I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the piping in my house might be lead.
Plumber says it might be a summer job to get the pipes replaced but is it really necessary? He's said that the pressure increases a lot with combis and there's an increased risk of burst pipes. He also mentioned that he's known of lead pipes lasting 10 years after a combi was installed.
I know nothing about central heating, so any advice is much appreciated.
Lead was commonly used for mains cold water so there's no question about it handling the pressure.
Well, this is probably not an issue for the heating part of it, only the hot water. Lead pipe can certainly take mains pressure (as will be the HW output from the combi), however it is also true that the hot water pipes in the house may never have been exposed to this, and hence any weaknesses never discovered. So in that sense he is right that it is probably worth at least being aware of the greater possibility of leaks etc.
Having said that I would not be too worried about it personally. (whether I would be worried about the lead in general would depend on how hard the water is - in hard water areas it gets coated in a oxide/scale film that keeps the water away from the lead anyway)
Thanks very much, chaps.
Ask him to explain why. Personally I wouldn't go near a combi boiler. All the ones I know seem to go wrong all the time. Go for a system boiler with normal low pressure hot water as you already most likely have in the house. They are cheaper too! Forget the sales pitch that you only heat the hot water you are using. You'll loose it all in repair calls on the boiler if it is a combi.
Lead is pretty obvious to spot. If it's your "plumber" saying "might be lead" get another plumber...
How old is the house? Lead hasn't been used in new builds for 20, 30 or maybe even 40 years.
Neither would I. Go for a modern conventional but still condensing boiler. With a combi you have no warm airing cupboard (by default) and no stored water.
horses for courses etc,
not everyone has a large family with teenagers who spend 2 hours a day each in the shower, or are always drawing off hot water.
i live with just my GF, a dog and 4 fancy rats, we use the shower twice or 3 times a week at the most (we dont do much to get sweaty and stinky to need to shower more) do the washing up every 3 or 4 days, i shave every other day, so we prolly only draw off 5 or 10 litres of hot water a day if that.
seems a bit of a waste to have a large tank of water kept hot all the time just for that, hence for us a combi is ideal, it only heats up what we use,
yes i know the tank will be heated when the heating is on, but we only have the heating on when it's very cold, so from spring to autum we'd be paying to keep a tank of water hot and hardly ever use it.
Try pre-WW2.
Sounds like ignorance.
More ignorance.
You can always put in a small rad for airing and save lots of space - pretty obvious isn't it? Stored water? Not a problem in 99% of homes. If you have constant water cuts then fit a cold water accumulator - store cold water at pressure and all taps and mixers are at high pressure. An accumulator and a high flow combi are a brilliant match.
That is where combis shine. They never run out of hot water.
A combi is ideal for you...in fact it ideal for 90% of homes in the UK. There are high flow models available - many
Hum guess so. When I lived alone I used to just bung the HW on when I wanted a bath(*) (no shower), took about 20 mins to heat the tank and it was reheated by the time I'd finished the bath and I turned it off. The well lagged tank would keep the water hot enough for washing for a good day or so.
Shouldn't be in a properly designed system.
(*)Actually the simple timeswitch stopped working, by the time I got around to thinking about replacing it with a decent programmer I'd got a much reduced gas bill...
Well it's a combi (Ferroli Optimax) and it's now installed, so too late to change my mind! Apart from a small leak in a radiator, it's all gone well (12 hours on). It wasn't really a sales pitch. Plumber's been in the trade 40 years and seems a good chap. The lead piping was a bit of an unpleasant surprise but seems worth replacing as I want to get the bathroom changed and would rather rip it out now than after all the tiling, etc.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.