Rinnai Infinity K26i

[WotEver]

 

Swerving off topic for a sec, most people seem generally disillusioned with condensing boiler reliability so your comment intrigues me. What make and model(s) of condensing boiler(s) have led you to say this, please?

 

I ask because my customers often ask what boilers I recommend and frankly, there are none that I positively recommend. (Although there are some I suggest that go wrong less often than others...)

 

Many thanks if you get time to answer.

Answering for myself (even though you didn't ask me!), our GlowWorm 18hxi has proved very reliable. Over the 9 years or so that it's been installed I think the only replacement parts fitted were a new igniter electrode plus the two thermocouples (all at once). We've occasionally had an F4 (ignition failure) over the years but switching it off and on has cleared that every time.

 

We have it serviced annually.

 

Tony

[cuthound]

Answering for myself (even though you didn't ask me!), our GlowWorm 18hxi has proved very reliable. Over the 9 years or so that it's been installed I think the only replacement parts fitted were a new igniter electrode plus the two thermocouples (all at once). We've occasionally had an F4 (ignition failure) over the years but switching it off and on has cleared that every time.

We have it serviced annually.

Tony

In our previous house we had a Gloworm 18hxi. In the ten years that we had it, it only required a gasket on the last service.

 

We have a Gloworm 24hi which is now just over 2 years old in our present house. To date it has not missed a beat.

 

In the early days the controls were unreliable, and heat ex changers can corrode or block. To prevent this choose a condensing boiler with a stainless steel heat exchanger (Worcester Bosch, Vaillant & Gloworm plus others) fit a Magna Filter and clean the Magna Filter at least annually (3 monthly for the first year if fitting one to an existing system).

 

Edited to change "queue" back to "ten". Bluddy autowrong.

Edited April 25, 2016 by cuthound

[MtB]

Interesting comments, thanks!

 

As a repair techy I have the impression the HXi is an unreliable piece of kit. The PCB is very prone to failure, I buy them three at a time!

[RubyTuesday]

Swerving off topic for a sec, most people seem generally disillusioned with condensing boiler reliability so your comment intrigues me. What make and model(s) of condensing boiler(s) have led you to say this, please?

 

I ask because my customers often ask what boilers I recommend and frankly, there are none that I positively recommend. (Although there are some I suggest that go wrong less often than others...)

 

Many thanks if you get time to answer.

We have always had Worchester Bosch boilers in all the buildings I have had connections to (family home, home and office) never had any issues. Not sure of the current model in my office.

 

Of course as a repair techy you will only hear of the bad reviews, not the good. I have the same thing with my previous work.

[MtB]

We have always had Worchester Bosch boilers in all the buildings I have had connections to (family home, home and office) never had any issues. Not sure of the current model in my office.

 

Of course as a repair techy you will only hear of the bad reviews, not the good. I have the same thing with my previous work.

 

 

 

Sort of, but I know my phone rings with a HXi breakdown 100 times for each time it rings with a Vaillant breakdown. Same applies to Worcester. If only they were as good at making boilers they are at schmoozing Which? magazine and the BBC!

[WotEver]

Maybe there's 100 times more hxi installations than Valiant

[MtB]

Maybe there's 100 times more hxi installations than Valiant

 

 

That's a distinct possibility given they are £100 cheaper, and the UK boiler buyer buys on price alone, broadly speaking.

 

Mind you if that were universally true, Vaillant would never sell a box.

(And I get as many calls for routine servicing of Vaillant as HXi.)

[OldGoat]

Present company excluded - but given that a modern boiler requires an annual service - would you be able to get someone to service a domestic condensing boiler installed on a boat?

 

we here of manufacturers refusing to provide warranty support for fridges - which are simpler mechanically?

[cuthound]

Sort of, but I know my phone rings with a HXi breakdown 100 times for each time it rings with a Vaillant breakdown. Same applies to Worcester. If only they were as good at making boilers they are at schmoozing Which? magazine and the BBC!

I am sure you are aware that Gloworm are owned by Vaillant. My understanding is that the Gloworms are built to slightly lower standards, using many of the same components, in a similar way that Audi, Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda share components but built to different standards for different market sectors.

