Airing Cupboard to keep or not to keep?

rachelandgromit

This is an ongoing debate and I wondered if someone would settle it.

I have a gas boiler that powers my heating/hot water, however I also have a airing cupboard with a tank and immersion heater (it's a bungalow). I can't see the point in keeping an airing cupboard but my mum and dad insist it's the best of both worlds as I have both and it would be 'the worst decision I ever made' if I ripped it out and went onto combi alone.

My question - why?

My brother is in a similar position and says his plumber told him the same thing... Am I missing something?

stef73

I can sort of see why they say to keep it (if problem with combi you could get hot water ), but id remove tank and use cupboard for storage . But thats just me

swagman

We had this debate too and decided to stick with the airing cupboard.
An airing cupboard can remove the need to have a tumble drier, which are expensive to run.
It is also more difficult / expensive to add solar hot water to a property if there is no cylinder.
Airing cupboards are 'popular' with lots of people, for reasons including the above, and can therefore make a property more attractive to purchasers in the future.

On top of that, the combi route is not suitable for all properties or house layouts - in our case we would not have had an assured, fast supply of hot water (several plumbers told us!).

missile

Some find that a combi boiler does not give adequate supply and it takes a while to fill a bath. This may not be a problem for you? It might be an issue if and when you come to sell.

It is your home, do whatever you think best.

rachelandgromit

Right, that kind of makes sense I suppose. I have found it useful when the boiler was temporary out of use (due to ripping old kitchen out) and I was still able to have hot water. Yes, I do love a bath and have just bought a whirlpool bath!

cheeks

My Nan used to have an airing cupboard and loved it. She doesn't have one in her 'new' house and she's still going on about it 8 years on!

loracan1

Unless you're desperately pressed for space I'd keep both (but then I've been left for weeks without hot water & heating when it took ages to get the combi fixed)

WestonDave

Just to balance the argument! We went the other way and got rid. Research into solar hot water suggests its never going to be viable on our house (we'd prefer to use the space for solar PV) and as we tend never to have baths we don't need a high capacity of stored hot water.

In fact during the instalation we were given the choice of them working more slowly and keeping the old hot water running for as long as possible, or just going cold turkey so they could clear all the old stuff out of the way and work more efficiently on getting the new system up and running - we went cold turkey on the basis that we could use the electric shower for bathing and the dishwasher (cold fill only) for most of the washing up. In the event of a breakdown we'd revert to that whilst a fix was sorted.

One other thing to chuck into the equation - I'm not sure what these remaining cylinders are doing - however if they are storing hot water rather than the combi heating it on demand you might want to consider this. Our summer (i.e hot water only) gas consumption went down by 67% (i.e we only used one third of the gas by cubic feet that we were previously using) by changing from an (admittedly inefficient) cylinder system boiler which was heating a tank of water a couple of times a day to ensure hot water was available to a combi that heated on demand. Some of that saving was a more efficient boiler, but I suspect most of it was down to only heating water we actually used rather than heating spare to go cold in the cylinder.

The other particular factor for us is that our airing cupboard along with the walk in cupboards beyond it in the two bedrooms would form an ideal corridor to a potential extension over the garage meaning no existing room space would be sacrificed (OK you'd lose storage) so it also made sense to clear it. Our plan is possibly to shove the tumble dryer in there so the heat from that also helps dry other things stored in there.

That said if you like your baths, then keeping it might be the right option for you.

stormbreaker

rachelandgromit wrote: »

Yes, I do love a bath and have just bought a whirlpool bath!

I like baths too and switched to a combi boiler last year and found the water pressure no differant in fact stronger in our shower. I don't know if the slow filling of the bath is something to do with earlier boilers or perhaps type of boiler fitted as my sister who has had a combi for years, takes ages for her bath to fill and was a fear of mine before fitting.

A friend of mine is having the same issue as you as she uses her airing cupboard to dry off foot ball boots and trainers. Personally I don't miss mine.

missile

stormbreaker wrote: »

I don't know if the slow filling of the bath is something to do with earlier boilers or perhaps type of boiler fitted as my sister who has had a combi for years, takes ages for her bath to fill and was a fear of mine before fitting..

Obviously, it will depend on the rating of the combi boiler and diameter of the pipework. :A

swagman

WestonDave wrote: »

Research into solar hot water suggests its never going to be viable on our house (we'd prefer to use the space for solar PV) and as we tend never to have baths we don't need a high capacity of stored hot water.

As an aside to this thread WestonDave, have you gone for PV? I am thinking about it in view of the new tariffs due in April.