Combi boilers are very popular. It’s not because they’re better, it’s not because conventional boilers are outdated, the reasons for their success have nothing to do with their performance at all. The truth is that they’re simple to fit, in fact it’s barely a step up from plugging in a toaster. Quick and easy, minimum effort and maximum profit for the installer, and that’s why they’re pushed so hard.
They’re fantastic in flats as they’re a great space saver, no doubt about that, but in houses I’ll fight tooth and nail to get customers to keep the old style separate boiler and hot water cylinder for reasons both numerous and genuine, even in the face of the other 17 quotes they’ve had for sticking in a combi “That’s yer hot water and heatin’all sortit at the wan time misses”.
The water main burst outside today. There’s been no water all day (and won’t be until well into tomorrow), but we’ve still got 120 litres of hot water in a cylinder in the loft. The only one in the street that does in fact, courtesy of my “old fashioned” heating system.
See, I wisnae lying about the “unlikely circumstances” ya doubting bloody Thomas’s.
We’ve one of them too. In the back room cupboard. Bloody roastin in there.
Pipe burst last Sunday apparently. All we got on our side of the street? a wee bit cloudy water. Other side of the street? nae water. Nae luck!
We have a traditional boiler too! we very nearly changed it when we moved in but didn’t have the cash. ours is in a cupboard under the stairs….it comes in handy for fermenting homebrew in too!
I never thought about it like that, im quite pleased now!
If our gas bills are anything to go by, I believe our “trad” boiler runs on the most exotic of gases, imported from Jupiter :o(
I have a combi. It’s fine in my terrace given that I live here alone, but it’s not so fine when someone’s drawing off water downstairs when I’m in the shower!
No combi for me!
I like the feeling of decadence when I heat up the water tank
:)
It’s quite amusing when I get boiler catalogues in, almost without fail the cover has something like “New Lightweight Model”, “Lightweight Materials Revolution”.
Bless them :o)
Boiler catalogues? They must be kept on the top shelf at the newsagents, surely? ;-)
Seeing as I’m a decorator and as an apprentice, regularly had that most despicable of jobs… “tosh out that boiler cupboard lad”… I have never had anything other than a combi boiler since the late 90’s. First one was a Potterton Lynx. Unreliable, unloved and useless once the motherboard decided not to funtion. I guess plumbers loved them as they were an easy fix and the mark up on a motherboard would have paid the deposit on that new RS Turbo!
Talking of heat or rather the lad of it, was anyone else freezing cold on Friday night? Camped out near Snowdon it was certainly chillier than normal for an August… I actually went and got some leggings out of the van to sleep in. Strange weather.
Kate, no’ that kind of boiler. But I have known some of those in my time…
Mrchewy, the war cry of the repair man “It’s the PCB, that’ll be £300…”
I’ve been out for a couple of days, and there was a nip in the air times, and roasting at others, difficult to stay comfy.
£300 notes is an all too familiar sound, henceforth I sent out my boy to become a plumber and low and behold… he passed his Corgi stuff last summer. He now services industrial boilers – next time you eat a Weetabix, he’s played a small part in the production of it!
Happy days for me in my old age