combi boiler or not

dave23

We have a 20 year old Potterton Suprima 50 running 13 radiators and 2 bathrooms in a 4 bed detached house. The boiler is still running but we are considering replacing. It is a conventional boiler with hot water tank and cold tanks in the loft.

There are only two of us and my wife prefers baths so is it worth considering a combi or not?

MX5huggy

Yes worth considering, what about you? Do you shower? What sort of shower do you have at the moment?

dave23

Yes I prefer a shower. We have a shower room with a thermostatic shower

JP1978

We have just moved into a property that has the very same boiler, 10 year old though not 20. We will be keeping it until it dies. OK a combi is more efficient but their expected lifespan is no where near the 20 or more years a normal boiler has.

Maybe get some quotes and start saving now to when it does fail - at least then, you are getting your monies worth out the potterton.

SuzieSue

I have the same setup as you with a 20 year old Ideal Classic. I am going to keep it until it becomes uneconomic to repair as it has not broken down for over 7 years now (although it did breakdown every few years when it was first installed).

I would not change to a combi as I would not want to be without hot water for any length of time if the boiler broke down. Yes, I was tempted when combis first came out because I liked the idea of not having to worry about pipes and tanks in the roof, but I want a backup hot water source. I don't mind not having heating for a few days as I have several electric heaters that I could use.

thescouselander

We went from a 25 year old gloworm to a new combi and slashed our gas bill by around 30%. Since we went for quite a powerful combi the hot water flow is very good too. I'm glad we did it.

SuzieSue

thescouselander wrote: »

We went from a 25 year old gloworm to a new combi and slashed our gas bill by around 30%. Since we went for quite a powerful combi the hot water flow is very good too. I'm glad we did it.

My friend replaced his old boiler with a combi and said he didn't notice any change in his gas bills.

unclebulgaria

Whether you actually have a combi needs assessing first of all. You need correct pressure and flow rate both dynamically and static. A competent plumbing and heating fitter will tell you this.
The next thing is to take into account how many bathrooms you have and how many may be used simultaneously, combi (standard combi) won't cope with this.
Next is whether your new combi will require a new gas supply pipe to the new boiler as combi's are the Ferrari of the boiler world and need a decent gas supply, something else a competent fitter will tell you.
As stated if your combi goes down you're left with no heating/hot water.
As the price of gas has risen so the return on your investment takes longer to recoup, generally I tell my customers now to stick with what they have unless money is no object or the existing boiler is dead.
There are other options you can consider; unvented cylinder and new boiler, heat store cylinder and new boiler, electric boiler and new fast recovery cylinder. It's sometimes horses for courses.
Don't forget, unless you go for a primary store combi or have exceptional water pressure/flow and a very big combi, the water flow rates through your taps will be considerably slower than tank fed systems.

Fitbacrazy

I had a Baxi BBU until This summer and I would reckon without doing the maths our gas bills have come down 30 to 40% We are not heating a tank of water to let it cool and then reheat, our mixer shower pressure is much greater and way better to use
Its a Worcester 32cdi and really happy with it also a 7yr guarantee because of the add ons of a RF11 thermostat and Worcester filter
No downside for us as the Baxi was 60+% efficient and the combi in the 90s
As Above we needed a larger gas supply which was relatively easy for us we also have great water pressure here in Inverness

dave23

Presumably a like for like replacement would be cheaper than installing a combi? No pipework to change, until the Potterton actually dies I won't replace it just to save money on the gas bill but I want to explore options now. We have a service contract with BG and they have said it is now on
limited parts.

no1catman

It wouldn't hurt to talk to a few local Central heating installers, to get a sense of what they would advise. While, they may feel there's an incentive to say 'yes' to generate work, the 'system' for your house, and family is more important.
At a previous terraced house, I had a Worcester Combi fitted (after an ancient crap Gloworm), then in a semi-detached (3 bed, 1 shower/room) the same company installed a Ferroli condenser combi.