Advice please! Do I need to change my boiler?

[LFM]

Hi,

I have decided to have a new bathroom and I would like to have a mixer shower, the type with the hidden plumbing, just the valves and shower head showing!

I have a terraced house and at the moment my conventional vaillant boiler is in the cellar and I have an electric shower in the upstairs bathroom. Basically my question is will my current boiler do the job with the aid of a water pump or would I need to change my boiler for a combi?

Thanks

LFM

 

[mickyg]

no
you can have a pump or not, depends how good a shower you want. assume you have a normal copper cylinder with storage tank in loft?

 

[LFM]

Yes I do have the cylinder and a tank in the loft!

I was wanting a shower with a fair bit of pressure, i'm not really that clued up with plumbing etc! Am I correct in thinking that thermostatic mixer showers heat the water up themselves?

 

[ChrisR]

thermostatic mixer showers heat the water up themselves?

No. A mixer is a mixer not a heater.

Your electric shower will be about 4 litres a minute, but quite fast little jets cos it's mains pressure.

A combi would be say 3 times the flow of the electric (say 28kW vs 9kW)

If you pump the water out of your cylinder, you can have whatever flow you like.
But if you put in a monster pump and have 30 litres/minute, a standard cylinder would be empty of HW in about 4 minutes.

 

[LFM]

So, would I be better off with a combi? Or maybe a bigger tank and small pump? Or do I just forget the pump with a conventional boiler and tank?

 

[LFM]

Sorry if I seem a bit dumb here, as I said plumbing etc isn't my no.1 subject to say the least.

Will I be ok with my current set up as long as I just have a small pump?

What are the pro's and cons? I don't want to be running out of hot water all the time and I would like to be able to use the shower as and when I choose without thinking about heating the water up for 20 mins before I shower!

Advise please!

Thanks

LFM

 

[Agile]

In that case you want a combi boiler!

But your chosed gas registered installer should be advising on the pros and cons.

Tony