Present company excluded - but given that a modern boiler requires an annual service - would you be able to get someone to service a domestic condensing boiler installed on a boat?

 

we here of manufacturers refusing to provide warranty support for fridges - which are simpler mechanically?

In my experience the annual service comprises of reading the CO levels in the exhaust and only cleaning the burner if the readings are too high.

[bag 'o' bones]

I am sure you are aware that Gloworm are owned by Vaillant. My understanding is that the Gloworms are built to slightly lower standards, using many of the same components, in a similar way that Audi, Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda share components but built to different standards for different market sectors.

 

In my experience the annual service comprises of reading the CO levels in the exhaust and only cleaning the burner if the readings are too high.

'servicing' involves not much more than brushing off the heat exchanger and hovering out the crud from what I can make out.

But of course if your not mechanically minded best to get the professionals in.

[RubyTuesday]

All in all, employing the correctly qualified gas engineer is top of my list, even if I can do it myself.

I believe that BSS should require an appropriately qualified gas engineers safety certificate and a proper record of the work as and when it is carried out. Don't get me started about BSS and electrical installation....

 

Some of the gas instal on ours looks dodgy as **** and I will get it all changed prior to our BSS anyway. I've never seen so many elbow joints and end to end pipe joiners for three appliances! It's disgraceful.

 

If it were up to me we wouldn't have gas on our boat but at the moment it is a practical option as the requirement for a good, reliable and hassle free shower is a non negotiable point!

[bag 'o' bones]

All in all, employing the correctly qualified gas engineer is top of my list, even if I can do it myself.

I believe that BSS should require an appropriately qualified gas engineers safety certificate and a proper record of the work as and when it is carried out. Don't get me started about BSS and electrical installation....

 

Some of the gas instal on ours looks dodgy as **** and I will get it all changed prior to our BSS anyway. I've never seen so many elbow joints and end to end pipe joiners for three appliances! It's disgraceful.

 

If it were up to me we wouldn't have gas on our boat but at the moment it is a practical option as the requirement for a good, reliable and hassle free shower is a non negotiable point!

Fair enough but unless your boat spends most of its life on the end of land line, gas is the most efficient way of producing reasonably instant heat, unless you go down the expensive gen-set route.

[MtB]

'servicing' involves not much more than brushing off the heat exchanger and hovering out the crud from what I can make out.

But of course if your not mechanically minded best to get the professionals in.

 

 

Not according the the service schedules in most of the manufacturers instructions in my library.

 

Can you site a manufacturer's service schedule that requires only this please?

 

Thanks...

[alan_fincher]

 

.......................... unlike the 'average kitchen waste' you mention which until the 1970s was carried away by copper pipe that lasted indefinitely.

 

 

I would correct that to "lasted a very very long while".

 

It certainly was not always "indefinitely", as I found out to my cost when investigating some years back why the bottom of the cabinet in my mother's 1960s kitchen was like a small swimming pool!

[bag 'o' bones]

 

 

Not according the the service schedules in most of the manufacturers instructions in my library.

 

Can you site a manufacturer's service schedule that requires only this please?

 

Thanks

As I said not much more than brushing off deposits etc I know there are pressure tests to be conducted flue security checks and wot not. But most bits in a boiler are not serviceable they either work or they don't. They can either be economically replaced or not.

I'm not trying to make out that anyone can take a boiler to bits and 'service' it, but in reality they are pretty simplistic devices, the only clever bit is the PCB and that defiantly doesn't need servicing!

[MtB]

As I said not much more than brushing off deposits etc I know there are pressure tests to be conducted flue security checks and wot not. But most bits in a boiler are not serviceable they either work or they don't. They can either be economically replaced or not.

I'm not trying to make out that anyone can take a boiler to bits and 'service' it, but in reality they are pretty simplistic devices, the only clever bit is the PCB and that defiantly doesn't need servicing!

 

 

Ok then!

one lives and learns...

[RubyTuesday]

Gas usage 3.4Kg per hour?

 

OK, I guess that is at highest output, but that means a full 13KG gas cylinder would last less than 4 hours!

Would fill a lot of baths!

It's something I really miss