Condensing Combi- what shower?

keithwales

I am following the various threads about boilers with great interest.
Our boiler is dying, or so BG tell me.

We're planning to refit our bathroom next year. What shower has to go with a Combi?

Does it feed hot water from the boiler, or does it have to be one with just a cold water feed that heats it itself?

Happyroly

Hi, in April we had a new Worcester boiler installed by a first class local company who did an excellent job. We have two showers - one is a power shower which feeds hot water from the boiler and and one that 'heats itself'. Both have continued to work perfectly so I guess, from our experience, either type of shower will work. We did need to have new hot water tank installed as part of the work but this should be better for 'moneysaving' as the new ones are better insulated.
Hope that helps. Happyroly

Doglover88

my old and knackered combi boiler, thats on its last legs runs my thermostatically controller shower (which is very old too) excellently, water flow rate is great and its definately powerful enough
hoping my new Worcester will be at least as powerful
glen

IJJoseph

You have a number of choices.

1) Run just a cold water mains feed to an electric shower. It won't matter what boiler you have it won't affect the shower.
2) Fit a combi and run the hot and cold to a thermostatic shower (they can be expensive (starting around £180 for a complete mixer valve and rose right up to £900) but if someone flushes the toilet or runs the cold you won't get scalded).
3) Fit the combi but keep a separate hot water cylinder and header tank (not a great deal of point as there are no energy savings, but if the boiler ever failed then you'd still be able to shower).
Assuming you go for option 2 there are a few points you need to be aware of. There are 2 things which control the effectiveness of a shower. Flow rate and pressure. Both are governed by incoming mains pressure/flow rate and choice of boiler. The high the pressure and flow rate the faster the shower runs and the bigger the shower head (or rose) you can fit. If the boiler is under powered however then it won't be able to heat the water quick enough and so you'll end up standing under the equivalent of a teardrop as opposed to niagra falls!
I have a Vaillant EcoMax 828E (28Kw) which has a flow rate of 17L/min. It runs a thermostatic shower with a 10" rose and is very refreshing. Most domestic boilers on the market are between 24kW and 35kW. The bigger the house (more radiators) the bigger the boiler required.
Vaillant are without doubt the best boilers on the market at the moment. Worcester Bosch are good but I'm not that impressed with them and they have an aluminium heat exchanger (1 or 2 yr warranty) whereas the Vaillant has a Stainless steel exchanger (5 yr warranty). Generally with boilers you get what you pay for.
Hope this is useful.

sooz

agree with last post. plumber tells me vaillant is great...[but 5 year ago he told me a potterton was great, and now complains about i :rotfl: t] we had new boiler fitted, then new loft and extra shower. can only use one shower at once, but washing machine, loo flushing etc make no difference to water temp.

refused to have an immersion fitted for new shower, as did not want to pay even bigger electric bills for a shower we use every day, and lose wardrobe space for tank etc. had to have aqualise shower fitting for better pressure up two floors, but it is wonderful. boiler comes with 2 year warranty, providing you have a service at end of year 1 - cost 60 pounds ish. been in for nearly 2 years now and no problems yet.....

IJJoseph

sooz.....glad to hear you're happy with the Vaillant. Worth bearing in mind that the Vaillant has 5 yr warranty on the heat exchanger (and they are not cheap!) check with Vaillant to make sure. They make require that you keep getting it serviced by aVaillant approved engineer but as you've seen the service doesn't break the bank (even if it's only a 1/2-1hr job!). Hope it continues to serve you well. Mine has been in for 2 years with no problems and the one before had been in for 12 years without problem but wasn't a condensing and wasn't big enough to cope with my extension.

sooz

thanks, will check throught he great big pile of stuff that has not made it to the filing cabinet yet....any solutions for that....

and sorry for spelling error....valiant/vaillant....it lives in a cupboard and does not get much love.

Woby_Tide

we wnt for option 4, remove header tanks and immersion heater and just have a shower via bath mixer taps with a Worcester condensing combi. Flow is fine and using taps/toiletsaround house has small effect but nothing to disturb you too much, plus it's £100 cheaper than a thermostatic mixer

sooz

IJJoseph wrote:

sooz.....glad to hear you're happy with the Vaillant. Worth bearing in mind that the Vaillant has 5 yr warranty on the heat exchanger (and they are not cheap!) check with Vaillant to make sure. They make require that you keep getting it serviced by aVaillant approved engineer but as you've seen the service doesn't break the bank (even if it's only a 1/2-1hr job!). Hope it continues to serve you well. Mine has been in for 2 years with no problems and the one before had been in for 12 years without problem but wasn't a condensing and wasn't big enough to cope with my extension.

you sound like a plumber...no offense intended. i love them, and would love to have the time to train as one :j
could you then explain why all boilers choose to break on xmas eve.[as i touch every peice of wood in the house, and no i'm not superstitious]..is this an inbuilt xmas bonus, or same as corrie tea breaks and pressure on the national grid. :j

IJJoseph

Sooz. No not a plumber but my father was before he became a HVAC Consultant (Overpaid plumber!) for local authority.

As for why boilers break on Christmas Eve. Plumbers believe in Santa more than you do :rotfl:

se999

We went for a Worcester boiler and Aqualisa showers (recommended by builder). We didn't need power showers because the water pressure was so good. Worked perfectly. When we sold the house a plumber bought it, who was extremely pleased to find we'd got that combination.