Baxi Barcelona do I replace with similar or go combi?

Dustykitten

Sorry if this is in the wrong place BGs was not sure whether to post here or on DIY.

The sistuation:

We have a baxi barcelona which is just over 10 years old. First 5 years, a nightmare, under warrenty/extended cover loads of call outs. Next 5 years fine. Cover stopped in the summer as it was 10 years old. It broke this week.

Engineer came (recommended by our plumber) and has got it going, new ignition elctrode things and 2 new boards. Heat Exchange evidentially is leaking and he recommends we replace it with the New Baxi. Cost will be £1200 will include fit and flushing and he will not charge us for fixing it this week as he will take the parts and use them.

Question is do we do this or change for a combi? Is this even possible?

Currently we have a hot water tank and airing cupboard, upstairs, middle of the house, nothing to gain space wise really. I do use the airing cupboard to dry socks. Cold water feeder tank in loft, not a problem. Immersion in tank for emergencies - used this week - god send.

Issues: Tank is not very big as cupboard is narrow, we can get 3 decent or 4 quick showers of a morning. Run one full bath in the evening (there are 5 people in the household).

Hot water to kitchen sink from tank takes 8 pints and run is very long.

Current boiler is located in the garage - no issue.

House is 4 bed detached. Radiators in all but one room but AGA takes care of that mostly.

If you've got this far thank you so much. Any help greatly appreciated as Engineer says we need to make a decision and not just think oh well it is working now.

HappyMJ

I would stick with it. It's a very efficient boiler. You seem to like the immersion as a back up. Imagine a combi boiler not working.....no hot water. I'd guess if you replaced it you could have just as many call outs as this one had in it's first 5 years. You've had another 5 years with good service so you might get another 5 years with only 1 or 2 more callouts.

foreversummer

I wouldn't have a combi. Have loads of friends with them - always problems it seems plus they have no back up when things go wrong. I'm very happy with my hot and cold water tanks.

jalexa

Dustykitten wrote: »

Cover stopped in the summer as it was 10 years old. It broke this week.

Where did you get that policy? Normally cover can continue subject to spares availability (though you may not get a new boiler).

Regardless of combi non-combi question, why would you restrict yourself to a Baxi?

If you thought harder is there a possible non-garage location? Ideally kitchen.

Dustykitten

jalexa wrote: »

Where did you get that policy? Normally cover can continue subject to spares availability (though you may not get a new boiler).

Regardless of combi non-combi question, why would you restrict yourself to a Baxi?

If you thought harder is there a possible non-garage location? Ideally kitchen.

Garage is next to kitchen, internal door so no problem. Not fixed on Baxi. Engineer used to work for them and mentioned 3 boilers all the same (same production line he said) with 3 different brand names to them. If we replace with similar then there is not cost with new flue, pipework etc.

Old cover was L&G. They did send us a renewal form but the cost had gone up alot, £168 I think and the small print said your boiler is not covered if it is 10 years old or more so we did not continue. That may have been a bad decision.

I'm open to any suggestions.

jalexa

Dustykitten wrote: »

Hot water to kitchen tank takes 8 pints and run is very long.

Current boiler is located in the garage - no issue.

A couple of points for discussion. By "kitchen tank" do you mean kitchen sink?

I disagree with the garage location not being an issue. In practice, and maybe you are happy with that, it would make a combi installation unsatisfactory because of the distance between the boiler and the furthest hot tap, normally a bathroom basin.

Subject to a recognition that failure affects heating and hot water simultaneously I'm less opposed to a well sited combi than some. But it is a householder decison to choose and possibly not an easy choice.

unclebulgaria

Dustykitten wrote: »

Sorry if this is in the wrong place BGs was not sure whether to post here or on DIY.

The sistuation:

We have a baxi barcelona which is just over 10 years old. First 5 years, a nightmare, under warrenty/extended cover loads of call outs. Next 5 years fine. Cover stopped in the summer as it was 10 years old. It broke this week.

