Which boiler system for a 5bed, 3 bath house?

[Propertyquandry]

Finally getting rid of our old inefficient boiler. I want the new one to be powerful and be able to cope with DH, myself and 2 teenage boys showering in the morning, often 2 or 3 of us at once. Ds3 and DD have an evening bath and ds2 often another shower at this time after rugby or similar. I don't want the bath to take a half hour to run either.
I gather a combi is out but what do I actually need. And what's a megaflow. TIA

[HoneyDragon]

I love our mega flow it connects to the mains which means a unending supply of pressured hot water.

I'm 5 beds, three bathrooms and a cloakroom.

[Propertyquandry]

Oh thanks, Honey. Yes, we have a downstairs loo too. I just wants to stop the boys fighting over the shower and me ending up going without nice hot water. I think I need to look into megaflow more. Is it something I need to change the whole system for it is it something of an add on?

[Propertyquandry]

Any other experiences?

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

No idea but I'll join you. We are 4 beds, going to 5 and shortly to be 3 showers.

I've had a combi before but that's not going to cope with all that. At the moment we have a dicky boiler with water tanks and a capricious nature.

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

Mega-Flo for sure. It's a pressurised system- the upshot of this is hot water at the same pressure as the cold: so a proper gushing tap of hot water.

4 bed house with five of us here and a massive bath. No problems ever keeping up. No need for a power shower as hot water pressure enough for proper gushing shower.

Radiators heat up within a few minutes.

[PigletJohn]

A Megaflo is one brand, there are others, of unvented hot water cylinder that runs off the incoming water main (no cold tank in the loft).

Mostly they are about twice the size of an ordinary cylinder.

Don't put it in the loft.

To work effectively you need good incoming flow of water through your supply pipe. You can make an estimate by filling a bucket at the kitchen sink cold tap, timing it, and calculating litres per minute. If you are in an old house the pipe might be too small and need to be replaced. This usually means digging a trench out to the pavement. If you have an old house with lead pipes, ask the water co to test the drinking water for lead content. There might be a replacement subsidy.

Your old taps, if worn, may leak and need to be replaced.

[Propertyquandry]

Thanks all. So is a megaflo, or similar, what I need then? Is that the best option to service 3 bathrooms and lots of morning showers?

If I opt for this do I need to change the entire system? Do I get rid of the old combi?

[PigletJohn]

possibly.

Measure your incoming water flow and we'll see,

If you have a garden tap or utility room, measure it there as well.

[Wrinklytights]

Following as wondering whether to get unvented system put in when we extend. Rubbish pressure on hot water atm and v noisy pumps on both showers. Have normal cylinder with cold tank in loft.

[MummaB2016]

Megaflos are excellent for providing hot water on demand for larger houses. My parents got one when they did an extension at the end of 2014 and it made a massive difference! Megaflo are market leader I think Rents had the eco model (www.heatraesadia.com/products/cylinders-and-hot-water/unvented-cylinders/megaflo-eco.htm)

They got a boiler from Baxi too because owned by the same company as megaflo so easier for maintenance purposes with the warranty for both being supported by the same support people. Think it was a system boiler (potentially this one www.baxi.co.uk/gas-boilers/system/ecoblue-system.htm) but I'd have to check.

[MummaB2016]

Yep it was a system boiler, the one I linked before. Also came across this which might help you... www.baxi.co.uk/gas-boilers/which-boiler-do-i-need.htm

[Whatthefoxgoingon]

Mega flo here too. 6 beds, 4 baths.

[Humptynumpty02]

Who not put in loft?

[howbesttohelp]

And here , 5 beds 3 baths

Just put in a Worcester Bosch 30i green star system boiler

V happy

[Phalenopsisgirl]

We have mega flo too, it's brilliant, we have two boilers side by side which share the job and trot along at a steady pace, either could do the job as a stand alone but having the pair means they never break a sweat and apparently this mean they will go on 'forever' unlike if you really work your boiler hard, it also means that if one did conk out temporarily we aren't without anything.

[Phalenopsisgirl]

The boilers are Worcester, we have a Worcester to heat our pool too and we had issues with the heat conduction system blocking which caused the boiler to gunk up (no fault of the Worcester) and they sent an engineer out to flush it all through and replaced the pump as a precaution, really great after sales service.

[Propertyquandry]

So the megaflo isn't a type of boiler? Do I buy a boiler and buy a megaflo as an add on? I think I'm a little confused but I appreciate all the advice

[PigletJohn]

Megaflo is one brand of unvented hot water cylinder. There are other brands. Some people say that the Megaflo internal design is old-fashioned and needs more maintenance. I have no opinion at present.

Unvented cylinders have to be installed and serviced by a qualified heating engineer, so are most often done by the same firm that installs the boiler, at the same time.

Some boiler manufacturers have their own brand of cylinder.

[Propertyquandry]

Ok so is a cylinder like the round tank in the airing cupboard?

[Propertyquandry]

I'm just being thick, sorry.

[PigletJohn]

here are some cylinders.

www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/hot-water-cylinders/cat830956#category=cat830982&price_from=100&price_to=800&sort_by=-price

the white ones are unvented, the blue ones are vented (fed from a cold tank)

They are cylindrical in shape.

[Propertyquandry]

Ok. So I need one of those and a boiler. Any boiler will do as long as it isn't combi. What happens to the hot water tank in the airing cupboard? Does that stay or do these replace that? What about the water tank in the loft?

[Propertyquandry]

Just read mumma's link which explains things in simple terms to someone like me who hasn't got a clue and was struggling to visualise.
It would seem that we need a new boiler and megaflo installed together. This would replace the water cylinder in the airing cupboard and the one in the loft.
Thanks everyone. This has been really informative. PigletJohn, thank you for your patience.

[PigletJohn]

don't forget to

Measure your incoming water flow

[MummaB2016]

Glad to hear it helped :)