Am I being sold the right boiler

[Countrygirl]

Hi I live in an old one level converted barn and currently have a vaillant turbomaxvuw vuw 282 LPG boiler . It was installed approx 1997 by prev owners, we feel and breakdown engineers have suggested a more powerful boiler may be better,there are 3 bathrooms ,10 radiators. Vaillant are offering a scheme of fitting new boiler for £1860 and guy who surveyed barn has offered vaillant ecotec plus 831 LPG to vaillant. We are concerned they could be offering only older models and is this a more powerful option without changing all the current pipe work. We thought he was going to reccommend a boiler with a 30k output.
any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Countrygirl]

Hi I live in an old one level converted barn and currently have a vaillant turbomaxvuw vuw 282 LPG boiler . It was installed approx 1997 by prev owners, we feel and breakdown engineers have suggested a more powerful boiler may be better,there are 3 bathrooms ,10 radiators. Vaillant are offering a scheme of fitting new boiler for £1860 and guy who surveyed barn has offered vaillant ecotec plus 831 LPG to vaillant. We are concerned they could be offering only older models and is this a more powerful option without changing all the current pipe work. We thought he was going to reccommend a boiler with a 30k output.
any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Howsie]

Boiler sizing depends on many factors. Nothing wrong with that boiler at all. A more powerful is rarely necessary and sometimes will actually end up costing you more in gas.

 

[Rickster123]

The vaillant 831 is a lovely boiler in my opinion. But with 3 bathrooms a combi would be a bad choice. If it were me I'd go for a system boiler and unvented cylinder. If you are expecting a huge difference with hot water flow from the new combi, any combi, prepare for disappointment I'm afraid.

 

[Masood]

The vaillant 831 is a lovely boiler in my opinion. But with 3 bathrooms a combi would be a bad choice. If it were me I'd go for a system boiler and unvented cylinder. If you are expecting a huge difference with hot water flow from the new combi, any combi, prepare for disappointment I'm afraid.

Wholeheartedly agree with all of this. A combi will struggle with 3 bathrooms.

 

[Countrygirl]

Re: Am I being sold the right boiler cont

The current vuw282 operates on a combo system at one end of the barn(kitchen and annexe bedroom ,shower upstairs above) and the rest of the barn is one level and I have to heat the water via boiler for other shower rm and bathroom. Our current boiler output says 30k and the 831 suggests 24kw. There are only two of us most the time and we use the combi end cos cheaper. Is there a newer version of 831 been around a number of years I was worried they might be trying to get rid of older makes on this scheme, thanks again for help

 

[Alpha man]

Get another couple of quotes!

 

[Rickster123]

The vaillant 831 runs at 31kw for hot water. It is more than big enough for your heating requirements and is an up to date A rated boiler. Nice bit of kit! But as I've said in my opinion wrong for your set up.

 

[Mike Jackson]

The vaillant 831 runs at 31kw for hot water. It is more than big enough for your heating requirements and is an up to date A rated boiler. Nice bit of kit! But as I've said in my opinion wrong for your set up.

Sounds like they also have a cylinder so this strikes me as an ideal set up to minimise heat losses and over long pipe runs. Bathroom near the combi fed from the combi. Other bathrooms, remote from combi, fed by a cylinder. This is exactly the sort of set up I would recommend.

 

[Rickster123]

Sounds like they also have a cylinder so this strikes me as an ideal set up to minimise heat losses and over long pipe runs. Bathroom near the combi fed from the combi. Other bathrooms, remote from combi, fed by a cylinder. This is exactly the sort of set up I would recommend.

You may be right mike. Didn't read anything about a cylinder tho.