Thank you for this video! I’m an apprentice and always found the carnage of pipes coming from all different directions overwhelming. This was such a clear and simple video to follow and made me feel a lot more confident going into work. Thanks for your help.
Alan I just left a job yesterday where I’d done a conversion and the boiler wouldn’t circulate I thought it was sludge in the system and last night after I got home this video popped up on My feed and it was exactly the system I’d just converted I couldn’t believe it. Went back this morning linked two pipes and booom!!! Thanks
This is the best explanation I have ever seen. I am not in plumbing business. No understanding about the work before. Was just looking for my house's heating system to get converted from regular to combi boiler. Now, even I understand what will be done in the house. Thank you for your great effort to help people understand things. Keep the good job 👍🏼
@@mrproductivity3261 I got my heating system changed after a while posting this comment. Gave the job to a local respected company. Only one guy came, worked for 2 days, removed the cold & hot tanks, re-routed the pipes through garage, cut the unnecessary pipes and put the new combi boiler. Only another guy came for an hour to do the electrical work.
Brilliant allen i am control engineer from day which I seen your video about boiler I really love your simple and knowledgeable and excellent explanation of this job and l like to continue and learn this business. I really appreciated for you. Thanks.
Cracking vid and no doubt a massive help to any newbies,I especially like the bit at about 20:16 "there might be a drain off here" followed by a smile that epitomes the saying, "If a picture paints a thousand words" haha. Allen in all honesty your vids and others such as TomKat and the Baxi ones are a great learning tool and I'm sure many people appreciate the time you give up to help others,long may it continue.
Being a retired plumber I think you explain that very well well unfortunately today day the young plumbers haven't got a clue how to do a conversion like that for the simple reason is they have been brought up installing combi boilers keep up the good work cheers Gordon
Just cut 3 port and join returns simples I’m only 34 still have a few customers with old convential systems still have 2 customers with back boilers there are running sweet as a nut
@@AllenHart999 just had a check on google on the return is least resistance and more efficacy for the pump and heating you can put them on the flow side if it’s multizoned with multi pumps
Hi Thanks for the video, it has helped me a lot and built my confidence massively. I have a house with a very old hot water only boiler. I want the space where the hot water tank is and the loft space freed up for extensions. For this I am opting for a Combi boiler. I am getting the boiler fitted professionally as I am a DIYer and not gas safe registered. The price to convert the pipework to the combi was another £1000. The boiler is remaining in the same place, so the gas pipe can stay where it is, but I now feel confident to re-route the radiator, hot tap water pipes and remove the old system myself. This will save me nearly £1000. Thank you again for this video.
I’m retraining to be a plumber at the moment, with covid it’s all online and a pain to learn anything. Thank you so much for your videos, without your attention to detail and way of simplifying things I’d be screwed. 👍
2005 was my 1st conventional to combi conversion. Back then it all looked daunting and yes it was. I wish I had your schematics to help me when I was doing my apprenticeship. Me being over eager drained the petcock at the boiler and started going at the pipes with the cutters. Even though my mentor explained to me for a good few minutes to start upwards and move down. He'd only popped out to get some supplies. Boy was he in for a surprise when he got back. Legend at explaining this and your schematics were absolutely spot on. I'm sure trainees and newly qualified engineers have found your videos useful. I think bbu's and warm air units would be useful for the inexperienced. They used to be 2 other things I used to get very confused about. The more work I carried out on site the more I picked up. Most college's don't explain as well as you did. 👍 P.s seemed to have caused myself an Injury Friday. So had to oversee my apprentice and another level 2 nvq plumber finish it off this weekend. I'm immobile at the moment 😭. Watching some of your older material 🤘
Such a useful video Alan - thank you! You make it sound so much more straightforward. It can be so daunting when you look in the airing cupboard and see all those pipes going everywhere!! Will be watching this a good few times!!
