Which combi boiler / radiators ?
- Thread starter GeX
- Start date
Ended up having an Ideal Vogue Max C32 installed. Seems like the divertor valve is broken out of the box. Not a good start!
Plinth heaters are great, for a start. As you probably know by now.
You need to size a combi on it's HW output first, and above everything else - can it run two showers without freezing one if they are both turned on? Or one shower if that's all you have, and the hot tap turned on full blast?
You've got that covered with the Ideal.
THEN make sure it has sufficient output for the oversized rads (and budget/plan for them) while keeping it in condensing territory - no more 82/71 flow/return, you'll be down in the 40s as a flow temperature ideally.
I've seen a lot of people in the last few years going back to plain system boilers with a Megaflo/Gledhill/whatever, just using it as a very well insulated, expensive and controllable HWS tank. Combis were brought in as a cost cutting measure in the first place - and are usually fine, but make sure to spec it correctly.
Hope your boiler turns out OK!
You need to size a combi on it's HW output first, and above everything else - can it run two showers without freezing one if they are both turned on? Or one shower if that's all you have, and the hot tap turned on full blast?
You've got that covered with the Ideal.
THEN make sure it has sufficient output for the oversized rads (and budget/plan for them) while keeping it in condensing territory - no more 82/71 flow/return, you'll be down in the 40s as a flow temperature ideally.
I've seen a lot of people in the last few years going back to plain system boilers with a Megaflo/Gledhill/whatever, just using it as a very well insulated, expensive and controllable HWS tank. Combis were brought in as a cost cutting measure in the first place - and are usually fine, but make sure to spec it correctly.
Hope your boiler turns out OK!
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Feb 2007
- Posts
- 13,439
- Location
- London
Hi
How do you find this combi boiler?
Have been recommended it in a recent quote we got.
Its been fine, it works well, modulates down nice and low, so good for my system where only one radiator can be requesting heat.
Some of the criteria for having good flow for hot water from a combi is beyond (easy) control though, I've yet to have or try a combi that could support an unaffected hot shower when the cold water tap was being run in the kitchen. At best (assuming a thermo control on the shower) the flow drops off. If you don't have good pressure to the house in the first place then you are really on road to problems.
Worse still is that most are upgrades from older style tank in the loft types so the feeds to and from it are small pipes when you really need a decent water feed to the combi so it has some chance of coping with multiple demands for hot water. High flow powerful showers are wonderful but a right pain to support in a house with more than one person.
Worse one I had was in a rental place that had just been converted and it was obvious that the job had been done as cheaply as possible. Any tap in the house being turned on resulted in a boiling shower. If you flushed the toilet downstairs the hot water would stop completely.
Personally I'm updating my current old system this summer and thinking of going for a pressurised hot water tank type system with a combi heating that tank and serving the rads. Although that means I won't have an endless supply of hot water at least what is there should be delivered without being hit by somebody else in the house using a tap. Its going to cost more but the trade off is worth it to me. Moved into my current home in the summer and just hope that the boiler lasts through the winter, its the original fitted in 1992 although the previous owner said its had all but the heat exchanger replaced over the years, just need a little more out of it....
Worse still is that most are upgrades from older style tank in the loft types so the feeds to and from it are small pipes when you really need a decent water feed to the combi so it has some chance of coping with multiple demands for hot water. High flow powerful showers are wonderful but a right pain to support in a house with more than one person.
Worse one I had was in a rental place that had just been converted and it was obvious that the job had been done as cheaply as possible. Any tap in the house being turned on resulted in a boiling shower. If you flushed the toilet downstairs the hot water would stop completely.
Personally I'm updating my current old system this summer and thinking of going for a pressurised hot water tank type system with a combi heating that tank and serving the rads. Although that means I won't have an endless supply of hot water at least what is there should be delivered without being hit by somebody else in the house using a tap. Its going to cost more but the trade off is worth it to me. Moved into my current home in the summer and just hope that the boiler lasts through the winter, its the original fitted in 1992 although the previous owner said its had all but the heat exchanger replaced over the years, just need a little more out of it....