Conventional boiler.... comeback Combi all is forgiven!

[jdillon]

Hi all,
we have just bought a new house, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

In our last house (3 bed, 1.5 baths) we had a combi boiler, and loved it. Hot water whenever we needed it.

However, in this new house its turning into something of a nightmare. Its a conventional boiler and a cylinder.

Weve never had a conventional boiler.

At the moment we have to turn on the hot water an hour before in order to have a single bath.
And once we've had a bath, there is no hot water for a shower or doing the washing up etc.

Are we doing something wrong? If I could I would replace it with a combi, but been told its not powerful enough for a house of this size..... but with two small kids we need hot water literally on tap....

 

[Dan Robinson]

Depends on how old the cylinder/boiler is.

Depends on how powerful the boiler is.

Depends on the amount of scale in the cylinder.

Depends on the control configuration.

 

[twgas]

There are several factors controlling the availability of hot water.
Size of cylinder, type of system, temperature settings etc.
Give us more details and you may well get some help; boiler model, system time and temp controls/settings

 

[jdillon]

Hi Guys,
thanks for the quick responses, and apologies in advance as my plumbing experience is that of a house owner, not a pro.

Don't know the exact size of the cylinder, but just took a look and its about a meter high, and normal diameter.
The boiler is an Ideal Mexico Floor standing boiler, with a potterton control panel, couldn't find a model number on it.

The control only allows for hot water to come on auto twice a day, at the moment theres once in the morning and late afternoon for kiddie baths, we manually turn it on at night for baths.


All help is appreciated,

 

[Dan Robinson]

Not knowing where you are in the country it still depends on limescale and control regime.

Can you post pictures of the airing cupboards, boiler and timer along with any control valves.

But guessing at age and things I would say it will take 45 to an hour for the tank to heat, and a decent bath and shower will deplete the tank pretty quickly.

 

[jdillon]

Hi all,.
Here are photos I just took...

The cylinder

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Also in the airing cupboard

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• 22 May 2013
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Boiler

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Control

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[Dan Robinson]

Any chance of the other side of the cylinder?

 

[jdillon]

Unfortunately not, the other door doesn't open

 

[Dan Robinson]

It would be helpful to see what control valves are directing the flow from the boiler to the heating and hot water.

But the boiler is a good one - if not very efficient.

Unless you are planning major works on the house I would leave it be but invest in some decent controls.

Of course - until we have all the facts this is guesswork.

 

[jdillon]

Thanks, Ill try and get some tomorrow.

One question, could it be the cylinder is too small, and that a bigger one would be better... but wouldnt that mean it would take longer to heat up?

Also, on the Baxi webiste they seem to suggest that we could replace the boiler with this combi:

http://www.baxi.co.uk/products/baxiplatinumcombi/

Would that work, and give us instant hot water?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Any combi can replace what you have, but there are far better solutions out there.


With 3 bathrooms you would be bonkers to put a combi in anyway.

Upgrade the cylinder to a bigger one, maybe even an unvented.

If you are doing other big works, a decent condensing system boiler and unvented cylinder would be the best solution PROVIDING you have the water main to drive it all.

If you have a thermostat on the side of the cylinder, try setting the time to ONCE and see if that helps. Make sure the thermostat is set to 60 as well.

 

[jdillon]

Am I still right that I would have to predict when we wanted hot water and then either have the timer turn it on or do it manually?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Yep.

Allow an hour I would say. If there is a thermostat it should switch off once you're up to temperature anyway.

Setting the timer to ONCE means it comes on in the morning, stays hot all day then switches off at night.

 

[hazetimesfive]

can have mains chargers now which work very well, water pressure not as big an issue as it used to be.

 

[Dan Robinson]

True... but not cheap...