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[Webby the Bear]

ps re the boiler insurance..................

it is good but bloody expensive. i think i was previously paying £45 per month for it! and its not like they will replace the boiler if its nackered (2-3k jobbie) they will simply fix things that have gone wrong that AREN'T deemed to be general maintenance/wear 'n' tear.

[Taxi_Driver]

I would never have a combi personaly and certainly not if you have a reasonable sized house.

And agree with Kevin, most 10 year old boilers will probably be around the 70-80% efficiency level anyway so you wont gain that much.

Do you size wise or peeps in the house?
I can see the advantage of a hot water tank if there are several peeps in the house.
Heating a house, i wouldnt have thought it mattered what type of boiler did that job 

[Sir Tigger KC]

The principle of combi boilers is great. ie you only heat the water that you use and if you use a lot it's unlimited! 

In my experience the older non condensing combis work well, I have a 20 year old Worcester combi that is still going strong   However the newer condensing combis are crap and are a classic example of BS forced upon us by climate change hysteria!!    As said earlier, I also have a 5 year old Ferroli condensing combi that has gone wrong so many times I doubt much is left of the original boiler!!    Also a heating engineer told me once that condensing boilers have a design life of only 10 years!! 

[Marks DTM Calib]

I would never have a combi personaly and certainly not if you have a reasonable sized house.

And agree with Kevin, most 10 year old boilers will probably be around the 70-80% efficiency level anyway so you wont gain that much.

Do you size wise or peeps in the house?
I can see the advantage of a hot water tank if there are several peeps in the house.
Heating a house, i wouldnt have thought it mattered what type of boiler did that job 

The bigger the house the longer the pipe runs.

Plus a combi has to be F-large on the water heat output to get good flow at a reasonable temperature

[Marks DTM Calib]

ps re the boiler insurance..................

it is good but bloody expensive. i think i was previously paying £45 per month for it! and its not like they will replace the boiler if its nackered (2-3k jobbie) they will simply fix things that have gone wrong that AREN'T deemed to be general maintenance/wear 'n' tear.

How much, thats almost enough to buy a cheap boiler every year!

[Radar]

If your hot water lasts for 3 days (which is awesome) you could just let it heat up for half the time to save a bit.

[TheBoy]

I wouldn't have a combi.

Generally poor shower pressure, as you can't get the hot water through the boiler fast enough, and if someone else in the house turns the hot tap on....


Cylinder for me every time.  I keep my water on 24/7, and the heating is programmed to be on 24/7, but I have one of those thermostats that adjusts temp depending on time of day.


10yr old boiler, as fitted by the builders. One of those desperately unreliable Potterton Suprimas, though (touch wood) its been pretty good recently - mind you, there's not much circuit board left for next time it fails, I've already had to partially rebuild this one a number of times.

[Richie London]

Mines a ideal classic. had 1or 2 problems with it in last 6yrs but only 10min repairs so can't see the point myself. i don't really use it much as i heat the tank and leave it. winter it doesn't take long to heat my flat as i have heat from downstairs come.g through floor so only use about 6 quid a week last xmas in gas. Be more this yr as gas is too expensive now

[tigers_gonads]

Now't wrong with the classic 

Been around for donkeys years and pretty bomb proof 

[justjohn]

Agree with TheBoy

Had a combi fitted with Scottish Gas, would not heat bath even with tap just opened.

In the end they replaced it for a system boiler and put the tank back.

Although we would have kept it if we had a shower instead of a bath.

[Lazydocker]

I looked into this 6 years ago... Our situation is a little different though as we are Oil Fired (no mains gas )

I had 3 different boiler fitters come in (one of which was a friend of the family) and all 3 said that although my boiler was 20+ years old it was not economical to replace it as parts were (mostly) still available Only trouble will be when the heat exchanger finally packs in, then it's probably going to be close to a £4k bill for a new boiler

[Marks DTM Calib]

Agree with TheBoy

Had a combi fitted with Scottish Gas, would not heat bath even with tap just opened.

In the end they replaced it for a system boiler and put the tank back.

Although we would have kept it if we had a shower instead of a bath.

If it would not do a bath well then a shower would have been truely awful!

[justjohn]

If it would not do a bath well then a shower would have been truely awful!

They tried to get us to install a shower, gave us assurances it would be okay.

They also tried to blame the "steel" bath, said it was cooling the water down as it came out the tap. I pointed out the bath was discussed with their sales rep who stated it would be no problem getting a bath of hot water. In the end head engineer and sales manager came to house, measured water temp as it left the tap which was truly abysmal.

As it was basically an open check book I asked for biggest combi available, they said they could not guarentee any combi would fill a bath. Ended up with the storage tank back, which put paid to the space savings in the kitchen where it was fitted. Don't use Scottish Gas, they are chancers, fitters are more interested in arranging home jobs and price was extortionate, lesson learned.

[jerry]

weve had our combi for about 11 years and were paying about £23 a month for cover/repairs/annual service. As it got older things like the pump started to go so the cover was usefull. However, last service the engineer who called was a complete jobsworth. Previous guys had been fine but this ones customer service was absolutely crap , first off he knew in advance that on the scheduled day we wouldnt be there for a while but the key would be with the nieghbour which he agreed to (as did his office when we arranged it) but when he got here he refused to do anything because the" householder wasnt present" and then, on the rescheduled visit , he got arsey because I'd forgotten to take out 4 screws in my rush to get to work that would remove a conti-board cover to give him better access o the boiler. Once my wife had done this for him he then reluctantly serviced the thing whilst pointing out all the things wrong wth it and how certain (very minor and easily changed) things didnt now comply with recent regulations and hinting that he was therefore doing us a favour in even touching it. Needless to say a call to their headoffice was quickly done.Anyhow that was a year ago and this year with finances being tight it was one of the policies we cancelled. Sods law of course meant that just as the weather (briefly!) got cold the bloody thing packed up. Now we'd changed back to British Gas a few months back so called them (expecting the worse) and they said that for £99 (paid upfront ) their engineer would be out that day and fix it. No parts charges, the price was all inc. Sure enough a feller came out that afternoon and fixed it. No quibbling, no bitching. Nice bloke. Probably here about an hour or so. Excellent customer service allround and £99 v our old policy of £23 a month. There you go. Never thought Id say it from my dealings with them in the past but would certainly recommend them based on that 

[justjohn]

Jerry
Good point about cover as I still have it, albeit on a reduced plan due to circumstances.

I recently claimed for washing machine (drum bearings noisy). Received new drum and motor, plus guy was really decent doing the job in a couple of hours, easily recouped money paid into scheme   

Other jobs done in the past, blocked drains and electrical fault with wiring in 13amp sockets so in all fairness a great scheme.

My initial rant about heating system still stands, paid over 5k for boiler and six rads, when independents where doing similar systems for 2k. Went with name thinking I was getting the best, sadly not so. Similar to your experience a mix of good and bad regarding service and workmanship