Boiler Installation

All domestic heating boilers are now the condensing type (and have been for some years). The reason for the condensing boiler is in connection with its efficiency. With a condensing boiler, the heat is extracted from the “products of combustion," in other words, the "fumes." In some cases, the "products" will cool down from 300°C to 30°C. At this point, the “products of combustion” become saturated, and water vapor is formed. Most of this drops to the bottom of the boiler and is discharged through a “condensate pipe," hence the term condensing boiler. Condensation can also be visible from the terminal, particularly on a cool day. If you see what looks like a plume of smoke from the flue terminal, then this is a good sign, as the boiler is in condensing mode and the boiler efficiency is around 98%. Good news for your fuel consumption.

There are many boiler manufacturers around, and consumer magazines may recommend one over another, but the fact is that technology changes, so too the designs, so what might be recommended at one point in time might not be a year or two later. At Thanet Heating, over the years we have tried to stick with UK-based manufacturers such as Glowworm, Ideal, Potterton, Main, etc. This has given us flexibility inasmuch as we can keep abreast of technology but still keep the basic principles of robustness and longevity of the product. For the last decade we have been fitting mainly Glow-worm boilers for central heating and hot water systems, and recently the Ideal Logic Independent for combination boilers. Thanet Heating is in fact a registered Glow-worm installer and offers a 5-year+ warranty on their products.

Just one final thing to consider when fitting a new boiler to an existing system—make sure that a “magnetic filter” is fitted on the return pipe to the boiler; this will sieve out any debris before it enters the boiler.

If you require any impartial advice, please feel free to call us.