New Combi Boiler ?

atlanticspan

Hi All,I would appreciate your advise regarding swapping to a new boiler.I currently have a Potterton Performa 28i,which was fitted in the garage of my two bed detached bungalow when the property was built ten years ago. It is to say the least not the best at supplying hot water on demand. Sometimes I can wait 5 minutes for it to get hot. I have a British Gas service contract and the engineer assures me there is nothing wrong with the boiler per se. It's just that I cannot rely on it providing hot water when I need it.Even when it does run hot,it can, without warning turn stone cold again and then hot again Grrrr.
I'd be grateful if somebody could recommend a reliable boiler i.e. make and size to alleviate this problem and a rough estimate of the cost of swapping it it for a new one.I was assured by the BG engineer that my water pressure is more than ample. I don't know whether you need to know the number of rads in my property,but I have 7.
I hope you can help and look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks.

macman

Rads are nor relevant with a combi; the rating is determined by the DHW requirement: so how many bathrooms/showers?
If the flow goes hot/cold/hot, then (if the mains flow and pressure are OK) there's quite clearly something wrong with the boiler (possibly the divertor valve/), but of course BG aren't going to tell you that if they have to foot the repair bill-they'd much rather sell you a new boiler, for the enginers get a lead commission.
Time to get an independent GSR RGI to take a look at it.

atlanticspan

macman wrote: »

Rads are nor relevant with a combi; the rating is determined by the DHW requirement: so how many bathrooms/showers?
If the flow goes hot/cold/hot, then (if the mains flow and pressure are OK) there's quite clearly something wrong with the boiler (possibly the divertor valve/), but of course BG aren't going to tell you that if they have to foot the repair bill-they'd much rather sell you a new boiler, for the enginers get a lead commission.
Time to get an independent GSR RGI to take a look at it.

Thanks for your reply. The problem is,if the boiler is inspected independently, how do I know that the person inspecting it, won't have one eye on a sale also?

Cardew

Has it always performed poorly, or is this a recent problem?


Are you sure it takes 5 minutes for hot water to appear at the taps? If so you should get someone to check if the boiler fires up as soon as you turn on a HW tap.


For the boiler to stop firing, when there is still a demand, sound like the water is getting too hot.

atlanticspan

Cardew wrote: »

Has it always performed poorly, or is this a recent problem?


Are you sure it takes 5 minutes for hot water to appear at the taps? If so you should get someone to check if the boiler fires up as soon as you turn on a HW tap.


For the boiler to stop firing, when there is still a demand, sound like the water is getting too hot.

I've only lived in the house for two of its ten years,and in that time it has had periods of performing reasonably and other times it becomes infuriatingly slow to produce hot water. Under my BG service contract,I've called engineers out several times. On one occasion the engineer changed the gas valve and it seemed to be fine,but just as I thought all was well it reverted to being very slow to produce hot water.
With regard to your question as to whether it really takes five minutes to heat water,I stood at the kitchen sink last week running off gallons of water! My kitchen is in the diagonally opposite corner of the house to where the boiler is located in the garage,and whilst I understand it may take a minute or so for water to reach the kitchen,it certainly shouldn't take five minutes. Speaking with my neighbours,several of them have changed their boilers to Worcester Bosch products as they too had become exasperated with its faltering performance.

Should I decide to go down that route,would you happen to know what a private approved engineer might reasonably charge to remove and replace with a new boiler?
Many thanks.

macman

Is the boiler firing as soon as you turn on the hot tap?
The price for an independent GSR RGI will be about 40% less than BG will quote you.
However there is no evidence so far that you need a new boiler.

atlanticspan

macman wrote: »

Is the boiler firing as soon as you turn on the hot tap?
The price for an independent GSR RGI will be about 40% less than BG will quote you.
However there is no evidence so far that you need a new boiler.

Yes, the boiler fires when the hot water tap is turned on. It is just so frustrating to run gallons of water off before the warm water eventually makes an appearance. As mentioned above,some days it produces hot water in a minute or two, on others, I can wait for five minutes plus, and then just when I think all is well, it can go cold again and then hot.It's like a roller coaster ride !
Even the BG service engineers are stumped. They put it down to the idiosyncrasies of my system.
I'm even wondering whether I should buy a system boiler and unvented hot water cylinder.

Carrot007

Do you live in a hard water area?

My boiler was starting to take ages to heat the water and to get anywhere I had to put the flow on slow (have you tried that?).

Turns out my heat exchanger (the bit that gets your water hot) was clogged with lime (etc) deposits.

Took a few vists from npower (my boiler care cover) until one decent engineer actually cleaned the thing out (I think over half of thm have no clue and should not really be called engineers).

It now works fine.