Hot Water/Combi Boiler Problem! (Merged)

Idgam

Hi

I wondered if anyone on this board could recommend a new combi boiler to go for.

We have a Sauner Duval boiler which is located in the loft at the moment. It is a combi boiler with a storage tank and is about 4 years old.

The problem that we have is that the boiler has never worked properly and keeps “tripping” out, so we have to go up into the loft to reset it. This can happen anything up to ten times a week. We have had engineers come out and now the service contract has run out it is becoming expensive to run.

I now just want rid of this one and get one that works. Does anyone have any recommendations?

moneysavingplumber

Idgam wrote:

Hi

I wondered if anyone on this board could recommend a new combi boiler to go for.

We have a Sauner Duval boiler which is located in the loft at the moment. It is a combi boiler with a storage tank and is about 4 years old.

The problem that we have is that the boiler has never worked properly and keeps “tripping” out, so we have to go up into the loft to reset it. This can happen anything up to ten times a week. We have had engineers come out and now the service contract has run out it is becoming expensive to run.

I now just want rid of this one and get one that works. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Ten different plumbers will all give you ten different recommendations.

Alpha boilers are reliable and good value for the price, usually include an extended warranty and have a 6 year warranty on the plate heat exchanger, the most likely major component to scale up in combis. They also have a cyclone valve for filtering out dirt from an old system, and they also have a seasonal balancing valve, boosting your hot water in the summer when the heating is off. The main drawback is that their appearance is a little dated.

Other good makes for combis are Worcester and Vaillant.

Baxi/Potterton make some good boilers, but I've had problems with several Baxi combis and I personally steer clear of them now.

Ask for brochures and try and have some say in the decision yourself, it may irritate some installers but you're paying for it, so it's fair that you do this. Having said that, make sure you listen to their advice.

Idgam

Thanks. It gives me something to look for. I am just really fed up that this boiler (cost around £1500) is already on the brink of dying.

The rest of the system seems to work ok. What sort of price range should I be looking at just to replace the boiler? 3 bed mid terrace.

Idgam

moneysavingplumber

An Alpha condensing combi will be around the £700 mark. Provided the gas supply is adequate (22mm to boiler) and it's a fairly straightforward swap, it shouldn't take more than two days to complete including commissioning and balancing. The system will need to be updated if you don't have room stat and TRVs already, and should be cleansed, preferrably before swapping the boiler. Alpha do a wireless programmable room stat that doesn't require hard wiring at around £90 and TRVs range from £5 to £15 each. Cleansing and treating chemicals from £30-£50. So as a rough guide around £900 for materials, plus labour on the above spec'.

catchdarren

Sorry but my post got a bit lost when these threads were merged! I'd be really grateful if anyone could help....

We are about to move into a house with a very old (>20 years) back boiler CH system. We want to change over to a combi. Someone has suggested that we should get all the rads and pipework replaced at the same time. Does this make sense to those in the know...?

Thanks

D

wolfpeltz

As it only cost £4 for a new diaphragm, it got changed, but the old one looked OK. The diverter valve activator moves on firing up, so I would expect it to operate the valve. However, is it possible that the spring tension in the valve itself is too great preventing proper opening ?

bobdriver1

Hi
I have a biasi combi boiler 24S and the central heating part works fine but the hotwater diaphram switch takes about 20 seconds to come on and it only works when the hot tap full on it doe not work at all if the tap is only half on. Is this the diverter valve or the diaphram switch, can anyone help. Thanks in advance:mad:

gondunit

Hi there - I have the same problem as bobdriver1. My local water company has just upgraded our water pipes which seems to have increased the flow of water through all the taps quite a lot. But now the hot taps need to be on full blast before the combi-boiler kicks it. I was wondering if anyone knows whats causing the problem, and if it's fairly simple to fix?

Thanks for you help.

bobdriver1 wrote: »

Hi
I have a biasi combi boiler 24S and the central heating part works fine but the hotwater diaphram switch takes about 20 seconds to come on and it only works when the hot tap full on it doe not work at all if the tap is only half on. Is this the diverter valve or the diaphram switch, can anyone help. Thanks in advance:mad:

dilloman

Hi
I have an Alpha combi boiler. The system is losing pressure to the point where I need to manually re-pressure it every day and sometimes twice or three times a day. The heating stays on once it is re-pressurised but once it is off the pressure seems to drop rapidly. I've tried bleeding the radiators but no air was found (radiators were hot anyway). I'd be grateful for any advice.
P.S. Great site!

robowen

dilloman wrote: »

Hi
I have an Alpha combi boiler. The system is losing pressure to the point where I need to manually re-pressure it every day and sometimes twice or three times a day. The heating stays on once it is re-pressurised but once it is off the pressure seems to drop rapidly. I've tried bleeding the radiators but no air was found (radiators were hot anyway). I'd be grateful for any advice.
P.S. Great site!

Thats quite a big loss of pressure over 1 day. If you can't see any major leaks anywhere, there could be a problem with the pressure relief valve or the pressure vessel itself.
Does the boiler discharge any water through its vent pipe to outside ?