Ideal Combi boilers

Mikey

Mikey

Mikey

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Anyone had experience of combi boilers from Ideal?


Had a few quotes and various installers recommend a different one each time and some are recommending a high kW combi and others not.

Got a 4 bed detached with just my wife and I. Ensuite and main bathroom.

Far too many radiators, which I'll be reducing for better efficiency ones
 
We've literally just had one fitted. An Ideal Logic + 30 kW
Went on my friend recommendation as he's done the job and services/fits dozens of them. For the price he reckons they're brilliant. Still got a Grundfoss pump like many other brands though apparently.
 
Ah yes the chap last night mentioned about the pump and he thinks I need a 35kw+

Would then get a nest possiblely for controls

BG recommended Potterton
Another installer viesman?
Worcester chap err recommend Worcester and slated everything else!

At mo it's 2 combi recommendation and two condensing. Pressure upstairs isn't good due to lack of head
 
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The Logic range are pretty good boilers. There's quite a few ex Vaillant people designing for Ideal now. They give a decent warranty with them too.

With any Combi it's imperative they are installed properly with a magnetic trap and the system is as clean as it can be and an inhibitor is used. Running dirty water through them will kill any of them.

The older Ideal Isar range had a bad reputation due to a few design faults - the original PCB's tended to fail just out of warranty and were expensive to replace. We've got one and had problems with intermittent hot water a couple of years ago. I told the British Gas engineer I thought the plate heat exchanger was blocked, he said I was talking rubbish and proceeded to replace the diverter valve, thermistor and the pump over the following 2 weeks. After 3 visits BG called out Ideal, guy whipped the cover off, opened the hot tap, stuck his hand in, said heat exchanger is blocked and had it replaced in 10 minutes. He then spent 2 hours basically doing a stripdown and rebuild and changing anything that had been modified. It's been fine ever since. In the event of any problems I'd highly recommend going straight to the manufacturer as they have all the parts on their vans and know them inside out.
 
If you've got room for a tank I'd consider going for a condensing boiler with an unvented tank. This will give you mains pressure hot water.

Everyone seems to be going Combi these days but the tanks are pretty efficient these days and will fill a bath a damn site faster than a combi will. Fewer components means they're more reliable and you will have a heating element in the tank as a backup too. We had a Worcester Greenstar 40HE with a 250L tank and it would heat it from cold in about 20 minutes.
 
Yes they've mentioned about the filter to prevent the debris and getting the system flushed
 
Yes we have a tank currently and the chap last night also recommended the unvented option too, he was going to quote for both again Ideal I think. He also said poss Worcester
 
i quite like the baxi duo tec range..

but in my own home i'd love an intergas boiler..

Depending on the size of your home most boilers are related to their hot water output, a 24kw boiler should give you about 10Lpm enough hot water to run a kitchen hot tap but not a bath tap at the same time, so people will try and sell you a bigger boiler to cope with that, 2 taps or a tap and shower run at the same time..

The trouble is, do you even get much above 10 liters per minute from your cold water ? and if you dont then what would be the point in buying a boiler much bigger than 24kw ? unless your heating system used more than 24kw.. ask your self that question..
 
I had one in my last house ,it was rebuilt by my breakdown ins people ,the main problem being the main circuit board ,done maybe five times.also the heat exchanger went twice . maybe they are better now
 
Given the choice, you'd be better off going with a stainless steel design heat exchanger like the Vaillant and Baxi range. I've seen far too many issues with alloy heat exchangers! UVHW (cylinder)will always be superior to a combi, if you have the room and the cash then don't even consider a combi. Couple up the cylinder to a little heat only Vaillant and never look back :)
 
Worcester dont make the best combi boilers. A couple of mates are plumbers and said yes get a Worcester if you need a traditional boiler, but as combi boilers they are bodge from "proper" boiler parts and not designed from ground up as a combi.
 
For me it's the opposite, Worcester make good combi boilers for the average house. When it comes to specifying a heat only boiler for a better system then Worcester are not the boiler.

And Ideal boilers better than Baxi! Hahaha, good one!
 
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