Vaillant ecoTEC plus 831 warmstart facility, economical?

[GaryMo]

Has anybody got an opinion as to whether the warmstart facility (practically instant hot water) on a Vaillant ecoTEC plus 831 condensing boiler is going to be economical or not?
I've no idea how this will affect gas usage over time so unsure if I should use the facility or turn it off.

 

[Dan Robinson]

How much hot water do you use and how far does it have to trouble to the outlets?

I would say the higher your usasge the more worthwhile it is. If you are living on your tod, and work allday then it might be an idea to shut it down.


Do the Vaillant lovers here know if it a "smart" feature, or just a constant top-up; ;cos you know who's boiler learns the habits of the household.

 

[timbalcombe]

I have to say my hot has to travel a bit, and my experimenting with this feature on means I get hot water only a fraction quicker.
It also depends on what temp setting you have the warm start on.
eg if you set it to 65deg then it will be on a lot esp dur winter when general room temp is down.

My installer didn't recomend having it on when he handed over to me, but showed me how it worked.

 

[Agile]

But its probably cheaper and more useful to have it on during winter when the boiler is on much of the time for heating and so already hot.

Also the incoming water is that much colder so its benefit is more pronounced.

During the summer the opposite applies!

Tony

 

[pannierstan]

I have found that the best way is to obtain the optional programmer that fits in the front of the boiler. If you get the right one you can then time the pre heat facility much like the Worcester DT20 system does.
This way you can just preheat at times of demand.

Stan

 

[gas4you]

If you have a long way for the hot to travel then it may save a little bit on water if you are on a meter.

I always leave it off. Leaving it on will cause the boiler to fire up about every 20 minutes even when not in use, a total waste of gas in my opinion.

If you fit one of the Vaillant 2 channel programmers in the boiler, VRT140 upwards, you can time the warm start to only come on during the periods that you need hot water, eg morning and early evening, therefore eliminately costly gas being wasted.

No Dan it is not a 'smart' feature.

 

[timbalcombe]

I "think" the warm start can only be programmed using an ebus programmer vrt360 and above?
My VRT 230 has no warm start feature but does have eco feature. Is this what you were thinking of?
This is for a combi though - pro 28

I see your point agile but the feature doesn't need to work untill long after the heating has cooled as you rightly say the water temp is heated by having the heating on.

 

[GaryMo]

No, it's definitely warmstart. It's switched on and off from the boiler, not my VRT 230.

 

[timbalcombe]

yep, my reply was to gas4you.

 

[gas4you]

yep, my reply was to gas4you.

I was assuming that everything above the 140 was twin channel. I know this can be controlled on the 140. I have not fitted a 230 so from your post I assume this is a single channel?

Edit; just checked and you are correct. Thanks for pointing it out to me

 

[timbalcombe]

No Probs.
Fickle things these vailant controls. They are well engineered but very complicated to the average user to operate.