Time taken to get hot water

[shankton]

I've just moved in to a new property where I have a fairly newly (last 2- 3 years) installed Worcester 28CDi boiler.

The problem I'm having is the time it takes to get hot water to any of the taps in the house. In the kitchen which I think is the furthest point from the boiler takes between 5 and 9 litres of water before it gets to full temp and in the bathroom if you want hot water to wash your hands you have to turn the tap on then go to the toilet and you might be lucky to have some hot water by the time you've finished, depending on how long you take

Is this what people would expect of the boiler or is there a problem with it?

The boiler is fitted in the front bedroom and the kitchen tap is right at the back of the property on the ground floor, the bathroom is no more than 10M away from the boiler but I've not been able to trace the pipes to see where they might go first. I know the boiler is due it's yearly service as we had a card from British Gas to say they had called to service it, but they will not come out now as the cover has been cancelled by the previous owners, was hoping to get a free service out of BG.

 

[ChrisR]

Sometimes old HW pipes would be reused, which is OK but they were 22mm dameter instead of the 15 which would be used for a new installation, and it takes them a while to fill up.

You can learn by being at the boiler (cold) when someone turns a tap on. How long does it take to make the hot water pipe under the boiler to get hot?

If it takes more than a few seconds there is possible a fault on the boiler, so get it looked at. It is NOT something which would be fixed, or maybe even noticed, at a routing annual service. There's a rubber diaphragm which may have a small hole.

 

[shankton]

Thanks for that - didn't think of trying that will do so next time someone requires hot water.

 

[corgigazza]

May be piped up undersized ie 15mm gas pipe a lot of boilers get replaced but the installer do not upgrade the gas supply to 22mm or even 28mm for long gas runs, get it checked corgi job only.

 

[ChrisR]

The burner pressure on them is only about 12 mbar, so that's fairly unlikely, though worth checking. Wouldn't affect the time it takes for the "hot" water to reach the taps of course.

Shanks - put a couple of hw taps on full and see how long it takes the gas meter to go once round the 1cu ft dial & we'll tell you if it's right.

 

[silverback]

Combination boiler, that is the problem, combination boilers should be used in flats and small houses, they are designed to be installed close to the outlets that they will supply, they are over rated in my opinion.