Do we want a combo boiler ?

[OneFrenchEgg]

Currently gravity fed system, 15 years old. Coming out this week to give an idea (boiler people).

Biggest issue is heating the water for four hours ish a day (am and pm) and then adults on shift/lazy/going out not having water because they are showering at the wrong time or after everyone else.

Due to CoL, and disability, five adults and one teen living here.

Radiators all fine, some have been updated more recently than others but all within the last five years.

Is the shower fed from the boiler or is it an electric shower that heats its own water? We have electric showers so our hot water is only on for 1 hour per day. I dont think combi boilers are as useful if you have multiple bathrooms and want to use water at the same time. We got a new boiler but kept the old system with water tanks and hot water cylinder

How many bathrooms and bedrooms in the house?

Frankly, it might be cheaper to adjust the timings on the hot water so that it heats more regularly than to change the boiler. Or get a smart thermostat system so people can easily boost it from their phone or by asking Alexa.

I'm not an expert, but know that not all houses suit a combi boiler.

Like Pixie, we have a couple of electric showers, plus tank fed, so there is always hot water available. But the electric are more expensive to run.

I don't know. We have a thermostat in the cylinder where we set the heating and hot water. You can press advance on it.

One bathroom.

How many bedrooms?

I heard that if you use a dishwasher, washing machine or even a hot tap with a combi boiler a shower will go cold. With 6 people living in a house and the amount of clothes washing and people washing that will be needed this seems potentially a bad idea.

4 hours of hot water per head seems very low for all those demands.

See if doubling the hours helps. Much cheaper than a new boiler!

We have a gravity fed system (also one bathroom) and a programmable thermostat so we can fine tune the schedule to our daily routines or boost for half an hour from our phones. Although we have the hot water on a lot the cylinder is well insulate so it isn't actively heating most of the time so I don't think it costs much more than only having it on for short bursts.

I think ideally I want to lose the water tank etc as it's massive. I don't like it lurking in the loft.
We do a lot of washing and dishwasher - I thought they heated the water themselves. That's a question for Friday.

DH loves combi, I absolutely hate them with a passion, and we've had three different ones. Maybe our boilers have not been the right ones but the hot water tends to go cold quicker so baths aren't long (or worthwhile) and I have to replace washing up water half way through but it is hot coming out the tap so... , you also have to run the tap for longer before you can wash your hands in hot water eg after the loo, so we usually wash with cold even in freezing winter.

I also dislike not having an airing cupboard during those times you need to dry shoes or coats etc but it's not cold enough for heating.

We have always had electric showers that isn't connected to the heating system.

Edit - can you tell that stbxH doesn't have baths, wash up or dry childrens school shoes?

We had a combi in the last house, 4 bedroom terrace, 2 bathrooms and fairly low water pressure - it couldn't cope. Constantly getting cold in the shower because someone had turned the tap on to fill the kettle or brush their teeth.

We've got a pressurised water cylinder now - we have a Nest as well so it's easy to turn the water on to heat again if someone has used all the water up. It does 4 long showers easily. Or 5 short showers.

Or a bath and a couple of showers.

A tap running will do this to our showers but the dishwasher/ washing machine doesn't.

Combi are Ok if you don't have massive demand on hot water.

By this I mean something like two people who want to shower, plus run hot water for a bath simultaneously. Because the boiler heats the water instantaneously then it cannot keep up with the demand if it is high.

You can mitigate this to some degree by getting a high power one.

If your house has only one bathroom its likely a combi boiler will be fine as you can probably only have one shower/bath at any one time.

There are a few other irritating things, like for example the hot water takes longer to run hot out of a tap. But you can get pre-heat combi boilers for this.

My guess is a combi will save you money on the bills.

Our combi is great in our 4 bed house. The pressure drops sometimes if two hot taps are running but not the temperature (thermostatic shower I guess). I wouldn't be without it.

My washing machine and dishwasher are cold fill like most of those appliances now.

However if you are using a hot water tap in the kitchen when having shower with a combi boiler, it can decrease the flow to the shower. To get around it you can have an electric shower pump/an electric shower.

This is the shower, doesn't seem to be electric - it's an aqualisa.

I'm a bit stuck - we would like the additional storage space but appreciate wet towels- what do you do???

We just want hot showers available really rather than heating the water for 4-5 hours a day and still having to boost it to fit with shifts etc

I am going through the exact same thing now @OneFrenchEgg.

We are currently on a system like yours with a separate hot and cold water tank, boiler is over 25yrs old. 4 people in our house (3 adults and 1 child).

3 independent quotes and all have said a combi will work well for us; 3 bed, 2 bathrooms (one with bath/electric shower over and the other a non-electric shower in an en-suite) and 9 radiators in total.
They did all check the water pressure, so I suspect flow rate is important. Ours isn't amazing, but equally good enough for the combi to be recommend.

The only caveat we have been advised against with moving to a combi, is that we won't be able to have both showers/bath running at the same time. Other than that, they all said a larger capacity combi boiler will service our needs perfectly.

We were recommended from the 3 quotes either the:

-Worcester Bosh Greenstar 8000 life 35kw
-Baxi 836 combi 2

The quote we have gone with is the Baxi boiler, which will be installed in 5 weeks time. Happy to report back our experience once it's in!

Thank you - we have one bathroom so I assume water pressure will be less of a problem. Quite nervous, the water is lovely and boiling hot atm when it runs and I know the cylinder is set at 80 to accommodate this.

We have combi boiler. 1 bathroom. Never had an issue when showering and washing machine, for example, on at same time. Water is hot immediately and stays hot. Never run out or lose pressure.

We have a combi boiler 4 bedrooms 2 bathrooms never had any problems.
Much cheaper than electric showers had the boiler replaced 2 years ago and just went for the more modern version of the old combi Valliant.

I have a combi - only have one bathroom so don't have the multiple showers problem.

It does mean you're only heating the water you use - seems much more efficient.

That is a pretty fancy shower.

I would mail the installation notes (which you can google on the web) to your boiler seller to make sure that the boiler selected correctly accommodates it.

I have a combi and an electric shower in a separate room from the bath. No one has ever complained about losing hot water at a crucial moment. (4 bed house with 3 or 4 adults). Getting rid of the water tank (15 years ago) meant that a single bedroom could be converted to a double and was well worth it. My linen cupboard is warm - I think there are radiator supply pipes running under the floor.

We don't have a tank in the loft

I have Vaillant boiler which heats the radiators and hot water

No idea if it's a combination boiler

It's an EcoFit Pure

It's coming up to 6 years old and luckily is still under an extended guarantee because it went off a couple of days ago and someone is coming round today from Vaillant to fix it

Our shower (Miro which has lasted 16 years) thank god heats up its own hot water as does the dishwasher also 16 years old and washing machine. At least I presume the last 2 do they are both Bosch.

If someone turns on a tap it definitely affects the shower water which get hotter

I remember in my first flat having one of those giant copper boilers which heats up them runs out of water so you have to wait again

Never again am I having one those time wasting boilers. There were only 2 of us in the flat working FT

I can't imagine how that would work with my family and DC now

I mean it just wouldn't work