Hi,
Hope someone can give me some advice on this...
THE PROBLEM: Unreliable hot water supply. Particularly in the winter, and particularly in the mornings, there is not enough water coming through the hot tap in my bath to be able to have a shower. I can usually run a hot bath, but there doesn't seem to be enough pressure to keep the little button that diverts the water to the shower-head raised. If I do attempt to have a shower, it usually alternates between scalding hot and freezing cold, with me doing a lot of swearing and counting to ten in between! Last winter, there were a few mornings where I could get absolutely no hot water whatsoever. I think the pressure was too low to get the boiler's heating mechanism to kick in.
THE QUESTION: Is it worth replacing the boiler, or does the problem lie with the low water pressure and therefore not be solved by getting a new boiler? (Or is it a combination of the two things?)
THE BOILER: Vaillant combination boiler with no model number on it. At least 6 years old, possibly up to 20 years old.
THE FLAT: The flat is one of about 25 in a converted factory building built in 1875. It's on the third floor up, out of four floors. New residential developments are being built either side, so I'm guessing that low water pressure will get even worse in years to come.
THE WATER PRESSURE: The stop-cock is located under the bath, (and is opened to allow maximum amount of water through). On a good day it takes about 40 seconds to run 10 litres of cold water from either the kitchen or bath tap. On a bad day it can take over 90 seconds to run 10 litres from the bath hot tap (but the water that comes out isn't necessarily hot). Pressure seems to vary throughout the day.
THE ADVICE SO FAR: I had a plumber in to give me some advice, and he said that really the only way to get around the pressure problem was to have an unvented cylinder system fitted (Megaflow?) along with a new boiler. The boiler is already taking up valuable space in the bedroom, and I think this is where the new boiler and cylinder would have to go, so alongside that and the no doubt horrendous amount it would cost me, I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas? There is no airing cupboard to put a storage tank in, but there is a shallow loft space, where I guess I could put some kind of storage tank, but it would probably have to be custom made and therefore another expensive option.
Many thanks in advance!
Hope someone can give me some advice on this...
THE PROBLEM: Unreliable hot water supply. Particularly in the winter, and particularly in the mornings, there is not enough water coming through the hot tap in my bath to be able to have a shower. I can usually run a hot bath, but there doesn't seem to be enough pressure to keep the little button that diverts the water to the shower-head raised. If I do attempt to have a shower, it usually alternates between scalding hot and freezing cold, with me doing a lot of swearing and counting to ten in between! Last winter, there were a few mornings where I could get absolutely no hot water whatsoever. I think the pressure was too low to get the boiler's heating mechanism to kick in.
THE QUESTION: Is it worth replacing the boiler, or does the problem lie with the low water pressure and therefore not be solved by getting a new boiler? (Or is it a combination of the two things?)
THE BOILER: Vaillant combination boiler with no model number on it. At least 6 years old, possibly up to 20 years old.
THE FLAT: The flat is one of about 25 in a converted factory building built in 1875. It's on the third floor up, out of four floors. New residential developments are being built either side, so I'm guessing that low water pressure will get even worse in years to come.
THE WATER PRESSURE: The stop-cock is located under the bath, (and is opened to allow maximum amount of water through). On a good day it takes about 40 seconds to run 10 litres of cold water from either the kitchen or bath tap. On a bad day it can take over 90 seconds to run 10 litres from the bath hot tap (but the water that comes out isn't necessarily hot). Pressure seems to vary throughout the day.
THE ADVICE SO FAR: I had a plumber in to give me some advice, and he said that really the only way to get around the pressure problem was to have an unvented cylinder system fitted (Megaflow?) along with a new boiler. The boiler is already taking up valuable space in the bedroom, and I think this is where the new boiler and cylinder would have to go, so alongside that and the no doubt horrendous amount it would cost me, I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas? There is no airing cupboard to put a storage tank in, but there is a shallow loft space, where I guess I could put some kind of storage tank, but it would probably have to be custom made and therefore another expensive option.
Many thanks in advance!
