Hi, boiler advise please.

[robdav99]

HI all found this forum while searching for my options with boilers, seems like a great place to get some help.

My old conventional Glow-worm ultimate 50ff has died and for some reason the wife likes having heating in the house doesnt bother me too much, esp as I pay the gas bill.

It looks like the multifunction solinoid has gone in the boiler, so approx £180 for new one + fitting as I can't touch gas as I'm just a humble spark.

What would you do at this point?

Fix the old heap, just for somthing else to go on it soon (I've already replaced fan and resoldered pcb in last 18months)

replace with another conventional boiler.

or

time to go for a combi?

I would be quite happy to replace with a conventional as they seem cheaper and is less work for for plumber so cheaper again.

but the misses would like to get rid of airing cupboard to make bathroom bigger so that would be big plus for combi.

I was looking at the lastest range of Baxi's, the Neta tec and Duo tec 2 GA's with the 5 year warrenty but have seen lots of bad news from them on this forum. What you think?
Stick to the older Potterton Gold, or Duotec 1, or something completely different?

Also how does this sound? As I want the job to be done slightly strangely to minimise cost and expect some plumbers might have an issue with this.
I buy a new boiler, I get a GSR plumber to come and disconnect my old boiler and cap off the gas.
I then mount the new boiler frame and do all the water piping up to it.
Then get the GSR plumber back to connect gas, test and commission as required.

As you can probably tell I'm working to a tight budget here.


Any and all advice is greatly appreciated and sorry for the long post.

Rob

 

[TBServices]

TBH the amount of work you would be saving the GSR would be so minimal, it wouldnt be worth doing yourself. Any decent GSR wouldn't sign off a boiler he didn't hang himself.

I personally wouldn't touch an install where a conversion from heat only to combi was required unless I was doing it myself. Not worth the hassle when it goes wrong.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

get the gsr to fit it,that way hes covering his work and its done right,no disrespect to you but fluework,boiler fitting should be done by a gar in regards to boilers avoid anything baxi make with a ga tag get a potterton titanium its the same boiler as the golds and duotec1 but with a 5 year warranty dont forget the system will need cleaning as well and get a filter fitted

 

[robdav99]

I wasnt going to fit the boiler just the mounting frame and the water pipes upto that.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll look at potterton titainiums.

 

[GasManMike]

there are loads of things to take into consideration when choosing a new boiler especially a combi conversion.


How bigs your house / how many bathrooms / what's your hot water usage like -combi's only really designed for 1 hot tap at a time operation.

What kind of shower do you have? - will it take the extra pressure of putting the hot onto mains pressure?

What's your water pressure and flow rates like? - If you've only got 10 litres on your cold main you'll only ever get 10 litres out of your hot taps.

Sealing the system - will your old rads / rad valves take the extra pressure of a sealed system ( no tanks )?

Gas pipe sizing? More often than not you'll need to upgrade the gas to 22mm (maybe even some 28mm depending on gas run length)

Also if your planning on doing most of it yourself you'll need a GSR to connect the flue aswell.

 

[gasmanrob]

i had to fit an ideal logic + the other day was really dreading it but was actually very impressed with it the price was reasonable and it came with a 5 year warranty. has a built in diagnostic system and the display tells you what its doing. not just an indicator light.

i wouldn't normally recommend ideal after the icos and isar disasters but it seems a lot of time and effort has gone into this to try and win some installers back i guess so definitely one worth considering

 

[AWheating]

best to discuss it with your engineer, i would want to fix the jig to the wall myself, fit the boiler,flue, gas,condense pipework.

why not drain down, get pipework preped and hot and cold to it and then let the gsr tek ova?

 

[dancinplumba]

thought they had 7 year til end of year ?

 

[robdav99]

Its a tiny house, 2 beds, 1 bathroom.

Its ex council so the piping is all pretty good. Was replaced in 1997 when the glowworm boiler was fitted according to paperwork.
Electric cold water only shower.

