Combi boiler or boiler and separate water tank

[user1471462428]

Just looked round a house and the estate agent tried to convince me that having a boiler and hot water tank is preferable to having a combi boiler??? Isn’t that rubbish or did he have a point??

Depends how big the house is and what the hot water demand could be. For some houses a non Combi set up is best.

Did he actually explain his reasoning? (just out of interest, I don't have a useful contribution to make!)

Depends on water pressure in your area. You can run a pump off a stored water supply to get a powerful shower but with a combi boiler you just have to use the standard water pressure.

It dspends. We have two bathrooms, one with power shower so combi boiler wouldn’t make hot water quick enough. In our old house we had one bathroom with electric shower, so combi boiler was fine.

Although I would always treat whatever an estate agent said with a large pinch of salt and do my own research as you have done here!

Unless it's a large house with multiple ensuites I always thought combi was preferable?

We have this set up currently. We're changing it for a combi boiler and getting the advantage of freeing up a big space that will become a wardrobe in the spare bedroom.

Combi any day.
I have a combi and can use the washing machine, dishwasher and have a power shower all at the same time.

I'm no expert, but I enjoy the limitless hot water, and no waiting for it to heat up.

Ooh interesting! @pigletjohn where are you fir expert input?!

Don’t the dishwasher and washing machine heat the water up themselves?

Don’t the dishwasher and washing machine heat the water up themselves? Yes, AFAIK most white goods are cold-fill, aren't they?

I have a combi boiler in a house with a family bathroom on the middle floor and an ensuite in the loft conversion. If I want to shower in the ensuite, I have to make sure no-one's going to switch on a tap on a lower floor because the hot water will suddenly run cold in the ensuite. (If it bothered me enough, I'd probably switch to an electrically heated shower, but I don't need to shower at the same time as other family members so it's fine.)

I used to live in a two bedroom house witg boilervand water tank. Loved it. Water heated up in the morning for a couple of hours, sometimes needed to do an hour or so in the afternoon and always hot water. We did have a power shower. Three bed semi now with a combi boiler and have to run the hot water for a few minutes to get it hot to wash up or bath and it still never seems hot enough. Not sure the separate set up would be enough now with a large house and two children but it was a very old system.

Last house had a combi boiler and the water was never hot enough for a bath and the radiators never seemed hot enough either. Was rented and serviced every year.

Own house has separate boiler and water tank (more expensive to fit) hot water goes on for an hour in the morning and we have enough hot water for a weak baths and showers with AM or PM

Yes, I think he's right. Combies don't do the job as well, in my opinion - or those that I've had experience of certainly don't.

Isn’t that rubbish or did he have a point??

It is not rubbish.

A combi is fine for a smallish property, with only one bath/shower room and preferably only one person living in it.

As you increase the numbers, it becomes less ideal.

Combis are ideal for installers, because they let them bung a new one in very quickly, pocket your cash, and be off to the new job.

Some people think they are also ideal for manufacturers because the break down more often, and generate a good flow of parts sales and replacement orders. Opinion differs on that point.

Phew. We had British Gas round to quote for new boiler and so far everything he said has been ok.

We are a family of 5 with 2 teenage DDs. The combi boiler is fine, but getting DDs to spend less than 2 hours in the bath is a challenge.

Suspect many people with issues with lack of heat don't have the settings at the correct levels on the boiler. I had to experiment for a while and use different settings in winter and summer. I also adjust to avoid scalding the youngest DC with the hot tap.

I don't have issues getting hot water coming through taps but this can be an issue if pressure is wrong and was with an old boiler in my student house 30 years ago. (don't know the technicalities)

Having lived with combi boilers so long I find it hard to adjust to HH where people have to ask permission before using all the hot water.

We live in a new build with lots of bathrooms. We have a modern version of a boiler and water tank. The tank has a thermostat so calls the boiler itself automatically when it’s running out of hot water. We have the best of both worlds. High pressure in multiple showers and hot water on demand that doesn’t run out. We don’t need to think about timings or when the hot water is on we just have it set to always on and use the thermostat to control it. The tank is massive as well so we’d need a houseful of guests all having baths for it to run out. We also have an immersion heater for back up if we were in that scenario or our boiler failed. It’s a very complex technical system that has a lot that could go wrong so I slightly dread it needing replacing. But it is great.

We have a combi for three baths on three floors including loft conversion (which still has the old electric shower) and we prefer it to when the house had two tanks and a boiler. Never any issues with water pressure or hot water supply. We were also told we'd need an electric shower when we redid the first floor bath but we didn't. We have a wider shower hose, which allows more flow to the shower head iirc.
When we first bought the house the boiler was condemned, which prompted the new combi and having the house re-piped or whatever that's called (we needed the combi incorporated into the whole plumbing system, which had been cobbled together to add the loft bathroom). We probably wouldn't have done it if we hadn't needed a new boiler. The loft tank leaked or had leaked and left water damage, so multiple problems were solved with the combi.

Those who don't think the water ever gets hot enough with a combi probably just need to adjust the max temp on it (plumbers always seem to set the maximum fairly low IME). You should be able to set the maximum temperature of hot water to be anywhere between lukewarm and scalding hot.

That’s really helpful. It’s a 3 bed house but with family bathroom, ensuite and downstairs toilet. The water heater was a least twenty years old and I was panicking about parts if it broke down!

Combi boiler for me - hot water when you want it. No faff, no waiting, no limit.

HomeOfMyOwn good point. We adjust ours slightly when the seasons change.

I've lived in three houses with combis and they were all a bit crap, Moved recently into a house with the hot water tank system and I love it. Never have a problem with there not being enough hot water and the water is actually hot without me having to run the tap at a trickle. It used to take me ages to run a bath in my old house.