What type of boiler/tank for 3 bed house + loft

[gurgleenglish]

Hello
My boiler in a recently bought house is on its last legs.
I am getting a new boiler.
Which one do people recommend (not combi-boiler though)?

Also, does the boiler affect the water pressure around the house and if someone is using the kitchen sink, will it affect someone else having a shower?

I have no idea how the boiler and plumbing and water pressure are all connected. FTB here if that gives context 😀

Thanks for your help!

Why not a combi boiler, they are better re energy saving, they don't have to keep heating & reheating a tank of water, no running out of hot water mid bath & it frees up the space the water tank was in.

Why on earth don’t you want a combi boiler?

We’ve just changed our boiler and radiators. We chose a combi boiler because we’ll get water heated on demand instead of having to set a timer. Delighted to get rid of the water tanks in the attic and to have mains water in the bathroom so we can brush our teeth with potable water instead of minging tank water. Also delighted to get rid of the ancient hot water cylinder before it failed.

We have an electric shower, so the boiler has no bearing on that. I’ve never actually lived in a house that has the shower connected to the boiler.

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t choose a combi boiler, what’s your issue with them?!

How many people live in the house, and how many bathrooms do you have?

We have a for bedroom house, and I put a combi boiler in the loft. It was supposed to be fed with a 22mm pipe but the bathroom fitter screwed up and put a 15mm pipe in. This reduces the flow when someone else in the house uses water. Not an issue unless you're having a shower.

We have two bathrooms too, and a combo isn't sufficient to run both showers at once, however there are ways around this.

You could have a combi boiler and also a small pressurised hot water tank in the loft to run the shower, then you have the best of both worlds.

Definitely get a combi if you can - much more efficient and far more effective than they used to be.

You really need a combi boiler other wise your stuck to timings and won't have hot water on demand. Combi boilers are overall better for water pressure etc that you're asking about.

hi all thanks for your advice.
I forgot to mention the number of people in the house: 5.

I was always under the impression combi boilers are not good for a larger household and not effective for water pressure.

My understanding is that it’s about simultaneous hot water demand, so if you have three bathrooms but everyone showers at different times of day then a combo may be ok whereas if everyone wants to shower/ bath at the same time then a system boiler would probably be better.

We had a combi boiler which had an internal pressurised tank in our last house. It was great because we didn't need space for a pressurised hot water tank. Not sure if they are still available but might be a good option for you? Obviously it was larger than a normal combi.

Love our combi - we are in a 4 bed house with 4 adults & 1 child & have no problems at all with it.

To add, I quite like a hot water tank cupboard as a drying cupboard ( ours is under the stairs and I stuck some hanging rails and a shoe rack in there) but appreciate that if storage is at a premium it’s a bit of a luxury.

This is the crux of it.

For me the gold standard is megaflo, ie pressurised system boiler (boiler with tank). This produces lots of hot water than can be drawn on instantly at mains water pressure. So good if you have multiple showers required at once and you don't want those showers to vary in temperature.

I would say the main disadvatages/advantages of the combi boiler are :

Can remove hot water tank to give you more space.

Is generally cheaper to run for fuel as you can maintain different temps for hot water and cold water and you only heat the hot water you need when you need it.

More hot water lag (time to deliver to the tap) unless you have preheat, which reduces efficiency.

Probably lasts for less time, as fires up more so lifetime of boiler is reduced.

Cannot deliver as high hot water flows as a system boiler.

Hot water delivery becomes sensitive to the entire system, ie someone turns on the sink hot water and the shower hot water may cool down.

I think you should also think about the style of your house, in a luxurious house people expect better services, so you really want to go for gold standard like megaflo which will deliver hot showers at high flow rates with no variability, but will cost more money to install. A combi boiler is fine in a cheaper budget house.

Also I don't know anyone who brushes their teeth with hot water. And it makes no sense to have electric showers if you have a good system boiler to me as they are a lot more expensive compared to gas (3x the price) and don't deliver as good flow. The only use for them to me is for backup if the boiler goes down (if you have a system boiler you will almost certainly have an immersion heater backup so don't really need this) or if you are putting them in a place where it is difficult to route hot water plumbing.

Decent modern combi systems don't do this - the demand on water shouldn't make any other implement go suddenly cold. It may slightly reduce the pressure but I doubt you'd even notice this.

Combi systems got a bad reputation for this about 20 years ago (a bit like how some people still don't trust pressure cookers) but they are now far far better and it's rare that you need a tank these days - unless you have other idiosyncrasies in your system.

Wow, thanks everyone.
i’ve only ever experienced a combi boiler in my one bed flats whilst renting.

one option I’ve read about is getting a combi boiler and then adding a unvented tank. This apparently is good for hot water and water pressure regardless of the number of bathrooms and people using it at the same time

When we replaced our boiler we just got another conventional boiler and kept our hot water cylinder and feeder tanks in the loft. It means you can use multiple taps/showers, etc without losing pressure/heat.