Combi Boilers - Advice, what to buy, what NOT to buy

[Northy]

Pardon the pun, but what's hot and what's not?

What names/makes are to be avoided etc?

All advice welcome, I think our old boiler is on it's last legs, and we'll need a Combi soon anyway if we do our loft conversion

Cheers,

G

[Matisse]

can't go too wrong with a worcester or a vaillant.

both are quality makes and spares are plentiful when they do break down.

[DCM]

I got a Worcester, so has the old dear, been faultless in operation, quiet and efficient!

[markwilliamson2001]

Yeah...the condenser boilers are more efficient, but have had the habit of freezing external pipes which stops the heating working....it is generally easily fixed though, as it is external plastic pipe that just fills with frozen condensed water.

In terms of make, my worcester bosch is still going 4 hard winters down the line.

[super__dan]

Originally Posted by markwilliamson2001

Yeah...the condenser boilers are more efficient, but have had the habit of freezing external pipes which stops the heating working....it is generally easily fixed though, as it is external plastic pipe that just fills with frozen condensed water.

You've beaten me to this by 2 minutes. My Boss in work was having a nightmare over the cold snap becasue of this, his, his mothers and his rental house all lost heating every night for 3 nights when this happened. He's currently collecting the condensing water in buckets and will route the outlet through the house when he has time.

[carpenterdean]

Pretty sure any new combi boilers being fitted have to be condensers now my mate had same problem re plastic pipe freezing outside, you can just defrost it with hot water from kettle or hair dryer and your good to go.
As for make like everyone else has already said can't go wrong with worcester although they are a little more expensive but you get what you pay for, or another good make is baxi.
Hope this helps.

[jamiec]

" but have had the habit of freezing external pipes which stops the heating working....it is generally easily fixed though, as it is external plastic pipe that just fills with frozen condensed water."

Hate to correct you there matey but if your condense pipe freezes then your condense run has not been installed correctly. Upon reaching a run length of 3 metres or as I do as soon as the condense pipe runs to outside increase the pipework to 1 1/4". This significantly reduces frozen pipe risk.

The pipe freezing use to be more of a problem on older condensing boilers when the condensate point used to continually drip but not so much these days as the more modern boilers use syphonic traps to collect the condense in the boiler and then dump the whole traps worth in one go thus reducing freezing risk. Oh and btw there are many routes and ways for the condensate to be routed not just straight to outside. Oh and yes I also consider Worcester and valliant boilers to be one of the best but don't forget those nice little ideal combi logic + boilers. Very well made, easy to install competitively priced 5 years parts and labour guarantee and they are British ( please correct if wrong)