Any gas heating engineers on the forum? Advice needed.

[Bingy man]

Hello.
The engineer fitted the Hive system and it appears to be straight forward and user-friendly so I'd guess it will cater for all of our needs.
I could have had one of the alternatives you've listed but from what I'd gathered Hive seems to be the most popular with installers so I opted for that but he was willing to install one of the alternatives if I chose to do so but generally they all do much the same thing as far as I could see.

So far the Hive kit/app has been very easy to set up and schedule as a user, far easier than messing about with the old wall timer and although the Hive system is digital it does seem pretty simple and bomb-proof though time will tell on that. Obviously if the internet is down so too are wireless connections but it has the emergency manual override so all is good.
The boiler is covered by a 10 year warranty but I suspect the Hive kit will be typically one year.

During colder holiday periods we've always set the original analogue system to 10-12 deg and lower temps depending upon the time of year. Just enough to keep the chill off the home and prevent any risk of freezing during winter. As we have the traditional insulated hot water cylinder/airing cupboard, the boiler was set to come on for one hour mornings and evenings and we've always had plenty of hot water. During periods when we were away, there was no use of hot water so with the cylinder insulation etc, heat loss from the cylinder was minimal so demand on the boiler was minimal to heat the water.
My OH preferred to retain the cylinder/airing cupboard so that's the new boiler was basically a more efficient like for like replacement.

With the Hive system I have full remote control. What will be nice after a day out in winter, is that instead of coming home to a cold house because the timer hadn't switched in, I can now adjust it instantly and remotely from wherever I am so no more coming home to a cold house in winter. That to me is progress.

Hive designed by British Gas ( my x employer ) and while not everything they sold was good I still have my hive ( version 2 ) and tbh ive never had any major issues. I gave up on the hive trv,s but the bulbs for example are really good . They seem to last forever unlike regular bulbs . Get on the hive website ( if you haven’t already) set up your account and you will get notifications of sales and special offers . Sounds like you have got everything else under control so have great winter

 

[Spectric]

My OH preferred to retain the cylinder/airing cupboard so that's the new boiler was basically a more efficient like for like replacement.

A good decision, system boilers tend to be more reliable as they are less complex.

For me keeping things simple is important, no wireless control as everything is hardwired and I use a basic Honeywell controller that allows six different On/Off periods each day with it's own temperature setpoint. I now only use two of these, one for overnight and the other for daytime and it works fine and if you want more heat just notch it up. This has now all changed in that the woodburner provides enough heat during the day and the gas is only used to ensure a minimum overnight temperature is maintained as these so called new woodburners do not do an overnight burn because it was claimed they were to smokey !

 

[ey_tony]

My old system had the Honeywell control unit which was reliable enough apart from the buttons sometimes sticking but compared to the new Hive system it was positively archaic....says he until something goes wrong LOL
I'm pretty comfortable with wifi, using apps etc so the Hive system to me is so much easier than before to adjust the settings once you get your head around the concepts.

With the new boiler being more efficient the initial settings I put into the app on day one when I set it up are already needing adjustment which is so simple and with a couple of touches of the phone screen I can alter the on-off times instantly for the whole week.
Hopefully it's a case of set it and forget about it. I'll also compare and monitor my monthly gas bill over the coming months to see if there is any change or savings from having the new system fitted.

 

[ey_tony]

UPDATE:
All was well with the new system fitted last Wednesday until last Saturday morning when my OH woke me to inform me that water was dripping from the loft onto the landing.
It was heavy rain outside but we have a fairly modern house and I knew it was highly unlikely to be anything to do with the roof so logic said it had to be a water tank or pipe joint issue.
Because of health issues I couldn't climb into the loft to confirm so I rang the heating engineer but he couldn't help as he and his family were on a coach on the way to London and wouldn't be back until Monday morning so it was jugs in the loft to catch the drips which gradually ameliorated to just a 100-200ml every few hours as time went on so it was a case of my OH reaching up and emptying what we caught in the jug..

To make matters worse it transpired that the Hive hub lost connection on Sunday with no thermostatic control and I had to figure it all out and eventually in the early hours of Monday morning I got it all working again and sussed out how to resolve it in future if the hub ever loses contact with the base again.
The leaking water had slowed to a just a drip so it was under control and the engineer informed me that he'd booked me in for a priority visit on Tuesday morning and true to his word he turned up 15 mins before the designated time. All confirmed by text and email just like hospital or doctor's appointment.

