Wrong boiler?

[saufen]

Hi there..

We have an Vailant ecoTec Pro 28 in a three-story townhouse. If we want a hot bath or shower, we have to run several cold taps simultaneously. We can then run the hot tap for the bath or run the hot tap for the shower. Otherwise the bath water or shower water are lukewarm at best. Crazy.

We had a plumber visit us this morning. He reckons that the ecoTec Pro 28 is far too small a boiler for the configuration of our house. I am worried that he might be right.

- ground floor - three sinks, two six-foot tall radiators, two small rads.
- mid floor - one sink, six small rads.
- top floor - two showers, one bath, six small rads.

Thanks for your thoughts and advice.

Mark

 

[dcawkwell]

The plumber you got is an idiot.

You diverter valve in the boiler is allowing the heat into the central heating circuit when running hot water.

Can be fixed at reasonable cost.

Although the boiler you have can only reasonably supply one hot water tap at once.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Agree the plumber is a prannet.

What is the flow rate from the taps when lukewarm?

 

[Agile]

Hi there..

- top floor - two showers, one bath, six small rads.

Thanks for your thoughts and advice.

Mark

I doubt that her plumber is a punnet.

She needs to be told that her combi will only run just ONE hot outlet at a time.

Plus it can only manage about 8 litres of hot water at this time of year when the incoming water is very cold.

Also to set the hot taps/shower to reduce the flow rate to what the boiler can manage to heat.

 

[Jackrae]

Lots of cold taps running = mains pressure reduced = less pressure at bath hot tap = less flow = warmer water because of slower rate through boiler heat exchanger. Maybe the heat exchanger is gunged up. When was boiler last serviced.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If he wasn't a prannet he would have said the boiler is fine for the house but not multiple draw offs.

 

[Agile]

We dont know exactly what he said.

Probably that the boiler is working correctly but cannot supply all those hot outlets at the same time.

He may well have suggested that if she has another £1600 to spoend she could have an unvented cylinder to solve all those limitations to the hot water delivery.

Tony

 

[saufen]

Lots of cold taps running = mains pressure reduced = less pressure at bath hot tap = less flow = warmer water because of slower rate through boiler heat exchanger. Maybe the heat exchanger is gunged up. When was boiler last serviced.

We had the boiler 'serviced' 6 months ago. Or at least, someone came in had a look at the plates and told us that it was 'as clean as a whistle'.

Thanks, Mark