Hello DIY-ers,

I am buying a house in a hard water area. It has no c/h system and no
boiler and I inted to install both. I gather condensing boilers are the way
to go these days, but what about the question of combi vs. regular? My
experience of a combi in my previous house was that it was constantly
furring up dure to the hard water, and I spent a fortune keeping it
running. Conversely, my parents had an old fasioned regular boiler and a
copper cylinder that never needed any repairs or maintenance. Bleeding the
rads once a year was all that was required. So, is there a good argument
for using a regular condensing boile rather than a combi? The house I'm
buying is a 3-bed semi.

Many thanks.

Al

In message , John
Rumm writes
Al 1953 wrote:

Al Lights the blue touch paper and stands back ;-)

(cue combi Vs stored system debate - again)

Hello DIY-ers,
I am buying a house in a hard water area. It has no c/h system and
no boiler and I inted to install both. I gather condensing boilers
are the way to go these days, but what about the question of combi
vs. regular? My experience of a combi in my previous house was that
it was constantly furring up dure to the hard water, and I spent a
fortune keeping it

If you stick a phosphate dosing unit (like a "Combimate" for example)
in front of the combi then it should not suffer scale problems. That
should then bring the decision back to the basic one of which better
suits your requirements.

I plan to put a conventional ion exchange water softener in front of
mine.

running. Conversely, my parents had an old fasioned regular boiler
and a copper cylinder that never needed any repairs or maintenance.
Bleeding the rads once a year was all that was required. So, is there
a good argument for using a regular condensing boile rather than a
combi? The house I'm buying is a 3-bed semi.

Things like how many people, what's the cold mains flow rate and
pressure like etc might be more relevant...

regards


--
Tim Lamb

Al 1953 wrote:
Hello DIY-ers,

I am buying a house in a hard water area. It has no c/h system and no
boiler and I inted to install both. I gather condensing boilers are the way
to go these days, but what about the question of combi vs. regular? My
experience of a combi in my previous house was that it was constantly
furring up dure to the hard water, and I spent a fortune keeping it
running. Conversely, my parents had an old fasioned regular boiler and a
copper cylinder that never needed any repairs or maintenance. Bleeding the
rads once a year was all that was required. So, is there a good argument
for using a regular condensing boile rather than a combi? The house I'm
buying is a 3-bed semi.


do a cost analysis vis a vis a combi and a softener, versus a mains
pressure system boiler without.

However I recommend a softener for all hard water areas. Its not just
boilers..shower heads, taps everything furs up and you spend an arm and
a leg descaling and repairing.

I dont personally like combis unless space is very limited and there is
only a single person or a well in tune couple. Peak flow rates are too
low frankly for all but one at a time usage.

And if you get a bigger one instead, it just takes up more space and
costs more.


Many thanks.

Al

On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:05:29 +0000, John Rumm wrote:

If you stick a phosphate dosing unit (like a "Combimate" for example) in
front of the combi then it should not suffer scale problems. That should
then bring the decision back to the basic one of which better suits your
requirements.

The Culligan SFWH1 whole house unit has many times the capacity of the
Combimate and does the same job, and is about £40 from Screwfix
including the extra fittings you'll need. Bit more fiddly to fit though
(hint: 3/4" bath tap flexi connectors fit the plastic 3/4" bushes that
come with it; any other 3/4" Male fittings you try to use on it are liable
to strip the threads).



--
John Stumbles -- http://yaph.co.uk

Fundamentalist agnostic

John Rumm writes:

Tim Lamb wrote:

If you stick a phosphate dosing unit (like a "Combimate"
for example) in front of the combi then it should not
suffer scale problems. That should then bring the
decision back to the basic one of which better suits your
requirements.

I plan to put a conventional ion exchange water softener in front of mine.

Even better ;-)

Curiously, the installation instructions for my combi say that
softening the water isn't recommended. Any idea why?

(at a guess, the extra sodium ions might react with the
aluminium?)
--
Jón Fairbairn
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2009-01-31)

In message , Jon Fairbairn
writes
John Rumm writes:

Tim Lamb wrote:

If you stick a phosphate dosing unit (like a "Combimate"
for example) in front of the combi then it should not
suffer scale problems. That should then bring the
decision back to the basic one of which better suits your
requirements.

I plan to put a conventional ion exchange water softener in front of mine.

Even better ;-)

Curiously, the installation instructions for my combi say that
softening the water isn't recommended. Any idea why?

(at a guess, the extra sodium ions might react with the
aluminium?)

Fortunately my Veissmann is stainless steel but I also would be
interested to learn the reason.

regards

--
Tim Lamb

Jon Fairbairn wrote:
John Rumm writes:

Tim Lamb wrote:

If you stick a phosphate dosing unit (like a "Combimate"
for example) in front of the combi then it should not
suffer scale problems. That should then bring the
decision back to the basic one of which better suits your
requirements.
I plan to put a conventional ion exchange water softener in front of mine.
Even better ;-)

Curiously, the installation instructions for my combi say that
softening the water isn't recommended. Any idea why?

(at a guess, the extra sodium ions might react with the
aluminium?)

It reduces the amount they can charge you for spares, and they have a
commercial deal with Clag-on?

On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:32:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

However I recommend a softener for all hard water areas. Its not just
boilers..shower heads, taps everything furs up and you spend an arm and
a leg descaling and repairing.

Though in the (few) houses I've seen with softeners (here in Reading: a
very hard water area) I've a suspicion that the 'softened' (i.e.
sodium-rich) water attacks some brassware - taps and suchlike.


--
John Stumbles -- http://yaph.co.uk

Fundamentalist agnostic

John Rumm wrote in
o.uk:

Things like how many people, what's the cold mains flow rate and
pressure like etc might be more relevant...

Thanks, John... I'm not sure of those factors just yet.

Alan53