Combi or Conventional?

debhyp

We've recently moved into a new house that has an old (non condensing) conventional bolier/tank.
The house has 5 beds, 1 main bathroom and an ensuite shower room.
The system is working fine, but we've found that the water pressure in the main bathroom shower is awful, a trickle and not worth using. The ensuite shower has a water pump, but the pressure is still not great and the water either comes out scolding hot or ice cold.

We are thinking of replacing the system. So we got 2 companies out to give us advice.

The first company said we should switch to a combi boiler and we'd get great water pressure in the showers.

The second company tested the water pressure, which came back as 10 - 11 L per second, and said we shouldn't get a combi because the pressure is too low and instead we should upgrade to a condensing conventional boiler, double the size of the tank and install 2 new water pumps (one for each shower).

I am completely confused because they've both given very different answers.

Anyone in the business who could offer advice?

AlexMac

I'm not in the business, but given that we've had the same issue, and two satisfactory solutions, in two different homes- in the first, by fitting an oversized combi (partly luck- the supplier delivered a bigger model than our plumber had specified, and he'd gone one up from bottom as we had 2 bathrooms), and here, with a conventional boiler twinned with a (I think) unvented - i.e pressurised storage cylinder. This is an option which not all plumbers seem confident about, and it can cost almost a grand to replace the old 'open' cylinder, but...

the result here is fantastic! The new overhead shower with a thermostatic mixer is really fierce, like one in a posh hotel, and in the second bathroom,the old, original cheap shower handset fed from the mixer in the bath snakes all over the place like a firehose if you drop it, so powerful is the flow (and the handbasin in the downstairs khazi sprays water all over unwary guest's trousers if turned fully on- very embarrassing but great fun unless you warn em- we only warn the guests we like!).

So my vote's for a conventional with an unvented/pressurised cylinder even though it will be several hundred quid more.

Plumber90

Definatly a conventional boiler and not a combi. With throes flow rates as soon as you open more than one tap hardly any water will come out. Where abouts are you based ???

debhyp

Thanks very much. We're based in the north west.