After a quick inspection he said that the leak was due to the water not being drained off for so long that the ball valve in the header tank had gunged up and wasn't re-seating properly so to cure it he simply fitted a complete new unit.
The overflow should have taken away the dripping water from the ballcock valve/tank but last year I had the facias/soffits replaced with uPVC and the guys who fitted them must have disturbed the overflows which protruded through the original facias.
Everything was quickly resolved by the heating engineer and the overflow issue sorted too. He even advised that if the hub repeatedly lost connection again rather than it being a one off due to weak wifi he would come and move the control unit to the airing cupboard which is right next to the router in my upstairs study for free and he even refused to accept payment for the call-out or ball-valve replacement even though technically it wasn't his fault.

As they say, you can tell what type of a business you're dealing with when things go wrong and how they respond ...he's a genuine guy so I'm already booked in for a boiler service next year as I know he's reliable and someone to trust.

 

[collingg]

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[Spectric]

After a quick inspection he said that the leak was due to the water not being drained off for so long that the ball valve in the header tank had gunged up and wasn't re-seating properly so to cure it he simply fitted a complete new unit.

I would have thought those header tanks would have been scrapped and the new system converted into a sealed system, yes a new cylinder but mains pressure hotwater and a more efficient system.

That leak was unlucky, ball valve leaking and the overflow going nowhere but I have seen a few cases where new facias and such were fitted but the overflow pipe no longer exiting, sometimes tied up neatly out of the way.

 

[Bingy man]

UPDATE:
All was well with the new system fitted last Wednesday until last Saturday morning when my OH woke me to inform me that water was dripping from the loft onto the landing.
It was heavy rain outside but we have a fairly modern house and I knew it was highly unlikely to be anything to do with the roof so logic said it had to be a water tank or pipe joint issue.
Because of health issues I couldn't climb into the loft to confirm so I rang the heating engineer but he couldn't help as he and his family were on a coach on the way to London and wouldn't be back until Monday morning so it was jugs in the loft to catch the drips which gradually ameliorated to just a 100-200ml every few hours as time went on so it was a case of my OH reaching up and emptying what we caught in the jug..

To make matters worse it transpired that the Hive hub lost connection on Sunday with no thermostatic control and I had to figure it all out and eventually in the early hours of Monday morning I got it all working again and sussed out how to resolve it in future if the hub ever loses contact with the base again.
The leaking water had slowed to a just a drip so it was under control and the engineer informed me that he'd booked me in for a priority visit on Tuesday morning and true to his word he turned up 15 mins before the designated time. All confirmed by text and email just like hospital or doctor's appointment.

After a quick inspection he said that the leak was due to the water not being drained off for so long that the ball valve in the header tank had gunged up and wasn't re-seating properly so to cure it he simply fitted a complete new unit.
The overflow should have taken away the dripping water from the ballcock valve/tank but last year I had the facias/soffits replaced with uPVC and the guys who fitted them must have disturbed the overflows which protruded through the original facias.
Everything was quickly resolved by the heating engineer and the overflow issue sorted too. He even advised that if the hub repeatedly lost connection again rather than it being a one off due to weak wifi he would come and move the control unit to the airing cupboard which is right next to the router in my upstairs study for free and he even refused to accept payment for the call-out or ball-valve replacement even though technically it wasn't his fault.

As they say, you can tell what type of a business you're dealing with when things go wrong and how they respond ...he's a genuine guy so I'm already booked in for a boiler service next year as I know he's reliable and someone to trust.

A few teething problems and by the sound of it he would of come out sooner if he was available so fair play to him - these things happen so not the end of the world / was this work done gratis …it’s not uncommon for the hub to lose the stat but fairly simple to reset .look out for the battery warning on the app and the stat . Btw if ever you lose the connection and can’t re establish it just press the button on the receiver ( probably fitted ) in your airing cupboard or boiler room
The tap for hot water and the Edit flame symbol for heating. This will bypass the stat and switch the boiler until you can reset it or get an engineer out to fix it .. ignore if your engineer has explained this. ..