Moving a hot water cylinder downstairs

[Wigglypasta]

If we have no upstairs bathroom is it possible to move the hot water cylinder and all associated pipework downstairs?

We are buying a house and the airing cupboard is located in the smallest room and we want to remove the airing cupboard to make a bigger room and relocate the cylinder to somewhere downstairs (ideally the integral garage).

The house has a toilet and a sink upstairs and downstairs it has 2 bathrooms.

A combi boiler will not work for us as we have a large family and more than one bathroom.

The other option would be to put the cylinder in the loft but I am not sure the loft hatch will be big enough and I am really not sure I could feel comfortable that the tank full of hot water above the bedrooms had enough support under it.

Do we have any options or should we just accept the cylinder stays where it is?

I'm not sure about the placement of the tank. You can make loft hatches bigger and reinforce the support under the tank if necessary. Ours is in the roof and is on a platform that rests on the supporting walls.

Yes you can move it. We are moving ours from first floor airing cupboard into the integral garage (the boiler is going into the garage too). We are using the area vacated by the existing tank to create an Ensuite, so it can be done. A good plumber will give you an honest assessment of feasibility/practicality.

You can put it wherever you want. I would tend to get a larger one, it is more economical on gas to heat it once a day, or twice, rather than to keep topping it up. Modern cylinders are well-insulated. Have at least one, preferably two, immersion heaters fitted to the cylinder so you will have hot water when the boiler is out of action.

If you have sufficient incoming flow from the mains (test with a bucket) you can have an unvented cylinder (Megaflo or other brands) which can give you very good flow and pressure. They are usually large and heavy so are best placed on a solid ground floor.

You do not have to buy a new boiler unless there is some other reason for wanting one.

Things in lofts get neglected and are awkward to service.

If the garage is unheated and not integral, you will have to protect not only the cylinder, but also all of the pipework, against frost and bursts. You are most likely to get a burst when the house is empty and someone has turned everything off.

We did exactly that last year. The tank was moved from the 1st floor airing cupboard to the ground floor and boxed in to look like part of the kitchen cabinets. It took about 5 days to do as all the pipework had to be moved and we also moved the boiler. We went for a new megaflo type cylinder and got a fairly large one. We are really pleased with the result.

Thank you for your replies! That is great to know that it is possible. Is it likely to be hugely expensive?