New Hot Water Cylinder needed

[Toby]

Hi,

I heard an almighty crash downstairs just now, to find a large amount of the plaster from the dining room ceiling on the table! (Lucky it didn't happen when we were all having Christmas dinner!)

In inspection of the rear of the hot water cylinder above the problem area, it seems there is a small leak (and I do mean small, a drop every 20 seconds or so, so god knows how long it has been dripping!

The cylinder is an old spray foamed one that takes ages to heat, so I want to replace it with a fast recovery one.

I have found these online

seem to have an outer jacket for the CH water, and a stainless tank inside for the DHW, which looks like the heat transfer will be a lot better than having a coil to me.

Any experiences of these by anyone on here?

We don't want to change over to mains water hot, as we have two shower pumps in the system, and the mains pressure here is a but crap in the summer, so it would be fed from the cold tank.

Thanks for any replies!

Toby...

[Doctor Drivel]

They are the business. Not cheap though. You can downside the cylinder as the rapid recovery means quick reheat and it will take all the boilers output when reheating.

If your boiler is old, you night want to consider a high flow combi and a cold water accumulator. The cold water accumulator will give high pressure showers and no pumps. Very cost effective.

[Fredxx]

Generally disagree. If the system is installed from new, or the OP can make use of the space currently occupied by the hot water cylinders and cold water tanks I would agree.

However as a friend found out, when the boiler conks out, with a combi system you are entirely stuck, with both no hot water and no heating. The heating they could have put up with using electric fires for the two weeks around Christmas. Relying upon hot water for a (non electric) shower or baths meant they paid over the odds (few £100s) for a plumber to change the boiler.

A combi is more expensive than a straight boiler, a hot water tank can alternatively be heated by an immersion heater. A conventional heating (Y-plan) is simple and cheap to fix.

In short I cannot agree and suggest the OP goes the route he's chosen.

[Doctor Drivel]

Total nonsense. The accumulator is the size of a DHW cylinder an can go anywhere like the garage. I fitted in the garage loft space on the joists of the roof timbers. You can have it installed so the accumulator only serves the showers to have a smaller version. IT can go in the same place as the DHW cylinder - and no expensive noisy pumps, zone valves, controls, etc. The are DIY job to install. Simple. Cold water only - they can improve the pressure and flow to "all" taps if you want.

No more stuck than if you fit a DHW cylidner without an immersion. You ae not stuck at all with a combi if you install a small in-line electric water heater for backup purposes only. See current thread on this point.

It is not. They are now generally cheaper than equiv sized system boilers.

A quality combi, back in-line electric water heater & accumulators is cheaper and far more effective and far more reliable than a boiler/tank/DHW cylinder, shower pumps, zone valve, controls, etc. And no noisy pumps.

< snip the rest as it is ill-informed >