Engineer came (recommended by our plumber) and has got it going, new ignition elctrode things and 2 new boards. Heat Exchange evidentially is leaking and he recommends we replace it with the New Baxi. Cost will be £1200 will include fit and flushing and he will not charge us for fixing it this week as he will take the parts and use them.

Question is do we do this or change for a combi? Is this even possible?

Currently we have a hot water tank and airing cupboard, upstairs, middle of the house, nothing to gain space wise really. I do use the airing cupboard to dry socks. Cold water feeder tank in loft, not a problem. Immersion in tank for emergencies - used this week - god send.

Issues: Tank is not very big as cupboard is narrow, we can get 3 decent or 4 quick showers of a morning. Run one full bath in the evening (there are 5 people in the household).

Hot water to kitchen tank takes 8 pints and run is very long.

Current boiler is located in the garage - no issue.

House is 4 bed detached. Radiators in all but one room but AGA takes care of that mostly.

If you've got this far thank you so much. Any help greatly appreciated as Engineer says we need to make a decision and not just think oh well it is working now.

Just a quick reply, Combi's dont always suit large households as they use just the one incoming main water supply and depending on your incoming pressure/flow rate you wont like dribbling taps when more than one is open. Not everyone can have a combi anyway as it depends on flow rate and pressure.
Combi's require a larger gas pipe too, sometimes upgraded to 28mm depending on distance from meter.
Anyone that has had a combi and rely on it for every point of hot water will tell you its a pain when it breaks down. Have you thought of having a combi and an electric shower?
Garage situated boilers, combi or conventional have to be well insulated during cold spells as they don't benefit from all the latent heat coming from household heaters.
One last thing, don't be rushed into doing anything by any engineer!:cool:

Dustykitten

Thanks for all your replies.

Decision to not change to a combi has been made so now to choose a replacement for the condenser boiler. I've read the which report from September this year and it's results show that Worcester Bosch and Valliant are the most reliable. Baxi was the least reliable. So I'd like to stay away from another Baxi/Potterton/Main.

With regard to the garage it has a radiator in it and our kitchen wall one side then neighbours garage and house the other. It never gets that cold out there (well unless the boiler is broken) what would the minimum temperature be for a boiler?

Any comments welcome.

jalexa

Dustykitten wrote: »

With regard to the garage it has a radiator in it and our kitchen wall one side then neighbours garage and house the other. It never gets that cold out there (well unless the boiler is broken) what would the minimum temperature be for a boiler?

Any comments welcome.

You may be interested to know that Worcester Bosch are currently offering a 5 year warranty on selected boilers. However I wouldn't exclude Vaillant from consideration.

Rather than (twice) excusing the garage location as "not an issue", have you exhaustively excluded other "in house" locations as not practicable?

A (heated) unheated garage is not a good location for the very reason you state (will freeze in an unheated state) as well as incurring heating costs. And where is the stat which controls the garage radiator?

Dustykitten

jalexa wrote: »

You may be interested to know that Worcester Bosch are currently offering a 5 year warranty on selected boilers. However I wouldn't exclude Vaillant from consideration.

Rather than (twice) excusing the garage location as "not an issue", have you exhaustively excluded other "in house" locations as not practicable?

A (heated) unheated garage is not a good location for the very reason you state (will freeze in an unheated state) as well as incurring heating costs. And where is the stat which controls the garage radiator?

From reading a bit more WB have an all ali heat exchanger but vailliant and viessman don't.

All rads have their own stats on them.

To move the boiler would obviously involved a lot of replumbing and the red tank (expansion?) moving too? It has never caused a problem it being there. I don't really want to move it, no space to have it in in the kitchen without quite a major rejig and loosing a cupboard and I'm short of those anyhow. Plumber never said it was a problem putting it there 10 years ago.

jalexa

Dustykitten wrote: »

Plumber never said it was a problem putting it there 10 years ago.

I rest my case.

Some manufacturers advocate stainless steel over aluminium. I think the jury is probably out on that.

(BTW a new system boiler has the expansion vessel inside the boiler casing)