Which Unvented hot water vessel?

[Reg Man]

I am doing my homework on choosing which unvented hot water vessel to use. I know what capacity I require, its now down to choice of manufacturer. These are the following I have looked at: Fabdec Excelsior, Gledhill, Heatrae Sadia Megaflow ECO, Telford Tempest, Vaillant Unistar, Santon Premier Plus, Ariston Aquabravo. Fabdec comes out cheapest and Megaflow most expensive. The rule I normally follow is cheapest is not always best and most expensive is normally a rip off. So I thought I would put it out to you all to get your views on what you use and what you find most durable, reliable and value. Before anyone goes on about safety, G3 and you must be qualified and all that, I am qualified to work on UVHWS.

 

[mutley racers]

nice post. Am excited to hear the out come

 

[Mike Jackson]

Last one I fitted was made by Joule. Nice unit.

 

[Reg Man]

nice post. Am excited to hear the out come

Should be interesting, I hear lots of pro's and con's when I do inspection work.

 

[Whn1]

I have only ever fitted megaflows only problem I've ever had is a couple of dodgy cylinder stats straight from the factory which was sorted promptly by the manufacturer.

 

[CarlMac]

I work at plumb center currently and I must say that the center brand ones are good also we do alot of santon ones only downside being the external expansion vessel on both but that's why they are around half the price of megaflows

 

[Reg Man]

I work at plumb center currently and I must say that the center brand ones are good also we do alot of santon ones only downside being the external expansion vessel on both but that's why they are around half the price of megaflows

I like external expansion vessel's, because if they fail it don't mess up the whole unit.

 

[chris watkins]

Potterton Gold, cheap & cheerful. half the cost of a Meg'y.

 

[buckley plumb]

mega flows . fitted a lot of telford cylinders on one site and they all hummed manufacturers answer was a bypass on the hw coil.

 

[chris watkins]

mega flows . fitted a lot of telford cylinders on one site and they all hummed manufacturers answer was a bypass on the hw coil.

What tune ?

 

[plumber0808]

i also fit ones with external expansion vessels as well. ive fitted a few tribune ones recently. on the cheap side but fine.
its a steel cylinder with a few controls so i always fit the cheaper ones and put the money into the boilers

 

[ahwell]

Joule have a solid cylinder

 

[buckley plumb]

What tune ?

same tune as vaillant and glowworm when the gas mixture goes out lol

 

[plumber0808]

What tune ?

its got to be gangnam style as soon as i hear that im humming/singing it all day.

 

[mfgs]

Take a look at the RM cylinders, I have fitted a couple of their horizontal ones recently and was impressed by them for the price.

 

[vern]

Megaflo all day long.....quality, high recovery coil, great warranty.....cash back £150 until June I think

 

[Reg Man]

Potterton Gold, cheap & cheerful. half the cost of a Meg'y.

What do you think the life span will be in a moderate hard water area?

 

[Reg Man]

Megaflo all day long.....quality, high recovery coil, great warranty.....cash back £150 until June I think

At the moment it looks like I have to dig deep and go Mega. Its what I Suspected as I always have had great respect for their quality. Only question is, is it worth almost double the cost.

 

[Ollieg]

Megaflow. Has the highest LPM as far as i know of all the big brands. As far as i know Megaflow, Premier plus and Center brand are all made by heatrae sadia but LPM are different. Also i think Premier plus has a higher inlet pressure.

 

[Reg Man]

megaflow. Has the highest lpm as far as i know of all the big brands. As far as i know megaflow, premier plus and center brand are all made by heatrae sadia but lpm are different. Also i think premier plus has a higher inlet pressure.

lpm= ?

 

[Masood]

lpm= ?

Litres per minute, I'm guessing.

 

[Ray Stafford]

RM Stelflow for price and decent quality. Its our biggest seller by far - outsells Megaflo by 10:1

There are lots of different brands made in the same factory as the Megaflo - I think that the cheapest of those variants is probably Main, but watch out for price reductions - Main have just repositioned their pricing significantly below what it was just a couple of weeks ago, so make sure that your supplier knows about those reductions, and doesn't charge you last month's price.

As Vern mentioned, the Megaflo is on a £150 cashback at the moment (admission that they have hiked their price to high?) so don't forget to factor that in.

Litres per minute is probably more a function of the incoming main performance than the cylinder design, so unless its a particularly demanding spec, I am not sure I would be factoring that in.

 

[chris watkins]

RM Stelflow for price and decent quality. Its our biggest seller by far - outsells Megaflo by 10:1

There are lots of different brands made in the same factory as the Megaflo - I think that the cheapest of those variants is probably Main, but watch out for price reductions - Main have just repositioned their pricing significantly below what it was just a couple of weeks ago, so make sure that your supplier knows about those reductions, and doesn't charge you last month's price.

As Vern mentioned, the Megaflo is on a £150 cashback at the moment (admission that they have hiked their price to high?) so don't forget to factor that in.

Litres per minute is probably more a function of the incoming main performance than the cylinder design, so unless its a particularly demanding spec, I am not sure I would be factoring that in.

For the bigger installs only & as you say Ray, & only if the mains has that + pressure / flow available.

 

[Reg Man]

Litres per minute, I'm guessing.

Thanks I had a dull moment. No to honest too many whiskey's.

 

[Reg Man]

Pressure and flow could be an issue. At present it is bad. 1 Bar on a 3/4" old poly main, quite a long run and very high in relation to the water tower for Norfolk. Plan is to upgrade the main to 32mm and hopefully the resistance will be reduced and pressure increased. Fall back is to install a break cistern and pump. But don't want to do this if I can get away with it as we get a lot of power failures and this would leave us pooped.