Hot water quicker?

geordie_ben

It takes quite a while, about a minute or so, for our hot water to come out of the tap once it's been turned on

The boiler was only fitted last November.. any other questions then ask

How can I make it give us hot water quicker?

Myser

What is the make & model of the boiler?

Do you have a hot water tank?

Does it take the same amount of time from all the taps in the house?

geordie_ben

The boiler is a Baxi Duo-tec Combi GA 28

No hot water tank, just the boiler stored in the attic

Yep, same for all taps

Myser

geordie_ben wrote: »

No hot water tank, just the boiler stored in the attic

One of the downsides of having the boiler in the attic are the long runs of pipework. Which means you'll have to run the water tap longer before you actually have hot water.

Do you know if the pipe runs are as short as possible or if they run a convoluted route round?

Do the hot water pipes have insulation around them?

southcoastrgi

it's a combi & it's in the loft, sounds like normally operation

geordie_ben

Not sure about the route as we've not long bought the house

And same for the insulation

scottishblondie

With the boiler in the attic the pipe runs are going to be longer, plus with a combi it has to fire up and get up a bit of temperature to produce the hot water. I'd say the delay is to be expected.

BlueC

scottishblondie wrote: »

With the boiler in the attic the pipe runs are going to be longer, plus with a combi it has to fire up and get up a bit of temperature to produce the hot water. I'd say the delay is to be expected.

Some combis have a pre-heat mode. When this pre-heat function is on, the length of time taken to receive hot water at a tap will be reduced as the boiler will have been kept hot in readiness for a demand.

If this function is off, the boiler will only ignite to warm the water once the tap is opened. This means delivery to the tap will take a little longer but energy will have been saved in not keeping the boiler preheated.

Check the manual for your boiler. Sometimes this is referred to as "Eco" mode which works the opposite way to above. i.e. when Eco mode is off then pre-heat mode is on, and when Eco mode is on then pre-heat mode is off.

geordie_ben

BlueC wrote: »

Some combis have a pre-heat mode. When this pre-heat function is on, the length of time taken to receive hot water at a tap will be reduced as the boiler will have been kept hot in readiness for a demand.

If this function is off, the boiler will only ignite to warm the water once the tap is opened. This means delivery to the tap will take a little longer but energy will have been saved in not keeping the boiler preheated.

Check the manual for your boiler. Sometimes this is referred to as "Eco" mode which works the opposite way to above. i.e. when Eco mode is off then pre-heat mode is on, and when Eco mode is on then pre-heat mode is off.

Sounds handy! I'll check it out. Thanks

daveyjp

Except pre heat means a larger bill for the sake of not waiting for hot water. Its like keeping a kettle simmering rather than wait for it to boil from cold when you want a cuppa.

Watto30

I had this exact problem when I moved into my house 6 months ago, I have since discovered that if I turn the tap on full flow for literally a second or two and then turn it to literallly a trickle that normally does it, once you get hot water coming through you can then turn up the flow rate, it does still take a little bit of time for hot water to come through the tap but the secret is to run it slowly, I used to stand there for 5 minutes with cold water coming through before I tried this trick so it does work and I only found this out thanks to my Sister who came to stay and also has a combi boiler, hope this helps