Boiler in loft

[QualityCare]

Our boiler was condemned the other day no hot water or heating, we have had a couple of quotes and it has been suggested that we have a combi boiler as we need a new immersion tank as well, the boiler cannot go in the kitchen and the one we have now is in the airing cupboard upstairs, anyway one of the engineers suggested putting it in the loft as they wouldn't have to lift floorboards for the pipe work and it would be quieter as we wouldn't need a pump, has anyone got theirs up there? any problems, never had a combi boiler how do rate them we would have no back up for hot water but is that all.

[FussyElmo]

Is your loft easily accessible?

We have a combi and I cant imagine life without it

[samb]

We got a combi boiler last year- fantastic. It meant we could get rid of the water tank, gut the cupboard and shelve it out for my toys! Lol! We were offered it in the loft but the main reason we decided not to was it has the little pilot light and you notice it if you can see it but if its in the loft you wouldn't see it there was a problem until you noticed some other way. We decided to keep ours in the kitchen.

[sarah707]

Combi boilers are the bees knees!

It has to be accessible though - if it leaks or goes off you have to be able to get to it

[Kerry30]

Combi boilers are great. Constant hot water! One of my mindees dad changed my scale inhibitor on mine (as his job is boilers etc) and he said they very rarely go wrong. As we live in a hard water area he said the scale inhibitor is the main thing that needs to be replaced every 5yrs or so.

[QualityCare]

Thanks everyone feel better about having one just got to decide where to put it now.

[rickysmiths]

Combi Boilers are fab. However a word of warning from someone who has used them for 30 years.

The first on I had, a Valiant my Dad put into the flat I was in in 1984, it was next to the kitchen sink and it was fab. We left the flat 20 years after he fitted it, it had been serviced by British Gas every year and was still working very well.

We moved into our current house and inherited a cheaper combi which was in a cupboard in our bedroom upstairs. As it happens if was about as far from the kitchen sick as it could have been and it was a nightmare. I measured it and it tool 10 litres of water to run through the tap before you got any hot water! In the summer I used to put the watering can under the tap and use the 'spare' water to water the garden. Being on a water metre though it was a nightmare.

Anyhow 3 years ago when we had our extension done we had a completely new central heating system done and now have another Valiant Boiler with a Mega Flo Tank in which the water heated via the boiler is stored. We did this so we could have two showers and not have to have electric ones. The boiler is not next to the kitchen sink but it is in a Utility Room a few yards away and our water bills have reduced by 30%.

I would never ever put a combi boiler in the loft. It will cost a fortune in water bills and even if you are not on a meter you will be wasting litres of water which isn't good practice. Please have a good look and try and locate it as close to your kitchen as possible.

[Glitter]

We have a combi boiler and it is very good. It has saved us a fortune on the gas bill.

The only problem we have had is it has a pipe leading outside to a drain, which drips waste water out. When the winter is very cold, the water in this pipe freezes and blocks the pipe, and the boiler stops working. Once we realised this had happened we had to defrost the pipe. This happens regularly in very cold weather.

So it is a good idea to make sure the pipe is placed some where accessible so you can defrost it if you need to, or ask if your fitter can connect the pipe to the drain inside your house.

[vickylou]

Yep ours would freeze regularly and as our boiler is in the bathroom and the pipe runs under the bath we couldn't get to it to defrost it. Last winter the gas man cut the pipe so now the water drips into a bucket, bit of a pain but at least we have heating!! You can have a device fitted into the pipe which then heats the pipe to prevent it freezing. But a couple years ago it was £150!!