Love or Hate your Combi Boiler?

Grenage

We (2 adults) were happy with a 24kw combi at the last place; the shower was a thermostatic mixer, and there was always enough hot water at the taps.

Our new home has a 20-yr old Potterton, with a power shower; I'm never going back to a combi.

prosaver

mine like this


waiting for it too conk out, had it repaired twice, 90 and 60 pounds in 20 years .
Still going stong tho.
think its from the 70's
retro and all that:D

Chanes

We replaced a cylinder heater and central heating boiler with a Vaillant Ecotec pro 28 it has been a far most cost effective system to run and has reduced the heating bills and freed up the closet which housed the cylinder and space in the loft which the tank occupied.

coffeehound

jack_pott wrote: »

Fortunately it used to reach the melting point of solder before the pressure was sufficient to rupture the heat exchanger, so it usually failed by slipping one of the joints. Nevertheless, it was still a big bang followed by a kitchen full of scalding steam then a flood of water. <snip>

Thanks that's useful to know. Must've been a nightmare to have to put up with all that time. If PRVs aren't mandatory on unvented heating/water circuits now, your experience there makes a very strong case for them.

.

katejo

prosaver wrote: »

a plumber told me combi dont last as long as the other, too many parts or something

My Vaillant combi is now about 14 years old and still going strong. Has just been serviced and is still in good working order. Only 1 repair in the 11 years that I have been here and that was about 3-4 years ago and cost about £300.

Kernel_Sanders

fezster wrote: »

Same for a combi.

I was talking about combies!

fezster wrote: »

Having had an unvented setup, I'd definitely prefer that, unless space prohibited me from having one.

But unvented systems take up less room!

fezster

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

I was talking about combies!

Originally Posted by Kernel Sanders View Post
Nobody seems to have mentioned the Achilles' Heel that unvented systems have;
<snip>
you'll be able to flush your toilet just the once, have no hot water to wash your hands afterwards and no cold to even make a cup of tea.

You said unvented, though. Combi's and unvented cylinders are both mains pressure driven so equally affected by what you described.

But unvented systems take up less room!

Not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. A combi boiler may be slightly larger than a conventional boiler (depends on brand and model), but an unvented cylinder requires space for an *entire* cylinder on top of that!.