New Oil Boiler time

[andyinscotland]

Hi guys

i know this question has probably been asked many times before, but i couldn't see any recent answers.

I have a 16 year old boulter camrey combi 90-130 that is on its last legs.

you guys helped me last year to get it going again and last through the winter.
no local engineers or worcester bosch who own boulter would touch it so i could not get it repaired any other way.

But now it really is time to retire it before it breaks down again.

So the question is:
what oil boiler would you recommend ?

or what oil boilers give the least trouble ?

the old boulter is flued up a chimney in the kitchen but the run to the roof is 11m so i think a new one would have to be resited to an outside wall ?

Thanks

Andy

 

[oilman]

Grant are reasonable. The new ones have a good control panel telling what's going on. If there's anyway you can get away from a combi, you would be doing yourself a big favour.

 

[muggles]

Grant boilers are the only ones we use

 

[oilman]

Grant boilers are the only ones we use

That does not necessarily indicate they are good. You could be getting a big discount. I have found that any make of combi oil boiler gives expensive trouble at some time or other.

Mistral are useful in that they have an electric immersion heater fitted. Not good for running the central heating, but a backup for domestic hot water.

 

[andyinscotland]

Thanks for your replys guys

sorry i have been a little slow to answer, it has been hectic here.

I am also hoping a new one will be a little cheaper to run as this old beastie is costing me a fortune.

 

[OilLecky]

I second Oilman on his advice to try to get away from combis if you can. They can work out costing a lot for repairs. Mind you, if you have natural soft water in your area you won't get many of the heat exchanger / limescale problems that I come across. A combi on hard water is a death wish.

 

[andyinscotland]

Hi

The water here is very soft no limescale at all.

I do not have a preference for a combi or system / regular boiler.

but the old boiler is a combi and i do not have any water tanks or cylinders in the house.
also the showers are mixer type so a low pressure system would add extra work to sort them out.

a little background: it is an old stone house with 28" thick stone external walls 1" plaster with horse hair on slats for internal non load bearing walls and 10"tall by 4" thick joists that the floorboards sit on.

so any work that has to be done is always a major project and takes three times longer than i expect.
i could go into the saga of fitting a bathroom back into an old bathroom that had been converted into a linen room.
what with lead pipes both water and waste, some old iron pipes a few still connected and under pressure, old wireing and new (the new being 30 years old but newer than the cotton wrapped stuff) some of it still connected ect ect ect.
i am sure you get the idea

so the only reason for a combi would be to try and simplify the installation by replacing like for like.

On the other hand a system boiler with a (mains pressure?) hot water tank would be fine and even better if it were cheaper to run.

it would also have to be able to supply 25 radiators.

Anyone fancy coming and having a look / quoting for it ?

 

[oilman]

How many rooms? Do you expect to run all radiators at the same time?

 

[andyinscotland]

13 rooms not including bathroom/wc

half of them are turned down on the rad thermostats but the old boulter does get them all hot if i turn all the rad stats up.

but i dont intend to heat rooms i dont use.

Since my mother passed away her "granny flat" part of the house is not used at all so there are 3 rooms and a bathroom turned down low. and a couple of guest bedrooms are also down low too.

 

[oilman]

An unvented tank with a system boiler would give fewer headaches over the years. Don't worry about changing all the pipes to get max performance from the unvented cylinder. If you need to show off, just buy a jumper with a name across the front instead.

 

[andyinscotland]

An unvented tank with a system boiler would give fewer headaches over the years. Don't worry about changing all the pipes to get max performance from the unvented cylinder. If you need to show off, just buy a jumper with a name across the front instead.

An unvented tank ......... mains pressure ?

and a jumper confused

i am not looking for max performance just to be able to use a mixer shower without having to fit a pump and get a bit more economy as the old boiler is costing more than i can afford to run. and i am dreading when it breaks down again as no one i can find localy will touch it.
all i get is the sucking through the teeth and thats to old to fix m8, you need a new boiler there!

if a system boiler with an unvented tank would be more reliable and cost less to run than a combi then it is the way to go!

 

[cozzmic]

Warmflow and Grant are good boilers. Generally they use the same burners it just how they are configuered for water and condensate connections. Good advise to stay away from combi as when things go wrong with then is can get expensive.

 

[oilman]

if a system boiler with an unvented tank would be more reliable and cost less to run than a combi then it is the way to go!

Connect the unvented cylinder to the existing hot and cold pipes and that's it.

Many will say you need a huge inlet pipe and 22mm hot delivery pipes so you can empty the cylinder in seconds, but as you are used to the combi performance you will see a small improvement anyway.

 

[andyinscotland]

Thanks Oilman that sounds like the way to go.

any recomendations for the unvented cylinder?

Cheers

 

[Dan Robinson]

OSO.... top notch and very versatile.