Hi,

I am in the process of trying to decide which thermal store to buy to be
used only for heating up hot water in a two bathroom house. Rerouting the
heating to be driven by the store seems more hassle than I think it is
worth, but can see the advantages of the longer boiler running etc.

I currently favour the DPS Pandora (www.heatweb.com) as it is a manual fill
and seems to have simpler plumbing than the more automatic ones. Can
anybody think of a good reason why I do not want to go down this route. So
far the negatives / questions I have:

Over time it might need topping up. While I would do this, what about the
next house owner who might not. How often will it need topping up ?

Does anybody know how much water resistence their heat exchange offers and
is it better or worse than others ?

any comments from the floor to help me decide ?

many thanks

Ian

(ian dot tracey at btinternet dot com)

"Ian Tracey" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am in the process of trying to decide which thermal store to buy to
be
used only for heating up hot water in a two bathroom house. Rerouting
the
heating to be driven by the store seems more hassle than I think it is
worth, but can see the advantages of the longer boiler running etc.

I currently favour the DPS Pandora (www.heatweb.com) as it is a manual
fill
and seems to have simpler plumbing than the more automatic ones. Can
anybody think of a good reason why I do not want to go down this
route. So
far the negatives / questions I have:

Over time it might need topping up. While I would do this, what about
the
next house owner who might not. How often will it need topping up ?

Does anybody know how much water resistence their heat exchange offers
and
is it better or worse than others ?

any comments from the floor to help me decide ?

many thanks


I installed a Pandora a few weeks ago after reading Christian McArdle's
review. I considered it along side an unvented cylinder such as a
Megaflo, but decided in favour of an unpressurised cylinder because the
layout of my house does not lend itself to easily accommodating the
pressure relief pipework. A bonus was that I could get a tall, thin
cylinder which would still leave me some useful space in the airing
cupboard. Now I have installed it, I'm not even sure the Megaflo would
have fit in the cupboard. The narrow cylinder also gives me scope to
relocate it to the loft if I decide to do so in the future.

So far the performance has been as expected.

If it needs topping up you'll soon know, because you won't be getting
any more hot water. The fill level is just above the level of the
take-off point for the pumped side of the heat exchanger.

I have not actually measured the pressure of the DHW to compare with the
cold main but they are similar - if I turn on the hot and cold taps in t
he cloakroom they produce similar levels of embarrassing water splashes
on light coloured trousers. The heat exchanger certainly seems to do its
job.

hope this helps

Neil

I installed a Pandora a few weeks ago after reading Christian McArdle's
review. I considered it along side an unvented cylinder such as a
Megaflo, but decided in favour of an unpressurised cylinder because the
layout of my house does not lend itself to easily accommodating the
pressure relief pipework. A bonus was that I could get a tall, thin
cylinder which would still leave me some useful space in the airing
cupboard. Now I have installed it, I'm not even sure the Megaflo would
have fit in the cupboard. The narrow cylinder also gives me scope to
relocate it to the loft if I decide to do so in the future.

So far the performance has been as expected.

If it needs topping up you'll soon know, because you won't be getting
any more hot water. The fill level is just above the level of the
take-off point for the pumped side of the heat exchanger.

I have not actually measured the pressure of the DHW to compare with the
cold main but they are similar - if I turn on the hot and cold taps in t
he cloakroom they produce similar levels of embarrassing water splashes
on light coloured trousers. The heat exchanger certainly seems to do its
job.

hope this helps

Neil


Neil,
Can you point me to the review you mention please. Also, how much does
one of these things cost?
regards
Neal Jones

"Neal Jones" wrote in message
...

Neil,
Can you point me to the review you mention please. Also, how much does
one of these things cost?
regards
Neal Jones

Here you a-

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl...F-8&threadm=3f
9e8ee3%240%24246%24ed9e5944%40reading.news.pipex.n et&rnum=1&prev=/groups
%3Fq%3Dgroup:uk.d-i-y%2Binsubject:dps%2Binsubjectandora%2Bauthor:chr is
tian%2Bauthor:mcardle%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm
%3D3f9e8ee3%25240%2524246%2524ed9e5944%2540reading .news.pipex.net%26rnum
%3D1

http://tinyurl.com/392ml

They vary according to specification - best to call them with your
requirements I should think.

HTH

Neil

"Ian Tracey" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am in the process of trying to decide which thermal store to buy to be
used only for heating up hot water in a two bathroom house. Rerouting the
heating to be driven by the store seems more hassle than I think it is
worth, but can see the advantages of the longer boiler running etc.

I currently favour the DPS Pandora (www.heatweb.com) as it is a manual
fill
and seems to have simpler plumbing than the more automatic ones. Can
anybody think of a good reason why I do not want to go down this route.
So
far the negatives / questions I have:

Over time it might need topping up. While I would do this, what about the
next house owner who might not. How often will it need topping up ?

If this is a problem to you, then get one with an integrated F&E tank
connected to the mains.

Does anybody know how much water resistence their heat exchange offers and
is it better or worse than others ?

any comments from the floor to help me decide ?

many thanks

Ian

(ian dot tracey at btinternet dot com)

While I would do this, what about the next house owner who might not.

Do you care? If so, leave instructions. If they're too scared to do it
themselves, they can always call a plumber or handyman to do it for them.

How often will it need topping up ?

I have not topped up the Pandora since it was installed in October. That's
fractionally shy of six months. It still works perfectly. The flow rate
compares well with my mother's Megaflo and is determined almost solely by
the mains supply. At some point, I'll cool it off and see how much the water
level has dropped. Given the design, I suspect it won't have dropped at all.

The design has what is referred to as an "anti-evaporation" bubble. This
expands when the cylinder is hot and looks pretty impervious to water
vapour. I doubt much water could escape the system if it tried. The design
is certainly not having the hot water sitting in a puddle at the top, just
asking to be evaporated, like you would find in a ball valve system (where
it wouldn't matter, of course).

Christian.