Boiler Choice

[solosporos]

Hi,

Im in the process of getting my old bolier replaced and was looking at these 3 options. I need a condensing boiler A rated which will give me over 100,000 BTU's.

Vaillant EcoTEC Plus 438
Glow-Worm Ultracom 38hxi
Worcester Greenstar 40CDi

anyone have any recomendations?

cheers

 

[gas4you]

Forget the Glow Worm.

Vaillant or worcester best. I would go for Vaillant, surprise surprise.

Does it have to be open vented? A system boiler would be better in the long term, such as the ecotec plus 637 or worcester equivalent.

 

[kevindgas]

agree with gas4you totally
how many rads are you supplying as 100,000 seems a lot for a system boiler unless you live in a mansion

 

[Doctor Drivel]

Forget the Glow Worm.

Vaillant make Glow Worm. A Vaillant in drag.

 

[gas4you]

Stick to your thermal stores and heat banks Dr D, you seem to know what your talking about with them

If you strip apart a vaillant and a glow worm you will find they are worlds apart, using only a very few common parts.

Glow worm diagnostics are very poor as is build quality and the warranty doesn't compare with vaillant.

In fact the Hxi is the old, now discontinued ecomax pro.

 

[solosporos]

Thanks for that, I was swaying towards the Valiant.

I have 16 radiators as Im just getting a 45m2 extension built at the moment. Also, I might be doing a loft conversion in the future.

I'm a bit confused as to how big my rad has to be in the new extension. Its being used as a Kitchen diner and has French doors and is South facing with 3 external walls and a insulated wood floor. I seem to be getting different BTU calculations based on the calculators you can get online. http://www.radcalcs.com/ gives me 21773 BTU which seems a bit much to me. If this is correct is there any benefit going for 2 rads over just one beefy one?

cheers

 

[kevindgas]

i always use a whole house calculation as well as an individual room calculation if i work it out
but as a general rule if you say 5000btu per room plus 15000 for hot water that is 99% of the time a good guide to boiler size required.
i used to work it out now i just use the above to estimate a job and only work it out properly if i get the work

kev

 

[gas4you]

For a room the size of your kitchen I would alwasy fit 2 rads at least, otherwise even though the output is correct you will still get cool spots against outside walls away from the rad. Try putting the rads, if possible, near the natural cold spots, ie french doors, windows etc.

2 smaller rads will probably be cheaper to buy than a really big one.