Re: Boiler reliability

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 16:49:34 +0000, snipped-for-privacy@home.com wrote: > > >Hi,

> > > > Are they any independent reliability > > statistics available for Gas > > combi boilers? > > > > There seem to be many around now > > with similar specifaction and price > > so I might as well choose on reliability. > Is there _any_ information on boiler reliability?

I know of no survey. Ask an engineer and he may only tell you what he is familiar with. Also many of them will say a certain combi is unreliable as they are always fixing them, unaware that the model is a best seller, so naturally there are more of them around so more break down. Percentage of breakdowns and number in operation are what counts.

Worcester had a good reputation, that they lost, but are regaining. Their newish Junior model is simple and reliable so far. Vaillant boilers have a "decent" reputation, but suffer from very expensive parts. Potterton & Baxi have a bad reputation, ask Maxie about their poor pcb boards.

Keston had a good reputation but are loosing it as the new Celsius 25 is apparently troublesome. It may be only early model teething problems. Glow Worm a have a good reputation on their new design condensing models.

I have an Ideal condenser heating boiler and an Ariston Microgenus combi. The Microgenus came with a 2 yr guarantee and is well specced. The flue from the outside is noisy, but fine inside.

The Ideal ICOS combi, or is it the ISAR, is now reliable enough after early teething troubles.

The simplest combi's do not have 3-ways valves making them much simpler in design, fewer components and reliability. These are the Worcester-Bosch Junior, Ferroli Modena and Ideal Response. I would seer clear of the Response.

Reply to
IMM
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Thanks for the info. Do you or anyone else know about reliability of Vokera boilers?

I will probably go for a combi with some kind of thermal store/internal cylinder as I will have two bathrooms.

M.

Reply to
nospam

Middle of the road.

Vokera and Worcester-Bosch do floor mounted models of about 18-19 litres/min flow rate. These have integral thermal stores. Arsiton and Alpha(CB50) have wall mounted models that have integral unvented cylinders, also giving

18019 litres/min.

Here is a recent post of mine...

For an even better flow rate and cheap too for what you get, assess using two Worcester-Bosch Junior combi's.

For high flowrates it is cost effective to use two Juniors and combine the DHW outlets. Worcester-Bosch will supply a drawing on how to do it, or ask me here. Two Juniors are available for around £1000 to 1100 depending on what sized units you buy. They have 24 and 28 kW models, you could use two

24kW or two 28 kW combi's or one of each. That is cheaper than the Worcester HighFlow 18 litres/min floor mounted combi and can deliver about 21.5 litres/min and never run out of hot water. The highest flowrates of any infinitely continuous combi is 22 litres/min, which is the ECO-Hometec which costs near £2K.

Have one combi do the downstairs heating on its own programmer/timer (Honeywell CM67 or eqyiv) and one do upstairs. Natural zoning, so you don't have to heat upstairs when you are not up there saving fuel. The running cost will be approx the same as a condensing boiler heating the whole house. No external zone valves either, and simple wiring up too. The Juniors are simple and don't even have internal 3-way valves. Also if one goes down you will have another combi to give some heat in the house and DHW too. Combine the outlets for the DHW bath pipes and all the baths you want very quickly and no waiting. Best have the showers on separate combi's. It will do two showers no problem at all.

The Juniors are not condensing combi's, yet overall heating costs will be equivalent to a one condensing boiler as the upstairs will not be hated most of the time.

A win, win, situation.

Its advantages are:

- space saving (releases an airing cupboard). Both can go in the loft, or at the back of the existing airing cupboard.

- never without heat in the house,

- high flowrates (will do two showers and fill a bath in few minutes,

- No waiting for a cylinder to re-heat

- Natural zoning, one does upstairs and one does down

- hardly any electrical control work (running a wire to a programmers/stat and power to each,

- simple no brainer installation,

- minimal components used.

- less piping used

- cheap to run overall as upstairs would be off most of the time

- etc.

Reply to
IMM

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