"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
darren_forward wrote:

Hi everyone, Ive norrowd my choice of new boiler down to two models
Alpha CD32C and Ideal Isar 30. This is to replace my dead Servowarm
boiler.


Anyone have any experiance of the two models, who could give me their
experiance of either.

I have an Isar HE35 - same design but 5kW more powerful... personally I
find that 35kW is borderline power wise - I would not want anything
less. If you are mostly into showers though you may be ok with the 30.

On the plus side:

It works better than any combi I have used in the past. It is physically
very small and neat (and needs only 5mm clearance space each side) and
was a doddle to install. It is nice and quite in operation. It maintains
quite good temperature control even at very low flow rates (obviously
once you exceed the power output at high flow rates the temperature will
fall). It includes a small store of pre-tempered water to cut down heat
up time when you turn a tap on. It modulates over quite a wide range so
can manage long low power runs for the heating which helps keep
efficiency up. Fluing options are not bad, although not as flexible as
some. It has a downward firing burner and single piece Si coated Ali
heat exchanger.

Down sides:

It has no built in timer or programmer (I use a programmable thermostat
which does the job nicely). The compactness may prove a hindrance when
servicing, since you may end up having to remove lots of stuff to get to
the bit you want.

Ideal say no part takes more than 15 mins to replace.

The filling loop is not included in the main box like
it is on some (although the pressure gauge is included in the mounting
tray / pipe connection points).

Unknowns:

Don't know what reliability will be like in the long term (only 18
months old so far), but not too many horror stories being told. Don't
know what the price of spares is like.

Summary:

All in all very pleased with the boiler (allowing for the general
limitations of combis). Would benefit from being on a slightly better
rising main (ours can only do about 20lpm) but that is not really the
fault of the boiler.


--
Cheers,

John.

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