Gas is 22mm at the boiler appox 8m run from meter.

Water pressure is something I meant to ask about, the cold water pressure is absoloutly rubbish here (top of a mountain) I'm not sure of an exact figure but it is as low as the water company are allowed to let it be I think, does that effect anything?
The hot water pressure is about the same, if not worse, at the moment.

 

[AWheating]

imagin the cold water halved.....thats what you will get when you run both the hot and cold on a combi approx.

 

[TBServices]

thought they had 7 year til end of year ?

They do. Brilliant boilers.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

i had to fit an ideal logic + the other day was really dreading it but was actually very impressed with it the price was reasonable and it came with a 5 year warranty. has a built in diagnostic system and the display tells you what its doing. not just an indicator light.

i wouldn't normally recommend ideal after the icos and isar disasters but it seems a lot of time and effort has gone into this to try and win some installers back i guess so definitely one worth considering

lots of the guys are banging on about the logic,personally i really love ideal,changing a pcb a week on the icos,esprit,iasr etc wont touch the logics in volume with a barge pole and you cant compare it to a duotec1/gold etc the baxi/potterton is superior in quality

 

[TBServices]

lots of the guys are banging on about the logic,personally i really love ideal,changing a pcb a week on the icos,esprit,iasr etc wont touch the logics in volume with a barge pole and you cant compare it to a duotec1/gold etc the baxi/potterton is superior in quality

In all honest GM, you're the only person I've ever known to rave about baxi's. I really don't like them lol


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[GasManMike]

Get someone in to check your water pressures before you commit to anything pal.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

In all honest GM, you're the only person I've ever known to rave about baxi's. I really don't like them lol


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

do you maintain boilers?

 

[gasmanrob]

i fear i may have opened a horrible can of worms i take it all back forget i was even here lol

 

[robdav99]

Get someone in to check your water pressures before you commit to anything pal.

cheers, will speak to the plumber in work and get him to come round and have look.

 

[TBServices]

do you maintain boilers?

Occasionally. I think it's a regional thing, there seems to be hardly any baxi's round here other than BBUs. I agree that the icos/Isar is a terrible boiler, but so is the bahama, times change. Logic is a great boiler, and the truth is not many are gonna know what they're like to work on due to them still being in warranty.

I know an ideal engineer, he's says he's been to hardly any logics, still makes his living fixing badly installed icos/isars on warmfront etc.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

i fear i may have opened a horrible can of worms i take it all back forget i was even here lol

no you havent dont flap rob,my point is i fit what i fit because i look after them for many years into the future i dont rate ideals and never will for good reasons,the WB greenstar is the best selling boiler in the uk but its total carp IMHO put a greenstar next to a duotec 1 tell me which one you would rather work on,and which ones better built

 

[TBServices]

no you havent dont flap rob,my point is i fit what i fit because i look after them for many years into the future i dont rate ideals and never will for good reasons,the WB greenstar is the best selling boiler in the uk but its total carp IMHO put a greenstar next to a duotec 1 tell me which one you would rather work on,and which ones better built

The fact is, only time will tell with the logic. We agree on WB completely.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[RGII79]

Ive installed about 30 IDEAL LOGIC SYSTEMS IN THE PAST 2 YEARS RANGING FROM 18 TO 30 not one call back or breakdown so far
im in rep ireland and they are getting more popular here .easy install
only issue ideal say in MI's and the tech support that we cant touch the pre set gas valve as will effect warranty and as Calorific value of gas over here is 11.25 the heat input is up

 

[RGII79]

one of the easiest condensing boilers to install but the one issue i have with the logic is ther are no sampling points on air intake or exaust

 

[robdav99]

had a closer look at the gas valve on the old Glowworm today and it is only the solinoid coil on the pilot side that has failed, £25 to buy brand new, so it looks like the old heap will live for a little while longer.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll remember it when I do come to get the boiler replaced, probably next summer now.