I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Plumber says it might be a summer job to get the pipes replaced but is
it really necessary? He's said that the pressure increases a lot with
combis and there's an increased risk of burst pipes. He also mentioned
that he's known of lead pipes lasting 10 years after a combi was
installed.

I know nothing about central heating, so any advice is much
appreciated.

In article
,
wrote:
I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Plumber says it might be a summer job to get the pipes replaced but is
it really necessary? He's said that the pressure increases a lot with
combis and there's an increased risk of burst pipes. He also mentioned
that he's known of lead pipes lasting 10 years after a combi was
installed.

I know nothing about central heating, so any advice is much
appreciated.

Lead was commonly used for mains cold water so there's no question about
it handling the pressure.

--
*Generally speaking, you aren't learning much if your lips are moving.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

wrote:
I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Plumber says it might be a summer job to get the pipes replaced but is
it really necessary? He's said that the pressure increases a lot with
combis and there's an increased risk of burst pipes. He also mentioned
that he's known of lead pipes lasting 10 years after a combi was
installed.

I know nothing about central heating, so any advice is much
appreciated.

Well, this is probably not an issue for the heating part of it, only the
hot water. Lead pipe can certainly take mains pressure (as will be the
HW output from the combi), however it is also true that the hot water
pipes in the house may never have been exposed to this, and hence any
weaknesses never discovered. So in that sense he is right that it is
probably worth at least being aware of the greater possibility of leaks
etc.

Having said that I would not be too worried about it personally.
(whether I would be worried about the lead in general would depend on
how hard the water is - in hard water areas it gets coated in a
oxide/scale film that keeps the water away from the lead anyway)

--
Cheers,

John.

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On Nov 24, 7:14*pm, wrote:
I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Plumber says it might be a summer job to get the pipes replaced but is
it really necessary? He's said that the pressure increases a lot with
combis and there's an increased risk of burst pipes. He also mentioned
that he's known of lead pipes lasting 10 years after a combi was
installed.

I know nothing about central heating, so any advice is much
appreciated.

Thanks very much, chaps.

On Nov 24, 11:13*pm, wrote:
On Nov 24, 7:14*pm, wrote:

I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Plumber says it might be a summer job to get the pipes replaced but is
it really necessary? He's said that the pressure increases a lot with
combis and there's an increased risk of burst pipes. He also mentioned
that he's known of lead pipes lasting 10 years after a combi was
installed.

I know nothing about central heating, so any advice is much
appreciated.

Thanks very much, chaps.

Ask him to explain why.
Personally I wouldn't go near a combi boiler. All the ones I know seem
to go wrong all the time. Go for a system boiler with normal low
pressure hot water
as you already most likely have in the house. They are cheaper too!
Forget the sales pitch that
you only heat the hot water you are using. You'll loose it all in
repair calls on
the boiler if it is a combi.

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:26:52 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Lead is pretty obvious to spot. If it's your "plumber" saying "might be
lead" get another plumber...

How old is the house? Lead hasn't been used in new builds for 20, 30 or
maybe even 40 years.

Personally I wouldn't go near a combi boiler.

Neither would I. Go for a modern conventional but still condensing boiler.
With a combi you have no warm airing cupboard (by default) and no stored
water.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.net...
On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:26:52 -0800 (PST), wrote:
Personally I wouldn't go near a combi boiler.

Neither would I. Go for a modern conventional but still condensing boiler.
With a combi you have no warm airing cupboard (by default) and no stored
water.

horses for courses etc,

not everyone has a large family with teenagers who spend 2 hours a day each
in the shower, or are always drawing off hot water.

i live with just my GF, a dog and 4 fancy rats, we use the shower twice or 3
times a week at the most (we dont do much to get sweaty and stinky to need
to shower more) do the washing up every 3 or 4 days, i shave every other
day, so we prolly only draw off 5 or 10 litres of hot water a day if that.

seems a bit of a waste to have a large tank of water kept hot all the time
just for that, hence for us a combi is ideal, it only heats up what we use,

yes i know the tank will be heated when the heating is on, but we only have
the heating on when it's very cold, so from spring to autum we'd be paying
to keep a tank of water hot and hardly ever use it.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.net...
On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:26:52 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I'm just having a boiler swap and got the news that it looks like the
piping in my house might be lead.

Lead is pretty obvious to spot. If it's your "plumber" saying "might be
lead" get another plumber...

How old is the house? Lead hasn't been used in new builds for 20, 30 or
maybe even 40 years.

Try pre-WW2.

Personally I wouldn't go near a combi boiler.

Sounds like ignorance.

Neither would I.

More ignorance.

Go for a modern
conventional but still condensing boiler.
With a combi you have no warm airing
cupboard (by default) and no stored
water.

You can always put in a small rad for airing and save lots of space - pretty
obvious isn't it?
Stored water? Not a problem in 99% of homes.
If you have constant water cuts then fit a cold water accumulator - store
cold water at pressure and all taps and mixers are at high pressure. An
accumulator and a high flow combi are a brilliant match.

"gazz" wrote in message
...

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.net...
On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:26:52 -0800 (PST), wrote:
Personally I wouldn't go near a combi boiler.

Neither would I. Go for a modern conventional but still condensing
boiler.
With a combi you have no warm airing cupboard (by default) and no stored
water.

horses for courses etc,

not everyone has a large family with teenagers who spend 2 hours a day
each in the shower, or are always drawing off hot water.

That is where combis shine. They never run out of hot water.

yes i know the tank will be heated when the heating is on, but we only
have the heating on when it's very cold, so from spring to autum we'd be
paying to keep a tank of water hot and hardly ever use it.

A combi is ideal for you...in fact it ideal for 90% of homes in the UK.
There are high flow models available - many

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:04:29 -0000, gazz wrote:

seems a bit of a waste to have a large tank of water kept hot all the
time just for that, hence for us a combi is ideal, it only heats up what
we use,

Hum guess so. When I lived alone I used to just bung the HW on when I
wanted a bath(*) (no shower), took about 20 mins to heat the tank and it
was reheated by the time I'd finished the bath and I turned it off. The
well lagged tank would keep the water hot enough for washing for a good
day or so.

yes i know the tank will be heated when the heating is on,

Shouldn't be in a properly designed system.

(*)Actually the simple timeswitch stopped working, by the time I got
around to thinking about replacing it with a decent programmer I'd got a
much reduced gas bill...

--
Cheers
Dave.

Well it's a combi (Ferroli Optimax) and it's now installed, so too
late to change my mind! Apart from a small leak in a radiator, it's
all gone well (12 hours on). It wasn't really a sales pitch. Plumber's
been in the trade 40 years and seems a good chap. The lead piping was
a bit of an unpleasant surprise but seems worth replacing as I want to
get the bathroom changed and would rather rip it out now than after
all the tiling, etc.