Excellent video, takes years of experience to know which pipes to leave in, where to cut your new system in. No two systems are the same. Great work Allen again.👍🏻❤️👍🏻
Great, clear explanation. I like to be informed as to what is involved in a job. I'm a sparks by trade but obviously need a decent heating engineer to fit a new boiler. You northerners seem to do things differently than down here in Hertfordshire. I've had several quotes and surveys and none of them has been interested in what we require from a new boiler. They've just pushed what they want to fit! It's nice to see an engineer who wants to make their customers happy. Wish you were around this area! I'll keep up the search as I'm sure I will find someone with your pride in a job - I may get lucky and find someone who's moved down from your way!
Hi Allen, great simplified video.. I've been in the game over 25 years now, done loads of conversions and installs.. mainly doing breakdowns now, have come across lots of different scenarios... I'm new to the channel, but still impressed with how you explain things... I'll be tuning in more often... Old dog new tricks etc...
@@AllenHart999 Hmm..... yes would like to share stuff allen, but so busy at mo, just finding time, will have to start videoing and sharing when possible? The blocked condense video made me chuckle... that is so common in and around London flats at the moment.. where the only place to terminate is in to the double spigot trap under the kitchen sink.. along with the dishwasher and the washing machine... keep up the good work...
Very detailed and complete and simple method showed by U, definitely cleared all questions in my mind , u r always helpful,seen so many videos of urs,chairs God bless u
Hi Allen, just finished your longest video 1.16 hour. Watched this one now. Those videos will help my next combi to system job which I'm going to do in few weeks time. Great man Allen 🙏🙏🙏
You are a legend Allen thank you for sharing your absolute knowledge as new plumber I’ve learnt a lot Million thanks to you and you got all my respect 👍🏼🙂♥️♥️♥️
Absolutely brilliant video.Maybe you can do a video about layout pipes when you install a new system .What technique you use when you run the pipes from the boiler to radiators, taps. To be honest once you see this video it feels like you want to jump straight on work because you feel you understood everything but the real struggle starts when you actually do the job cause you have that feeling that you don’t remember anything probably because you get nervous doing it for first time and the pressure is immense but I think in the end is up to us to get over it and keep going no matter what the odds Once again a brilliant video Thank you and be safe
I had an old Glow Worm heat only open vent system for years and in 2019 I got rid of it all with an Intergas Xtreme combi. What a huge difference, no 3 way valve to go wrong, cheaper hot water on tap and a great boiler to boot. If you don't have a power shower fitted then this is the way to go.
Just make sure you have the boiler serviced and the burner seal changed if required, I have heard of a few of the Intergas boilers setting on fire and melting the case. Lots of the old boilers worked like the intergas, Vokera and Worcester along with others had them, Things have moved on a bit from them days though. Thanks.
I did actually convert a *Heat Only Boiler* to a combi once. That is, converting the _boiler_ to a combi, not rip out a heat only and install a combi. A friend had a large oil boiler of around 60kW. He was renovating but the hot water cylinder was in the way taking up space. So I installed an external plate heat exchanger, 3-way diverter valve, flow switch on the cold mains pipe and on the hot taps a blending valve. In short, the innards of a combi were on the outside of the boiler. It worked very well giving around 25 litres/min of hot water. The large hot water cylinder was not needed at all.
My parents just had their old heating system converted to a combi. The old setup was the exact opposite of what you did and, frankly, slightly bonkers. Mind you, this was installed new in 1998 or 1999! The heart of the system was a 150 l mains pressure gas-fired hot water tank that vented into an existing chimney through the roof. To that they attached a plate heat exchanger and several pumps to run the central heating! They didn't have radiators either, just loops of 15 mm copper pipe running through the walls. The gas bill was always sky-high for a small cottage and the system took ages to heat up from cold. Now all the in-wall heating system is gone and the weird setup has been replaced with a brand-new Vaillant combi. Every heating engineer who saw the old system asked: "May I take pictures for my apprentices? I've never seen anything like this before!"
@@Ragnar8504 So a hot water cylinder with burner under, as per USA residential or commercial. This is using the hot water cylinder as a thermal store. Common in the USA. Wall heating is fine. It needs to be well insulated when on outside walls otherwise you will just be heating the outside walls. Sounds like this was the case here. Like UFH it is slow to warm up. He may not have had enough 15mm copper in the walls as well.
