New boiler required

Pincher

"Combi" just means they Combined

A gas water heater

to

A central heating boiler

so you have a complicated gizmo that depends on a diverter valve to work in water heater mode, or boiler mode.

Intergas managed to design a combi that doesn't have a diverter valve, so is theoretically more reliable.


Whatever you do, remember the work has to be done by a Gas Safe Engineer, who must register your installation with Gas Safe, and maybe notify the council for compliance purposes. Gas Safe will send you a letter to confirm the registration. When you sell the house, you will need to produce that document. You should try to hold some money back, until you receive the document.

You should ask to see their Gas Safe card, and write down the number, and name, plus address. Beware of Romanians, they have one person who has a gas safe registration, and tens of cousins who operate under the same registration. Look up the registration on the Gas Safe website. That should deter some of these Irish jokers.

sevenonine

Pincher wrote: »

"Combi" just means they Combined

A gas water heater

to

A central heating boiler

so you have a complicated gizmo that depends on a diverter valve to work in water heater mode, or boiler mode.

Intergas managed to design a combi that doesn't have a diverter valve, so is theoretically more reliable.


Whatever you do, remember the work has to be done by a Gas Safe Engineer, who must register your installation with Gas Safe, and maybe notify the council for compliance purposes. Gas Safe will send you a letter to confirm the registration. When you sell the house, you will need to produce that document. You should try to hold some money back, until you receive the document.

You should ask to see their Gas Safe card, and write down the number, and name, plus address. Beware of Romanians, they have one person who has a gas safe registration, and tens of cousins who operate under the same registration. Look up the registration on the Gas Safe website. That should deter some of these Irish jokers.

Many thanks for your salutary warning (how on earth did you get away with your unpc comments..?). But this adds another layer to the burden of getting a new boiler installed.

Of course I'm aware of security re GasSafe installers - but wouldn't this be for the company doing the installation to ensure? Or did you mean if I were to choose a single (independent) person doing the installation? Perhaps it would be wiser to choose a company recommended by the boiler maker.

I note you recommend Intergas and so did Hengus. Do you represent the company or do you just have a practical/technical knowledge of boilers in general?

Finally, is the chemical or power flush done by the Intergas installer as part of the installation - therefore included in the price (something I should ask of course)?

Pincher

sevenonine wrote: »

I note you recommend Intergas and so did Hengus. Do you represent the company or do you just have a practical/technical knowledge of boilers in general?

Finally, is the chemical or power flush done by the Intergas installer as part of the installation - therefore included in the price (something I should ask of course)?

No connection with Intergas. It's Dutch, so is not so well known in the UK. If you want well known, Vaillant is the FORD of central heating.

I love my Glow worm, which optimises for condensation and has weather compensation. Bizarrely, it is now the budget option by price, even though the Smart Wiring Centre2 is the Holy Grail I was missing in 2010

https://www.glow-worm.co.uk/homeowner/products/smart-wiring-centre2-19840.html

Version 1 only had one heating zone, which meant I had to invent an entirely custom set up, incorporating a Honeywell timer, to control the Under Floor Heating.

The standard engineer you can get will never be able to handle the job. Hence I am not recommending a Glow worm.


Get your head round the idea: SLUDGE.
Sludge can clog your boiler heat exchanger, which is really BAD.
If it collects in your radiators, the bottom half doesn't heat up.
Visualise the flow of the central heating, is there anywhere that is blocked, or the radiator not heating up? If there's no blockage, and all the radiators heat up, what do you think? Hint: you don't need it.

The main thing is to make sure you get a return filter, I have the Fernox TF1, and clear it often, which will tell you how much sludge you have.

Note: always turn the valve to the boiler off before you clean the filter!

Now, if you choose to have a slow acting chemical flush, don't leave it in there forever. You are supposed to use it for a week or so, then flush it out. For the long term, you must have something called the INHIBITOR in the circulation system. E.g.

https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/fernox-protector-f1---500ml/

You drain the chemical flush out. Refill, run the pump, drain again to flush it all out. When you refill the final time, put in the Inhibitor.

You may need the nozzle version, for pressurised systems.


I find stubborn clogs in the radiator can't be shifted by power flush anyway. I would just replace them.

