I am considering putting a combi boiler in my house to replace the sulky old boiler. Had a combi in the last place, and it suited our living style very well, and was very cheap to run.

I am currently considering the Glow-worm Xtramax. Does it live up to the manufacturers claims? Has anyone used one?

Any suggestions very welcome.

 

Halstead.

Reliable, easy to work on, loads of bits about.

Muf

 

Forgot to say:

The wife says that anything below 16 l/min DHW flow isn't good enough. The Xtramax indicates 20 l/min for reasonable duration.

Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like reliable, well built boilers - think I would have to consider a small secondary water storage cylinder tho. Puts the price up - had hoped to get away with just one white box...

 

I prefer Worcester over Halstead.... and then Glow Worm comes last..

The worcester is more expensive.. but a better boiler to fit, maintain, run and control.

I've fitted a few glowworms, halsteads and two worcesters...

J.

 

FF - did you mean that glowworm was last over the three you mentioned, or worst overall?

A few people have recomended Glow-worm to me before now, as well as Worcester.

I don't want to get a boiler that can't be serviced/will be unreliable....

 

A combi may state that it is capable of delivering 20Lt per min,but very few water mains can actually provide this after the restriction of flowing through the boiler.You maybe better off saving some money and going for a lower spec boiler and getting 'real world' flow figures.If given a choice I will always fit Vaillant Boilers and then Worcester. I would not fit Gloworm unless a customer insisted.But before choosing any combi you should really do a flow test on the cold water main to see what figures you can get, hope this helps

Mog

 

i've got a worcester, it was bl**dy expnsive but does a good job and heats shedloads of water v quickly

 

depends on what you call expensive ?

 

£3500 but it's a big one, i'm told

 

Being a Boiler installer i would only fit Worcestor.They go in all the relatives houses and my own.Worcestor are one of the best boilers on the market (up North Anyway).My dads was one of the first Worcestor Combination boilers brought into the country 25 years ago and its had a Gas Valve and 1 Heating pump in all that time!!!!! Its the one with a small heatstore(tiny Cylinder)in the boiler case.Worcestor still do a floor standing combi with this feature but i gather your after a Wall mounted boiler??

As someone said you might need a new water main or a bigger one.

Also connecting to a old system may be problematic as combis dont like dirty systems (years of sludge build up),there are many brands of flushing solution but it wont all come out.

How old are the rads?Would the be ok on a pressurised system?
Every new combi on old system we change the rad valves to be safe,this helps the boiler to keep pressurised..

If you need any more ideas let me know.

Duncan.

 

Had to do some work to pay for the new heating ...

Thanks for the comments - now to answer a few of the questions:

The water main is quite good. Not sure of the exact pressure, but we have had a 30ish foot high fountain when we were installing pipes in the nearby marina! Someone got very wet that day...

The GW boiler has some inbuilt storage, so it doesn't provide a constant 20 l/min. The literature says that the 20 l/min should be sufficient to fill 2 baths, and recovery should be less than 5 mins.

As for the old rads - they are mostly rusted through, and the install was so bad, I had pretty much decided that I will redo the lot in microbore pipe (am working on some flow rate calculations for this now) and have all new rads. That's confirmed that one now.

As for wall/floor mounting, either suits me, but I would like to see if it is possible to use the house chimney as a boiler flue (lined if necessary) so that I can have the boiler out of the way. So, a wall mount makes the flue shorter - significant, as this is a 3 story house.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks once again for the suggestions.

 

Just remember water pressure bears no relation to flow rate

Mog

 

Thanks Mog. Hope the flow rate is up to the job. It should be - the feed pipe is thick enough.

The above incident was at sea level and using 22mm tube. Highly amusing

 

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Have found the Wourscter hiflow for the same price as the Glowworm. If the flue length doesn't stop me, I think this is the way I will go.

Just got to find the time to start now.

 

Good choice on the Highflow


Duncan