Advice needed: Megaflow boiler?

[miljee]

Complete newbie and numpty (AND female!)

We have a 4 bedroom 10 year old 'estate' house with 10 year old plumbing. We want to upgrade the 2x upstairs showers due to taste issues and barely adequate water pressure.

We were going to put 2 x 10kw electric showers in but we've been told we'll get close to fusing the mains if we run both together, and it will cost 'several hundred £' to run the necessary 10mm cable from the garage fuse box to install.

We don't want a power shower because of the noise and the problem of draining the hot water tank quickly.

Our electrician, in doing himself out of a job, suggests we get a megaflow boiler (suggests a Sadia Heatrae) instead of the power shower(s) so the showers will run off mains pressure. He says a combi boiler (not that we were really contemplating this) wouldn't be 'man' enough for the job of heating and hot water supplying such a house as ours. He also suggested putting said boiler in will cost 'about £1000'.

What do you think? Any advice gratefully received!

 

[Bon]

A Megaflo is an unvented hot water cylinder which comes in 2 versions, direct and indirect.

The direct models use immersion heater(s) to heat the water and the indirect models require a boiler to heat the water.

Unvented water cylinders use the pressure from your incoming cold water supply to deliver water from the cylinder to your hot taps & shower.

A "traditional" vented cylinder uses a small cistern located above the cylinder in the loft to create a pressure or "head" to deliver the hot water.

As you can probably imagine, your cold water main paressure is usually significantly higher than the head created by the cistern.

SO, Megaflos are really good, but only if your incoming water pressure is sufficient. For a "tile-cracking" shower you need around 3 bar and the thing won't work with anything lower than 1 bar.

As you say your house is 10 years old, I imagine it will be pretty good, but this needs to be verfied first.

Your pipework size is next. Being an "estate" type house, I imagine everything will be done in 15mm which will restrict water flow in itself.

Finally, Megaflos aren't exactly a cheap option!!!

 

[omegaman]

He is right (about combi not being enough and megaflo being a better option). A large house with 2 bathrooms would be much better off with a unvented cylinder. It would cost more than a grand though.

There are a few things to take into account such as incoming pressure and flow rate. You mention poor pressure. Is this from cold taps?

 

[petit_pablo]

Fitting an unvented cylinder will cost more than upgrading the electrics for the shwers but will provide a better water pressure at a decent temp

 

[gazthegas]

You will require at least 2 bar mains pressure at at least 15 litres per minute, a water test will be required.

Complete newbie and numpty (AND female!)

We have a 4 bedroom 10 year old 'estate' house with 10 year old plumbing. We want to upgrade the 2x upstairs showers due to taste issues and barely adequate water pressure.

We were going to put 2 x 10kw electric showers in but we've been told we'll get close to fusing the mains if we run both together, and it will cost 'several hundred £' to run the necessary 10mm cable from the garage fuse box to install.

We don't want a power shower because of the noise and the problem of draining the hot water tank quickly.

Our electrician, in doing himself out of a job, suggests we get a megaflow boiler (suggests a Sadia Heatrae) instead of the power shower(s) so the showers will run off mains pressure. He says a combi boiler (not that we were really contemplating this) wouldn't be 'man' enough for the job of heating and hot water supplying such a house as ours. He also suggested putting said boiler in will cost 'about £1000'.

What do you think? Any advice gratefully received!