System

sevenonine wrote: »

I note you recommend Intergas and so did Hengus. Do you represent the company or do you just have a practical/technical knowledge of boilers in general?

No - I do not represent any boiler company. I have just spent the last 6 months researching the best boilers for my personal situation. I have no links whatsoever to Intergas but they are well liked on sites such as DIYNOT.com by professionals that install boilers for a living. For what it is worth, my short list of boilers was Intergas, Viessmann, Ideal and Atag. I would have selected the Intergas RF Eco, with its 10 year guarantee, had it not been for the fact that there is a possible PCB firmware issue with certain 3rd party controllers.

2010

I`m in the process of getting quotes for a new combi boiler to replace my regular one.

I`ve opted for Worc/Borsch and from their website it gives a list of recommended installers.

One`s coming on Thursday.

sevenonine

Hengus wrote: »

For what it is worth, my short list of boilers was Intergas, Viessmann, Ideal and Atag. I would have selected the Intergas RF Eco, with its 10 year guarantee....

I thought the Ideal is a budget boiler (like my Alpha) but you have listed it. Can you comment on the Intergas, with a 3-year warranty, which would suit my purpose: to sell my house, hopefully, this year and don't want to spend a lot of money on replacing my faulty Alpha.

I am listing the queries to be addressed by the companies I ask to quote - what processes they will follow when installing a condensing boiler, i.e. a chemical flush, fitting a filter.... how long will it take. Anything else?

Thanks for all your advice.

LesU

'I thought the Ideal is a budget boiler (like my Alpha) but you have listed it.'

Ideal used to be a down market, first entry low cost supplier, but they decided to up their game about 3 years ago. Their products now are very good and backed with long warranties. I had one fitted two years ago with a 7 year warranty and it has been working perfectly since it was installed. It was also a very competitive price.

2010

I`ve now had two quotes for a new Worc/Bosch boiler.
What really surprised me was that both people came in and looked at my existing set-up, conventional with two tanks in loft and a hot water tank in the airing cupboard.
They both said stick with your existing set-up and neither mentioned going for a combie boiler.
In fact when I brought up the subject both was very anti combie.
Maybe I`m out of touch with what`s happening these days (you don`t replace a boiler that often) but I thought the combie was the "must have" boiler.

Both said a combie was only good for a very small house or flat and they would, in fact, use MORE gas that a conventional system.

sevenonine

LesU wrote: »

I had one fitted two years ago with a 7 year warranty and it has been working perfectly since it was installed. It was also a very competitive price.

Would you mind telling me whether you had it installed by a company-recommended installer rather than an independent installer; also whether they went through the whole process of a power or chemical flush and any other extras (such as a filter). Also helpful to know the approx price. Did you get more than 1 quote?

LesU

Hi sevenonine
I had the combi boiler installed by an independent fitter, as a replacement for an existing 10yr old Worcester combi. I found him using CheckaTrader, I was going to get other quotes, but when I talked to the guy (who had a very non-pushy, 'you are genuinely getting a free quote', type of approach) and saw the actual amount he was asking, I placed the order straight off.
I had already identified the Ideal logic he24 as a good buy, and was prepared to do a bit of a battle to get a quote using it. As it was, the guy suggested it himself.
On the power flush approach. My fitter was ex-BG and he said that BG would always insist on a power flush whether it was needed or not, just to get some more income. In the case of my installation, he checked the boiler and said that it wouldn't need one.
To get the warranty the boiler had to be equipped with a filter (magnetic) and have a chemical flush. This consisted of filling the system with a cleaning additive and running it for about 2 weeks for a few hours every day. He then returned, drained the system, checked the filter (which sure enough was very clean) and refilled with inhibitor additive.
One thing that he was very careful on was the gas pressure at the boiler. The standards have been tightened over the years and many people will have an inadequate size supply pipe. We just passed the test, which consisted of opening all hot water taps and running our gas hob all rings on full.
This was also a switch from non-condensing to a condensing boiler, so extra pipework had to be installed to remove the condensate fluid. Also a new wireless room thermostat was included.
My installation was a bit more involved than most because the boiler is in the loft space. This involved extra work removing and replacing flue pipes in the roof.
The entire job came out at £1950. I am in South Essex, so not the cheapest area.
Hope this helps.