New boiler in 5 bed - 3 story house

oldskoo1

We are looking at moving and i'm just after some advice of suitable boilers for a 5 bed, 3 story house.

It currently has an ideal boiler which i understand to be pretty rubbish.

If we needed to replace it, are combi's even suitable for 3 story houses. We have 3 showers but obviously won't be using them all at the same time. But can a combi even pump well enough to get to the top floor or is it a condensing one we would need?


I would obviously want to get as efficient as possible, what boiler would you suggest? Would it be a straight swap or would we need more pipe work if we switched to combi for example?

I'm pretty sure it is condensing currently, it's a 7 year old house and the other houses on the estate had hot water cylinders, the ones that don't require jackets, they seem to be encased already.

Thanks,

macman

As above.
Any new boiler that you fit will be a condenser, whether combi or conventional.

bengasman

oldskoo1 wrote: »

If we needed to replace it, are combi's even suitable for 3 story houses.

It doesn't matter how many storeys the house has.

oldskoo1 wrote: »

We have 3 showers but obviously won't be using them all at the same time. But can a combi even pump well enough to get to the top floor

Combi's don't pump.

oldskoo1 wrote: »

or is it a condensing one we would need?

All boilers are now condensing.

oldskoo1 wrote: »

I would obviously want to get as efficient as possible, what boiler would you suggest? Would it be a straight swap or would we need more pipe work if we switched to combi for example?

Impossible to say without a survey.

oldskoo1 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it is condensing currently, it's a 7 year old house and the other houses on the estate had hot water cylinders, the ones that don't require jackets, they seem to be encased already.

Chances are you have an unvented cylinder, which is fine to keep and makes a combi unnecessary. Depending on the location of the boiler, it might still be advantageous to get a combi with the hot water on demand option if it is in/near the kitchen or bathroom.

What you really need, is to find a good installer and put your trust in him.

oldskoo1

ok thanks all for the advice

I got the terminology wrong but luckily you understood what i meant. Boiler is in the utility behind kitchen but bath is 2 floors up, farthest away from boiler.

single_lonely

Hi,
would like to know why you think Ideal Boilers are not good.
my gas installer recommended them.
(we have 1 bathroom and 1 WC, to start with 5 * 1600mm radiators, hopefully add 5 smaller ones into the system if costs OK).

Thanks in advance for your advice

bengasman

single_lonely wrote: »

Hi,
would like to know why you think Ideal Boilers are not good.

It is not a matter of thinking they are rubbish, they ARE rubbish. Ideal have an extremely bad track record when it comes to reliability. Very high breakdown rate and very expensive parts to boot.

single_lonely wrote: »

my gas installer recommended them.

Says enough about the installer.

Cardew

bengasman wrote: »

It is not a matter of thinking they are rubbish, they ARE rubbish. Ideal have an extremely bad track record when it comes to reliability. Very high breakdown rate and very expensive parts to boot.

Surely it depends on the vintage?

I have an Ideal Mexico Super CF 125 installed over 23 years ago. It has had one breakdown in that time - a thermocouple! Albeit a second thermocouple was fitted several years later as a precaution.

2 RGI fitters have stated that these old boilers have a tremendous reliability record.

WHICH had over 5,000 responses to their CH boiler reliability survey (boilers fitted since 2005) and IDEAL were average.

bengasman

Cardew wrote: »

I have an Ideal Mexico Super CF 125 installed over 23 years ago...

I somehow doubt you can still buy these. The op posted a question related to a new boiler install, so what happened 20 years ago is not relevant.

Mr_Ted

bengasman wrote: »

I somehow doubt you can still buy these. The op posted a question related to a new boiler install, so what happened 20 years ago is not relevant.

Doubt, surely you should know :rotfl:

Slagging of manufacturers on a public forum must earn you lots of brownie points, or are you here just to promote you :eek:

aelitaman

To get back to the question that the OP asked, I think the choice of a combi or a system boiler in the majority of cases comes down to practical considerations.

So you can buy combis now that will run multiple taps or multiple showers at the same time, but in practive the choice comes down to compromises.

If you want to use the space where the hot water cylinder is presently and you have no other space then people will buy a combi. This is why I have a combi, the old cylinder space is now a cloakroom.

Some people want a power shower so they have to have a system boiler to get the flow rates (even high flow combis are not the same).

Some people do not have the space for a floor standing combi (to get the high flow rates) so they get a small system boiler.


As in all things in life it will be a compromise.