Clever box of tricks! (British Gas Worcester CDi Series Boiler)

Member Name: onixman

Product:	British Gas Worcester CDi Series Boiler
Date:	05/02/04 (12811 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Space Saving, Low-pressure option, Quietness, efficiency

Disadvantages: More expensive than other combis, usual combi disadvantages

My house came with a disclaimer in the buying contract about its central heating system ? 8 months later I found why?..yes the 25-year old boiler turned up its toes and quite literally went out with a bang. Bust pressure relief valve failed and flooded my poor neighbour downstairs (luckily it was her bathroom that copped it?)

My boiler?s age meant that spare parts weren?t even available in the antique shop, never mind British Gas?but some quick studying of the pipes revealed that what I had was an old-fashioned gravity hot water system and pumped central heating ? quite extravagant for a one bedroomed flat, but this lot was put in before the world had heard of that new-fangled invention ? the combination boiler. As the name suggests, the combi boiler combines the functions of a gas water heater and central heating boiler into one box, dispensing with the need for a hot water cylinder, and even the cold water tanks in the loft. Whenever the boiler senses that you have turned on a hot tap, it switches on and hot water will come through in about 20-30 seconds.

Only one snag?. Combi boilers only work at high pressure, meaning that connecting one to your rickety old radiators is fraught with leakage risk, and I had already dampened the life of my neighbour once before?..so enter the Worcester 24 CDi

The CDi series is one of the very few combi boilers that can run on low pressure ? so therefore you can connect it straight onto your old rads without any problem. You do have to keep the little feed/expansion tank in the loft in order to keep the radiators topped up, but this is not a big problem. The CDi series also has a double plate heat exchanger so that if you live in a hard water area, scaling is not as big an issue as it often is. Another benefit is electronic ignition of the burner ? no pilot lights hissing away all night and wasting gas. There are also separate temperature controls for the hot water and heating. Flueing (the chi
mney) is very flexible on this model, you can go horizontally through a wall, go sideways first and then horizontally, or vertically. The design of my flat meant that I had to go for the more costly vertical option straight through the roof, but again vertically flued combis are actually quite rare ? the Worcester is again right out in front in this area.

I would criticise the hot water flow rate ? sometimes if you vary the setting of a tap it suddenly goes cold again before the boiler ?recovers? from the pressure change and starts delivering hot again, but overall this is probably one of the best combis in its class and well worth considering. The guarantee that I got was generous (2 years).

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