Confused on new boiler options, help?

Hello, hopefully this post is in the right place:

We live in a 1,600 sq foot condo (2 bathrooms) in Boston. This is a brick structure, 1/2 of a 2 family built in 1930 with older windows. We have baseboards with forced hot water coming from a natural gas Burnham boiler from 1976 w/ separate (newish) hot water tank.

We are looking to buy a new boiler for our unit.

First question: is a combo boiler a good choice for us? We might have 2 showers going at the same time, but that would be max hot water demand. I was told by one plumber to NOT go with a newer, high efficiency boiler b/c they aren't as reliable as separate boilers + water tanks. Is this correct? I certainly am concerned with the reliability factor.

If a combo boiler is a good choice, how do I know what our plumber is recommending is a good choice? Are there any to stay away from? The current recommendation is a Laars Mascot II.

I've also read you can install a small separate hot water heater to even a combo boiler, in case we find the hot water demand output from the unit to not be sufficient. is this something I could hire a plumber to do sometime in the future? I don't want to spend needless money.

Would appreciate any insight! thanks

You have posted on a UK site ? must admit I have never heard of a Laars mascot boiler ?

As a general rule of thumb , a combo (combination boiler / combi ) will not be as reliable as a seperate boiler & hot water storage tank /cylinder

used to be a fella on here from the states who posted on a regular basis
lived in Tennasee some where ?????

The Laars Mascot II looks similar, internally, to some of the boilers here in the UK, the heat exchanger and manifolds look familiar, but I can't put my finger on the appliance. It'll come to me when I'm in bed

Anyhow, you'll be hard pushed to find a combination appliance that can run two showers at once. You'll best stay with a cylinder (Hot Tank) and separate boiler.

In the USA unvented cylinders are pretty popular, mainly as they can be installed on ground level without the need for tanks in the attic, they also supply mains pressure hot water.

Try posting your question on Heating Help. It's a USA (New York) based site and they will understand words like "condo" and "baseboard", as well as knowing what boilers are available and best suited to your requirements.

transam said:

used to be a fella on here from the states who posted on a regular basis
lived in Tennasee some where ?????

Click to expand...

That would be Kevplumb. I believe he's not pretending to be an extra in The Deliverance any more, but is back in Blighty.

Laars boilers are better know here for commercial and swimming pool units.

Tony

Tom1981 said:

The Laars Mascot II looks similar, internally, to some of the boilers here in the UK, the heat exchanger and manifolds look familiar, but I can't put my finger on the appliance.

Click to expand...

Alpha? Certainly the hex/burner assy looks similar although possibly last-generation