@@johnburns4017 They were actually using the hot water cylinder as the heat source, which is quite unusual I think. The walls are solid brick, quite thick but not much insulation, so yes, the system was partly heating the outdoors. And no, there wasn't a whole lot of pipe either, most people said it was a miracle the system worked at all.
@@Ragnar8504 Yes, the fresh water cylinder was a _thermal store._ Nothing wrong with doing that. Just unconventional. As the heat temperature will be low, approx 60C, the temp of the tap water, using UFH or low temp baseboard heating is better. Or even larger radiators. Using a brass pump into a plate heat exchange and smart pump around the heat emitters, they are fine. In the US they do this when using baseboard heating, as gas fired water cylinders are common. They are used here in commercial applications. The last domestic one I recall being sold was by Lennox (US company) or maybe Andrews. With no ferrous in the system many Americans use *fresh* water around the heat emitters, eliminating a pump and plate heat exchanger. I assume in soft water areas. Different regs to here. Although I have never read anything that forbids it in the UK. Maybe I should look harder. ACV make one - a hybrid fresh water unvented cylinder/thermal store. The burner is downward firing with the flue running through the cylinder. The Heatmaster, which has been made for about 20-15 years now. s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/downloads.acv.com/NT_664Y6800_A_HeatMaster_TC_EN.pdf ACV also have the tank in tank Smart Cylinders that have a fresh water unvented cylinder as the inner tank with the outer tank heated by an external boiler. The outer tank has tappings for the flow and return for a heat circuit. Effectively a thermal store arrangement. The inner fresh water tank can be vented. A diagram is here: s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/downloads.acv.com/NT_A1005738-661Y1700_E_Smart_SL-SLEW_EN.pdf
Great video Allen. Took me back to my BG apprentice days. We're were taught VIP for Vent/Inlet/Pump and for y plan *in your best Yorkshire accent* A for Aeting and B for Boiling warrrrta 🤣
Awesome video I understand it even better now after you explained it would u please do a similar video with boiler going in airing cupboard sometimes the last tee on return confuses me so end up capping it off inceling above boiler if you have time 👍
Great videos Allen I’ve lost count of the jobs I’ve been to over 20 years of customers having combi conversions and not told about delta temp rises. Also leaks due to the extra pressure, especially pipes in concrete floors.
another great informative video Allen 👍 A little tip that we found that helped us to not have callbacks to leaks on at all hour that were down to existing pipework/fitting/ Valves 😫😫 Fill the system up to around 2.2 bar then heat test, this finds 99% of problems so you can sort and explain to the customer, once that is tested set pressure to MIs
I’m an apprentice so I don’t know everything, and fair play to the fella I work with he tries to teach me as much as possible, I understand doing these types of conversions at work, But I don’t understand when we do back boiler conversions. Is it the same? I also don’t understand how you can have a 4 pipe and a 2 pipe back boiler. Back boiler conversions really confuse me. Is the any chance you could do a video on that? Thanks, nice and very informative video Allen!
4 pipe back boilers are just separate flow and returns for the cyl and the heating so you basically fuck the cyl ones off and use the heating ones tell you what blew my mind when I came across a 4 pipe cylinder with two pumps I was like whattttttt
Thank you very much Allan it has been most informative. Just a thought could you revert back to the immersion using it as a separate system to the combi.
Really good video, Thanks. If you can do a video on vertical flue install, how to do it on the roof and clip it and connect back to boiler that would be amazing. Thanks
This is amazing Allen. Thank you. Question about flues. What happens if you take the old boiler off and fit the combi and the flue holes don’t match up or is slightly off? How do Core when there is nothing to grip and how do you sort the walls. Once you core a flue how do you normally seal it inside and out? Do you use just premix cement? How do you seal a flue travelling through a stud wall with plasterboard? What happens if you take a flue through a roof do you get a roofer to sort this or can you do it? Do you have any videos on combi flue installations and sealing properly? Flue installation and making good seems to send the FEAR into everyone including me.
I’ve read all the regs on flue positioning and you can always refer to manufacturers instructions but the actually physically installing one I’ve never seen done from start to finish. Like cutting it to size and making sure the inner flue is sealed etc.
