On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 12:50:15 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:
On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:50:44 +0100, W
wrote:
I am about to have a new heating system installed in my house. The
choice of boilers seem to come down to either a Worcester-Bosch
Highflow 400 or a Vokera Linea Max. As both of these boilers are
about the same price and have very similar specifications is there
much to choose between them? I would be interested in any independent
reliability surveys or comparative maintenance costs.
I know neither of these boilers are condensing but I can't find a
similar condensing boiler and also the vent will be very close to a
boundry so a plume might be unpopular with the neighbours.
TIA, W.
Who is suggesting the choice? Quoting installers?
Yes, and based on my limited research. Most fitters just want to put
a basic combi in due to cost but I am not sure it will suit our needs.
Both are reputable makes, but neither is an exciting product from the
performance point of view. Although marketed as "suitable for the
larger house", really the power levels of 24-28kW are very average
these days. That is not to say that you necessarily need anything
larger but rather that there is plenty of choice in this range and
above.
-- snip --
You haven't said much about your requirements.
Since it is a large house, do you have two bathrooms/showers and do
you need to use them concurrently?
Requirements a
* Hot water in two bathrooms (and kitchen)
* Possible simultaneous use of two showers or one shower and sink.
* Occasional baths that don't take 1/2 hour to fill.
* Powerful showers (not gravity).
I would prefer a condensing boiler just because of the better
efficiency. However I am not yet convinced that the extra cost of the
boiler will be recovered as quickly as many suggest. I've no idea how
long I will stay in my current house. It may be a few years or
longer.
Are you using a storage system currently?
We have an ancient system with tank and back boiler which has never
worked very well. It's only fit for the dump.
Do you desperately need to save the cylinder and tank space?
We are having modifications made to our house at the moment to gain an
extra bathroom (to make 2). One of the changes is that the existing
airing cupboard has to go. We may be able to find another location
for this, but I want to explore all the options at the moment. I'm
not set on a combi but I like the fact they appear to be cheaper than
a system with tank. I want to find out if the benefits of a different
system is worth the extra money.
Mains pressure hot water can be good, but it's essential to check that
the mains can deliver a good flow rate. Try measuring with a bucket
and stop watch at the kitchen tap. As a rule of thumb, if you get 20
litres/minute or more then a mains system can perform well, if it's in
the 9-12 range then it will be very poor and you may need to look at
(can be expensively) having the service pipe from the road increased
in size.
Mains pressure and flow seem to be fine. We get nearly 20 litres/min
but there are two stop cocks at the moment which I believe are
restricting the flow rate so we should be able to get more flow quite
easily.
-- snip --
If you like the idea of mains pressure water, and can spare the
cylinder space, then a heatbank can be a good idea. These replace
the cylinder and you can get rid of the loft tank. The concept is
roughly like that in the Heatflow, but you can have a store of say
three times the size and obviously that makes a huge difference if
your demands are for two bathrooms. This idea also allows you to
have a wall mount or otherwise smaller boiler and gain space where it
is installed. For that matter the boiler could easily go somewhere
else entirely.
I like the idea of a heatbank or cylinder but I don't have unlimited
funds and these options seem a lot more expensive. With whatever
system I get I want good value for money.
If I could get something similar to the highflow or linea max, but
with a slightly bigger store for not much more money I would probably
be happy :-)
Someone else on this thread suggested a gledhill gulfstream which
sounds good but I don't know where to get one or how much they cost.
I am not confident of fitting it myself so I need to find something
that a plumber/heating engineer will not charge a fortune for.
Cheers, W
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