Ideal Istor Storage Condensing Boiler

[Pat-UK]

I am looking for some input regarding this boiler or if you all think I would be better off choosing a different one.

I am in the middle of renovating my house, it's a 4 floor one bathroom that's going to have a large corner bath.

Underfloor heating .

The boiler will be placed in the cellar as it's the most suitable place and Ideal have said it will be OK providing certain things are done.

I liked the sound of the boiler due to the fact it's A rated, re-heats the tank in 10 minutes and can deliver 35 litres DHW a minute at 60øC.

The boiler is expensive (£1600) but does include the programmer which many charge extra for, Am I just going over the top with this unit or would I be better off getting a cheaper smaller boiler.

Also has anyone had any experience with this boiler, other than the weight is there any known problems with them ??

Thanks in advance

Pat

 

[doitall]

Personal advice would be never buy a boiler with an aly heat exchanger.

If you have a celler then buy an stainless steel system boiler and stand an unvented cylinder next to it all nice a neat in one area.

And you have back up hot water if the boiler breaks down. And more important in a hard water area you can fit a water softener next to the cylinder.

 

[Gasman1015]

Recently fitted an Istor, it is supplied in two halves so weight is not a problem.
Customer extremely happy with output of hot water, two bathrooms with thermostatic showers, you can connect the cold supply to give a balanced supply, do check your incoming mains for pressure and flow.

I dislike the connections at the rear of the unit and would advise sitting the unit on a plinth, to obtain the correct fall on the expansion discharge pipe work, also had to cut the front panel to accomodate the drain off valves.

The cylinder also has a built in immersion for back up purposes, which will require another power supply.

 

[Agile]

"""can deliver 35 litres DHW a minute at 60øC. """"

I do hope that you realise that the boiler can only supply that flow rate for a very few minutes until the store is depleted?

Unless you think that the store volume will be adequate for your bath I would recommend that you use a cylinder as suggested above.

Generally combis are ( sometimes ) fine for showers and cylinders fine for baths.

Tony Glazier

 

[Pat-UK]

I did realise this, when the store is empty it still throws it out at 11 LPM,

This is exactly what I wanted though, Advice from you guys in the know, I just liked the sound of the thing as it was compact and complete.

But I want the best for my situation.

These are my requirements

Must be able to deliver enough hot water to supply a power shower at 2 bar +
Must be suitable for Under floor heating over 4 floors at 40 Square meters per floor with 2.5 meter ceilings.
Must be able to fill a big corner bath (not sure of the capacity as yet)
Must be able to used softened water.
Must be able to be sited in the basement.
A separate storage tank is fine and most likely the only way to deliver the required pressure for the shower.

Any advice on the best solution would be great

Pat

 

[Pat-UK]

Still looking for any other ideas or options,

Some of you are saying don't but the Istor but have not come up with any other ideas.

Thanks

Pat

 

[Agile]

You have not measured the volume of your bath!

If you want baths then I would not recommend a combi unless you take boarding school baths ( 4" max depth ).

Tony

 

[Pat-UK]

Even with the Istor ???

 

[MadPlumber]

DON'T BUY ONE. GET A VAILLANT!

Problem after problem, pressure reliefs, pressure reducing valves, expansion vessel changed (to a bigger one because initial one was wrong size!?!) Temp probe, blending valve, thermostat - brought the ceiling down twice when temp & pressure valve blew off out of the tundish, now making massive groaning noise when you open a tap (pressure valve again) and not sparking correctly when gas valve is opened and letting gas through. (Spark electrode / pcb?) WOOSH - has it fired up or has someone let a bomb off?!

The thing is, the Istor is, conceptually, a fantastic boiler - I have :

3 sinks
2 showers
1 massive bath

- And water pressure / flow is great... If only the Istor was! I've had to get it insured with BG because I HATE IT! The next time it goes I'm gonna speak to my house insurers about getting that big Vaillant with the tanks on the back. In fact we're taking Icos's out from social housing at the moment and putting Vaillants in... The Icos's are only a couple of years old!

IDEAL = British Leyland (Circa Allegro time)

VAILLANT = BMW M-Series

 

[gas4you]

As the Istor is basically an Icos with an unvented cylinder attached in a single unit you would do well to go for a system boiler and seperate un-vented cylinder.

The best you can get will be the ATAG E22S and one of their smaller cylinders, but a slightly cheaper option would be a Vaillant 600 series and unistor fitted with the VR65 to let them both talk to each other.

 

[Agile]

Both replying to a 2006 posting?

 

[gas4you]

Thanks Tony

Only looked at the last post, not the original