New Central Heating / Megaflo 5 bed house

[lmk]

Hello, new to post but have read items on this site many times.

Just moved in to outdated 5 bed house. We have old lead pipes in basement and a 1970's glow worm boiler. We have had two quotes in from recommended corgi istallers. Both quotes include
- installing Megaflow 210 in basement and installing system boiler
- removing all old pipework and replacing with new for both heating sytem and hot and cold water supplies.
- 11 x new radiators.
there are also various bits and pieces like adding controls and manga cleans etc.
However, one quote came in at £6500 including all hardware and VAT and one quote came in at £9,400.
The price difference is quite confusing. We don't want to pay under the odds and then have someone crimping or start adding to their bill but we are not rich.
So question 1 - is £6,500 a reasonable price?

Question 2 - our water mains supply is an old lead pipe. The mains supply down our street has also not been updated and is still old pipes. Both plumbers have suggested just connecting the megaflo to our internal supply (old lead pipe). However, will this compromise the efficiency of the megalfo?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

LMK

 

[stephenf8542]

Ask for exact details of what they plan to install then compare them or come back to the forum to get their opinium

 

[gas4you]

Personally I would say the £9400 quote is about right. I would, on a job this size, be allowing around £650 @ 5% VAT and not all at 15%, to help save you a bit of money.

I would also recommend getting your cold main replaced from your stop cock out side, into your property, then at least a 22mm feed to the megaflo.

Have either of these installers tested mains pressure and flow rate before quoting?

Make sure they are both G3 registered for unvented cylinders as well.

 

[lmk]

Wow, what a fantastically quick response.

They both have right qualifications for installing unvented systems.

Both have suggested updating to out stopcock outside. However they have left these costs outside their quotes - I am chasing both on this. They both are both giving the impression that it will be fine to just connect to our internal water supply.

Neither have said anything about what the current preassure is. Is it a waste of time installing a megaflo without the correct preassure? I know we have old lead pipes.

I am trying to get in contact with Mega flo manufacturers to clarify but gave up after being on hold for 20 minutes.

Any further advice greatly appreciated - as I will ask the plumbers these questions.

LMK

 

[gas4you]

Although megaflo's will work on pressures and flow rates that are below what they like, you will not see the benefit of the extra cost you will pay for a megaflo unless you have at least 20 l/min flow and 3 - 4 Bar incoming cold mains pressure.

Strange you have been on hold. I usually find them pretty good and they are only about 2 miles down the road from me.

I have been told that since Baxi have taken them over the moral is a lot lower. I know several who work there and most have left since the take over.

I, however, still fit them, or indeed the Santon Premier Plus, which is the same cylinder but with a slightly smaller diameter coil and an external pressure vessel.

 

[stephenf8542]

The 'OSO' range is good as well,stainless steel and 25year warrenty

 

[simond]

When I write quotes for unvented systems I always test the water flow and static pressure. I then put these measurements in the written quote, otherwise the customer cannot gauge the suitability of the solution proposed. It also protects our position if we told the customer the water flow would be poor, and gave a price to improve it which they declined.

I have just had a gentleman on the phone, six bathrooms in Somerset and he can only use one tap at a time. He has a 500litre cylinder and no hope of using it properly. There are plenty of unvented customers out there who were promised the World and ended up with something less.

Ask the installers for their water flow and pressure measurements. If they didn't take any, the conclusion is simple.

If in doubt get another installer round, I think 2 or 3 quotes is a fair number - and there are plenty of us out there who could do with the work at the moment.

 

[jcs1007]

I notice the original poster indicated the quote is to install the megaflow in a basement. As this is quite an old post, I would guess you've now completed the work. How have you solved the issue of running the discharge pipe given the basement situation? We've had a Santon installed in our basement, which vents in to a Sanivite pump (the high volume one that also handles our washing machine). But another plumber has since suggested this is not the correct approach.

 

[bengasman]

Installing an unvented cylinder on old lead pipe is almost surely a waste of money as you will not get the performance that it can deliver.
I would strongly recommend getting rid of the lead pipe and bring the plumbing into the 21st century.
Nice big (35 mm) incoming from streetvalve, and branch of as and when required in 28/22/15

Impossible to comment on the ch quote without knowing all the details.