Our boiler has been playing up for a while now, it would now seem that the heat exchanger is on it's way out (we get hot water at half-flow but only lukewarm, at best, at full flow). The boiler is a reasonably old (a 'Friendly Format 80E) so I've managed to convince our landlady that now is the time to invest in a new more energy efficient unit rather than throwing more money at this one!

My landlord is based over in Sri Lanka (lucky woman lives inside the Galle Fort), so she's asked us to sort out quotes etc, but I don't know much about these things (back home in Oz we use big storage units instead, as we have the room for them 😆 )

So… what's good? Our flat is very small, just one bedroom and a living room really, central heating is 3 radiators only, so we don't need anything big right?

Any London plumbers on here who'd be interested in supplying a quote? Or can anyone suggest a good reputable tradesperson they've used?

cheers chaps 🙂

viessmann or broag remeha are good (the best imo) boilers, you don't need anything big but you're hot water flow rate is the significant requirement, if you only need a single shower running you want something in the region 20kW would be fine. You may not find combis less than that. They normally have a hot water (DHW) flow rate in their details, for a shower you need around 6-7l/min @ 35C.

London sometimes has problems wiht water pressure, but if you've already got a combi that shouldn't be a problem.

Can't help with the plumbers though sadly!

I used these guys for a boiler repair in london recently and I can highly recommend them:

http://www.wpjheating.co.uk

Don't know where you are in London but you can try either of these – although they work together most of the time;

Francesco Donato – Acqualine Ph7 on 07762 480492
Dayo Familoye – Da Pre Services on 07960 961426

If you're not happy with any of these drop me a mail and I'll send you some others to choose from.

The Sime one is shite (we had one that recently died). They always were one of the cheapest around.

We got a Worcester Bosch with a remote digital thermostat and it has made the house much more pleasantly heated (no hot<>cold spikes) all year round.