Why doesn't everyone hate combis?

custardy

Just get a power shower and that solves most issues.
Though we do get the slowing hot water in the kitchen,not bathroom. Boiler has been replaced so potentially a plumbing set up issue

keith969

I've got a pressurised unvented system. The hot water tank is on the ground floor in the garage, next to the boiler, so no upstairs tank issues. I can run two showers at mains pressure simultaneously with no temperature change. And it has an immersion heater in case the bolier should fail.

My neighbour has a combi and it breaks down, it seems, every winter, but of course that might just be bad luck. I've only ever lived in a place once with one, and hated it.

getmore4less

You can get mains pressure water store systems.

older houses had less of an issue with long runs, bathroom over kitchen boiler and tanks very close.

Now we stick multiple bathrooms and extra toilets all over the place in addition to kitchens utilities and just have long pipe runs

One thing that domestic properties don't tend to have, probably complexity, cost and not that efficient in domestic settings, is loop recirculation hot water.

You runs a recirculating loop of hot water and have short take offs along the run to each location. When running the draw is much shorter time.

There are other systems out there, seen one that can prime the hot water lines on demand and has return line for the initial cold water rather than wasting it down the drain.


Simple is good in the right property.
The simple boiler that heats water, reliable and easy to maintain.
big/multiple well insulated tanks with a good head to gravity feed.
Very little to go wrong.

Even going to mains pressure systems adds complexity.

SG27

Ive never had any of those problems, apart from maybe 10 seconds for the hot to come through when initially turning the tap on.

angela110660

I love having an airing cupboard so thumbs up to my hot water tank

buglawton

Alex1983 wrote: »

Should be about getting the right designed system for your property. A combi has no place in a big multi bathroom property just like a big hot water cyclinder and heat only boiler has no place in a flat.

A correctly designed system with correct hot water draw offs eradicates most of the problems you describe.

I got the storage system replaced with a combi when loft was converted. This got rid of 2 loft tanks and the immersion heater. Yes the time-to hot water is longer. You learn to start running the hot tap slightly before you need the water. But the space saving and pipework simplification was impressive. The combi is happily coping with 2 bathrooms, kitchen and utility. There is energy saving especially in summer when hot water sitting about the house in an immersion isn't useful. I think a lot of the early design problems of combis have been sorted nowadays.

jk0

Yeah, I have most of the same problems, o/p.


My gf puts the hot tap on when she sits down to pee, and it's warm by the time she's finished! I've just got used to washing hands in cold water.



For washing up, I run the cold water into the small bowl, and use for rinsing.



About the only saving grace of the combi I find, is that you don't have a big hot tank making your house even hotter in the summer.

dunroving

My last house had the combi in the kitchen and a downstairs bathroom next to it - so no issues with cold water run-off before getting hot.The kitchen sink tap ran hot almost instantaneously.

My new house has the combi upstairs in the old airing cupboard and even though the kitchen sink is almost directly downstairs, and maybe 10 feet horizontal, it takes 10 seconds of running the tap to get tepid water and a full 25 seconds until it gets hot (just ran a non-scientific study to check!).

The problem I have with all of that is the waste of so much cold water while waiting for hot, if you use the latter for trivial tasks like rinsing your hands, rinsing out a cup, brushing your teeth(!), etc.

In my old house I was struck at the number of times over 11 years that I found the kitchen or bathroom taps warm following use by visitors. I never plucked up the courage to ask "What the heck do you need hot water for?", but did wonder. I now have a lodger and find the same phenomenon - finding the taps warm at odd times.

I use hot water for washing dishes (and as jko said, I use the cold for something else while waiting - e.g., rinsing crud off dishes, rinsing coffee ground out of the coffee press filters, etc.) and showers, and ... just about nothing else.

I despair of the sheer volume of cold water the developed world wastes while waiting for hot water to, err, brush their teeth(?)

shortcrust

SG27 wrote: »

Ive never had any of those problems, apart from maybe 10 seconds for the hot to come through when initially turning the tap on.

Same here. Sounds to me like the OP has problems with their combi boiler, not combis in general.

shortcrust

dunroving wrote: »

I despair of the sheer volume of cold water the developed world wastes while waiting for hot water to, err, brush their teeth(?)

Why on earth do you need to brush your teeth with hot water?! I don’t think much water gets wasted because most people just use cold.