Will I be able to run two showers at same time off Combi in new house?

Disneyworld

Hi there.

Me and my partner are buying a new property which is due to be ready early this year.

We were picking our extras and wanted to add a mixer thermostatic shower to the bathroom for efficiency if we had guests round and they wouldn’t have to use the en suite shower.

We were told they are not allowed to install two showers both off the mains. One would have to be electric.

We can’t stand electric showers so Luckily my father in law is a bathroom fitter who says he’d rather have a shower off the combi if he was us. Although tone shower will probably go cold if we ran them bother at the same time. It would depend on the boiler.

I’ve found out the the boiler is an “Ideal Logic ESP1 35 Combi”

Google tells me the flow rate for this boiler is 14.5 litres per minute, would this handle two showers at the same time if they were both thermostatic Mixer showers?

The chances we’d both shower at the same time is slim, but I’m just looking for opinions on whether to get an electric installed by the builders, or let me father in law install one off the mains for us.

I understand most new builds have big water tanks in them taking up a full cupboard. Ours isn’t the case and it’s just a combi boiler in the integrated garage (which I’m happy about)

Thanks in advance!

grumbler

Disneyworld wrote: »

Google tells me the flow rate for this boiler is 14.5 litres per minute, would this handle two showers at the same time if they were both thermostatic Mixer showers?

The same google (top result) gives 0.25L/s, i.e. 15L/min flow rate for a shower.

Undervalued

Disneyworld wrote: »

Hi there.

Me and my partner are buying a new property which is due to be ready early this year.

We were picking our extras and wanted to add a mixer thermostatic shower to the bathroom for efficiency if we had guests round and they wouldn’t have to use the en suite shower.

We were told they are not allowed to install two showers both off the mains. One would have to be electric.

We can’t stand electric showers so Luckily my father in law is a bathroom fitter who says he’d rather have a shower off the combi if he was us. Although tone shower will probably go cold if we ran them bother at the same time. It would depend on the boiler.

I’ve found out the the boiler is an “Ideal Logic ESP1 35 Combi”

Google tells me the flow rate for this boiler is 14.5 litres per minute, would this handle two showers at the same time if they were both thermostatic Mixer showers?

The chances we’d both shower at the same time is slim, but I’m just looking for opinions on whether to get an electric installed by the builders, or let me father in law install one off the mains for us.

I understand most new builds have big water tanks in them taking up a full cupboard. Ours isn’t the case and it’s just a combi boiler in the integrated garage (which I’m happy about)

Thanks in advance!

Only if the have a very limited flow rate in which case they will feel like a miserable electric shower!

Do you really need to use both at exactly the same time? Most combi's I've met will give one reasonably decent shower at a time but that is all.

However There are other options. Personally I don't like having a combi as the only source of hot water in a house. If it goes faulty, whilst it is easy enough to keep a couple of rooms warm for a day or to having no hot water is miserable.

Unless you absolutely must run both showers at the same time I would feed one (or both) from your combi then have a basic electric shower in one cubicle as an emergency backup.

vw100

Looks like a Ideal Logic 35Kw combi boiler.

Also depends on your mains water pressure.

Not sure of two showers at same time, but should be ok otherwise.

Tucker

We had an extension and a second bathroom added. So now we have 2 thermostatic mixers from one combi. However, we had to uprate the boiler from a 30kw version to a baxi 40kw and the cold pipe feed was increased to 22 mm until they spur off to each shower. I think our flo rate is somewhere near 17l per minute.

It copes with both running but you can tell when they are both on as the showers are a bit less powerful than normal.

We have excellent water pressure at the mains stop tap which obviously helps.

neilmcl

How many times are you going to have guests round to use your other shower? You'll struggle to have two showers running off the combi at the same time, just running a tap in the kitchen will be enough for you to notice with a single shower. I'd stick with an electric shower as a backup.

googler

Have the thermo shower in your ES, and put an electric in the guest bathroom. It will get used less, you're unlikely to be using it, and guests will most likely be perfectly happy

daveyjp

15l a minute hot water flow is only any use if your mains pressure is at least that rate. If not its not worth having a large boiler.

Check the cold water flow rate first.

PasturesNew

Although you don't like electric showers, maybe it's also a case of not having researched them to see if any aren't how you thought they'd be.

In any case, "it's only for guests, in case" + if your boiler packs up you'll be grateful you've got an alternative.

Disneyworld

The chances of having two showers at the same time is rare. Probably never! But I said to my fianc!e if it isn’t possible to do then what’s the point of having two bathrooms?

We might go ahead with the combi but be wary of having them on the same time. Just as long as the worst case result is a loss in pressure/ cold water and not actually damaging the boiler through overuse

fezster

A high KW combi will run 2 fairly decent showers at the same time during the summer months (when the incoming water supply is 15+ degrees), but will struggle during winter when it is closer to zero.

You can also look at storage combis which use a small stored hot water vessel to boost the hot supply for a short period of time, at the expense of increased gas usage.