an Alpha CDR boiler. If I have to stick with gravity DHW then we'll have a Quartz shower.

Canucklehead

jcorbygas wrote: »

Hi Canucklehead - hope you're Ok - not long till our other halfs and us can have a bit of a break - although we are having to leave the country to do so!!
Although OH is a gas engineer the house we live in has an existing conventional oil boiler - old but big, but obviously we have trvs, good insulation, timers, lagged tanks etc etc and we find it reasonable to run, and problem free (fingers crossed)
When it does eventually die we will probably put another oil boiler in, as it will probably cost us a lot to get us put on gas (we use bottles for the cooker) and would involve ruining our drive.
We would not want a combi boiler as we have 3 bathrooms and there are 5 of us and we have 2 airing cupboards - 1 with boiler in and 1 with cylinder in, but it does take quite a while in our existing system for water to get to the kitchen sink I suppose.
Anyway, that is our set up here.

Jackie

Hi, Jackie...thanks for that...hope you're going somewhere sunny and warm where no-one can call you up at all hours. The OH is fitting a Viessmann up in West London this week so I have sole control of the lounge TV and my laptop. We're staying put this year (spent the Christmas before last in Canada...sunny but definitely not warm;)).

Happy holidays.

Canucklehead

Canucklehead

moneysavingplumber wrote: »

Out of interest my folks still have the same Baxi Bermuda that I fitted for them in 1994, and the most they've had in terms of repairs aside from normal servicing is an unblock at cold-feed, replacement cylinder (previous was from 1983), a synchron motor and a Grundfos 15/50!

Hi....your folks's Bermuda is doing much better than my MIL's combi from hell:mad: also known as a Halstead Eden...goes to lockout on a whim and the OH does the repair over the phone aka 'press the reset button, Mum'....the OH knows the fix but Halstead spares are so pricey it would be cheaper in the long run to fit a new combi (special family discount i.e. free).

The OH fits a lot of Quartz showers down here (both versions) though some folks don't quite grasp the need for a minimum 50 gallon CWS and a decent sized HWC....no call backs over the years, touch wood;)

We were in rented while we did this place up... had to suffer a Worcester 28CDi...boiler was only 2 years old but was already exhibiting signs of a substandard 'buy to let' install plus the manual shower mixer (pull up job) required maximum hot and a tiny bit of cold with a pathetic shower in the winter as a result....lovely garden though:D

Canucklehead