I'm thinking of replacing my old Glow worm Space saver 60B MkII with a
combi. I live in a smallish bungalow, there are only two of us, and we
prefer to shower rather than fill the bath.
If a combi is a good choice in this situation, what models would
people recommend, for reliability in particular?
I've so far only had recommended the Ferroli F30. The chap concerned
says he's installed a lot of them and they've been reliable. He seems
to think condensing boilers are less reliable and not worth the extra
expense. Is this the case?

Rob


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On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 11:43:46 +0100, "Rob Bradley"
wrote:

I'm thinking of replacing my old Glow worm Space saver 60B MkII with a
combi. I live in a smallish bungalow, there are only two of us, and we
prefer to shower rather than fill the bath.
If a combi is a good choice in this situation, what models would
people recommend, for reliability in particular?
I've so far only had recommended the Ferroli F30. The chap concerned
says he's installed a lot of them and they've been reliable. He seems
to think condensing boilers are less reliable and not worth the extra
expense. Is this the case?

Rob

A combi could be a good choice for your requirements.

It is worth checking the water flow first, though. At the kitchen
tap, time how long it takes to fill a container of known size and then
calculate the flow rate in litres per minute.

If you are getting 20 or more, then you will be in good shape with
water flow, If it's closer to 10 then the results could be
disappointing. There are ways around this, though.

The performance of the Ferroli, from the specification is typical of a
boiler of its size at around 12 litres per minute for a 35 degree
raise of water temperature.

The efficiency is really poor. The SEDBUK database (UK seasonal
efficiency) gives it a figure of 78%, which is the lowest that can be
legally installed nowadays. From early next year, it would not be
legal to install it as the effciiency minimum will be going up to 86%.
In effect this will take non-condensing boilers, for the most part off
the market.

Your installer may have good experience with the Ferroli product and
it may well be a good data point. Certainly installers don't want
unpaid call-backs.

Equally, don't forget that a lot of installers are quite conservative
about newer technologies and with the WI groups of them that sometimes
frequent heating merchants, stories and hearsay go around.
Also, don't forget that manufacturers are not above doing marketing
loyalty promotions with the trade in the form of a trip to Eyebyeza
for every N boilers installed.

UK designed and made condensing boilers of earlier generation
technology had a poor reputation because they were not designed and
manufactured properly and used inappropriate materials.

Condensing technology has been in use in Germany and Holland for 15
years and the products are high quality. Increasingly you see
designs and materials from these places.appearing in UK designed or
made products as well.

If you trawl back through old threads here, you will read good things
about Worcester Bosch and Vaillant products, but this doesn't
eliminate others. I would avoid UK products of older designs.
You can look at the SEDBUK database (www.sedbuk.com) to see the date
of first introduction of any product.




..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

I'm thinking of replacing my old Glow worm Space saver 60B MkII with a
combi. I live in a smallish bungalow, there are only two of us, and we
prefer to shower rather than fill the bath.

Sounds ideal for a combi, really.

I've so far only had recommended the Ferroli F30. The chap concerned
says he's installed a lot of them and they've been reliable.

Mine isn't a combi, but I've had not a peep of a problem from my Worcester
Bosch Greenstar HE28 System. They do a number of combi versions of this at
various power levels up to 40kW, although you might find a 28kW more cost
effective to run a single shower if you don't use the bath frequently.

He seems to think condensing boilers are less reliable and not worth
the extra expense. Is this the case?

Old wives' tale due to early poor designs released years ago. Modern
condensing boilers are no less reliable than non-condensing types, although
there are always some "lemon" makes, as in any field.

Christian.

Just replaced an old Potterton indirect with a Vaillant combi (Turbomax plus
828E) Mains pressure is high and we get a torrent of hot water, provides an
excellent shower. Conversion of the plumbing and removing the old cylinder
was interesting, the original plumber had some strange ideas, but we managed
to figure it all out. Had a couple of small problems, but both are
resolved. The digital display stopped working after being on for a day, a
Vaillant engineer swapped the display unit under warranty. The other
problem was potentially more worrying as an o-ring was split on the mains
water inlet filling loop valve. It must have been split when Vaillant
manufactured the boiler and luckily decided to spring a leak while we were
in, rather than wait until we were out, 17p for a replacement from the local
diy shed. Luckily the boiler is very well designed and we were able to
replace this in minutes. Looks as if a lot of thought has gone into the
design so that it can be serviced easily.

Graham

"Rob Bradley" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of replacing my old Glow worm Space saver 60B MkII with a
combi. I live in a smallish bungalow, there are only two of us, and we
prefer to shower rather than fill the bath.
If a combi is a good choice in this situation, what models would
people recommend, for reliability in particular?
I've so far only had recommended the Ferroli F30. The chap concerned
says he's installed a lot of them and they've been reliable. He seems
to think condensing boilers are less reliable and not worth the extra
expense. Is this the case?

Rob


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