DIYbanter - Ideal ISAR HE Boiler in loft

Fudgee wrote:

We're getting some quotes for a new boiler, and one we're considering is an
Ideal Standard ISAR HE boiler, placed in the loft. I've googled here about
loft boilers and am fairly happy with it being placed there, but does anyone
have any information/tips about this boiler.

I fitted a HE35 a couple of years ago. I obviously can't give you any
meaningful reliability data (sample set of one!), but can report my
experiances.

Not had any dealings with Ideal themselves so can't comment on their
response. Install and setup was very easy. Total cost installed (DIY)
was about £1,100 quid (lots of conversion work from a tanked system in
my case).

Like you, I asked here about it. At the time no one had much to say
about it, so I gues the number of installed units is probably smaller
than some of the more common WB units etc. I do recall that Geoff
(raden) did not report masses of PCBs coming in for repair though, which
is probably a good sign!). I was originally thinking of installing the
HE30 until I worked out just how little hot water you get with that! So
went for the HE35.

In use is one of the better combis I have used, with reasonable
temperature regulation at low flow rates, quite operation, and a decent
modulation range when heating. No nasty surprises like scalding water
when you first turn a tap on etc. Controls on the boiler are basic and
simple (temp controls for HW and heating, and an on/off switch), but
coupled with a programmable thermostat works well maintaining comfort
levels (10 rads / 5 bed semi).

Hot water flow rate is on the lower end of acceptable (15L/min @35 deg
rise), very good on showers if you have the mains pressure, and ok ish
on baths this time of year, but a bit slow in the winter. However I
would not want to live with the lower powered models!

The construction quality seems high, and they have put some effort into
serviceability in spite of it being physically one of the smallest
combis you can find (one of the key reasons I selected it - there was a
gap it needed to go in!). It has a single piece silicon coated ali heat
exchanger, and ticks most of the right boxes in terms of other
desireable features. Needless to say its small size and good looks will
be of little interest to you if its going in a loft!

I have had one minor fault on my one - the HW temperature sensor failed.
The boiler correctly identified the fault itself on its display, getting
a spare was easy enough, and changing it over was a 10 min job.

So all in all, I am pleased with it. If you are used to having a storage
system then you still need to adjust to the quirky way it delivers hot
water (i.e. like most combis it does not include a flow regulator - so
if you demand more flow rate than it can heat, the temperature falls).
That means running baths etc requires the discipline to turn the tap
*down* to the point it can maintain a high enough temperature, and then
tweak the temp with just a little cold added (unlike the storage system
norm of running the taps full blast and mixing to taste).

--
Cheers,

John.

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