Could we ask for some advice from those with combi boilers please

TanDiy

st999 wrote: »

Did you not look into replacing your warm air unit with a new one?

The new ones are seemingly more efficient.

Hi, yes we have looked in to this but the return air way is too small for these new units and we have no way of increasing this. The current boiler is still running but it is noisy where the air returns, the vents upstairs are in the ceilings, we cannot set heating and water times independently, we have an air vent in the utility room that makes it cold, etc. Even if we could fit a new boiler we have been told this would cost around £4K+. Only thing is the system has never gone wrong and we keep coming across lots of posts suggesting new wet boilers are unreliable.

Would still be interested to hear from people with combi boilers - are you impressed with them.

Thanks

gas4you

You have to bear in mind that 99.9% of all posts on any internet forum are going to be about faults or things gone wrong and the posters moaning.

You have to balance this in your head with the hundreds, or thousands that do not have problems and never post to say how please they are with their boilers, or other products.

As long as you stick with a good make and not something like an Ideal or Ferroli which have very bad reputations with installers, you will be ok.

The main thing is to get an installer who is recommend and you feel you can trust to be there when something goes wrong.

No make or product can be guaranteed to be infallible.

*Ro*

We switched to a cylinder system & have a tank in the loft after the combi packed up.
We chose vaillant on the recomendation of the fitter as their parts are available for a long time and are supposedly more reliable. Our bills are low and we are pleased with the system. Our fitter was not BG but independent but he was retired from BG! he said that the cylinder system is reliable obviously with a good boiler, he said to avoid the cheaper boilers as they break and you cant get parts for that long. One thing to note not sure how suitable combis are for bigger houses and we found when ours broke it was a complete pain as no back up so we now have one as we can plug in the immersion.
with our old boiler we did sometimes have issues where if someone was in the shower and you ran hot kitchen tap the shower went cold !!!!!!

I am no expert by any means!! just giving you my thoughts

Ro x

linni

I was really worried about having a combi boiler, as I'd heard some horrer stories, but I had a Worcester Bosch 35HE plus Greenstar Combi Boiler fitted in 2006 and I've not had any problems with it at all, although I do have it serviced every year. I've got 4 beds, 1 bathroom, 1 shower room and 10 radiators. I had an electric shower put in the shower room, just in case the boiler failed, so I would still be able to have hot water.

1) No, doesn't take ages running a bath, only slightly longer than it did before.
2) No, it doesn't take much longer (I think my boiler has a button for instant hot water but plumber said it just wastes elec).
3) Not yet - it's been 5 years so i'm expecting it soon!
4) Sorry can't answer this one.

TanDiy

Thank you all so much for the information - this is starting to put our minds at rest and I think we are close to deciding to go with the combi arrangement. Again, many thanks.

rustyboy21

What I was advised when I chose my whole system in the house we live in was as follows.

There are 2 people living in our 4 bed house.
we have a bathroom upstairs with full bath and downstairs showeroom
We have a dishwasher,washing machine and in total 3 sinks and 2 toilets in house.

Question were....

Do we use the bath and shower at the same time?
do we put washing machine or dishwasher on at same time as having bath or shower?

We have 14 double rads in the house.

We had a worcester 30cdi fitted and it is great. OH fills the bath in just about 5 mins with enough water to cover air jets. The pressure from the shower with thermoshowerunit is best shower I have ever had.

What I am trying to get to is that it depends on your personal activities. If you have a family, would you want to run baths,run shower and have washing machine on at same time? If so go for the cylinder option as it will fulfil your requirements, you will not lose pressure on any outlet. If you can work to spacing things out and working around using baths/showers/washing machines etc at different times, a combi would fit the bill and you will get additional space from losing your tank.

A tank is only as good as the size it is. I used to have a flat that had a small tank in it. I used to get about 2'' of water in the bath before it ran cold.

Why dont you look at thermal store cylinders if you want to keep a cylinder. They work like a combi does.

Hope above helps

MoneySavingMole

If you have the money, and you're considering saving some, and having children, and staying in that lovely 4 bedroomed home for the next, 20+ years?

GO SOLAR!

Combi's, as mentioned in other replies, are only as good as the water coming into your home, in terms of Hot Water Performance.

A combi is basically the same boiler as a System boiler, but it also heats your Hot Water directly.

I'd say consider Solar Thermal - bang some panels on your roof. Put an unvented HW cylinder in your loft, with a system boiler feeding radiators and giving you back-up heating if your HW is not good enough.

All day whilst your at work, you'll be getting your water heated by the power of the sun.

In winter, you may use gas to bring it up to temperature, but in the warmer months, it will be almost nothing.

G_M

If you're spending that amount and proposing to start installing brand new from scratch, I agree it makes sense to consider more 'alternative' options. Especially if you plan to be there some years.

Air or ground source heat pump?
Solar water heating?
Solar electricity with storage heaters?

They may not be right for you, but worth looking at. There are threads on the forum, and loads of info on the web.

Pincher

The Blue Pill: A £2,000 combi package.


The Red Pill:


Learn all about boilers, heat pumps, solar panels, underfloor heater, fan convector. Consider capacity, installability, accesibility, maintainability, upgradability, reliability, backup and resilent configurations. Finally, in fine engineering tradition, you design a superduper system complete with water leakage alarms, and the cost is £50,000.


Without UFH, it's £30,000. Without this and without that, you get it down to £5,000 . Having spent a year studying specifcations and looking through brochures, you wife decide she would much rather spend £3,000 on a sofa: so you get a £2,000 combi package.

TanDiy

Thanks for all the info.

Pincher you are so right - I am sitting surrounded by brochures and quotes all suggesting something different and thinking that it might be far less hassle and money to take the other half to spain every winter when it gets cold! We are now seriously considering the Green Pill - live with the warm air.