We have recently moved to a smaller place, cheaper to heat etc and it’s got a combi boiler. Was told it’s cheaper to run better for the environment etc. we can not believe how much water we have to run off before the hot water comes through. It’s a full sink of water before the hot come through. It must be right as the in-laws is exactly the same, she makes the bed or puts the hoover around while the water comes through on her shower. It seems an awful waste of water to save gas.

It all depends on where the boiler is with respect to the tap, my son's boiler was in the kitchen and within a metre of the sink and was almost instant, in my last house it was 5 metres to the kitchen and it was a good 30 secs but the furthest bathroom was 20 metres away and took an age, as at the time I lived in the West of Scotland and water wasn't metered and in abundance so saving gas was the priority.
The diameter of the piping is also a consideration, if the boiler was changed from a standard boiler with a hot water tank the piping could be 22mm which will waste more water, replacing the piping in 15mm plastic is reasonably cheap as a DIY project if you can easily access the pipe runs, i.e easy under floor access, with plastic piping, if you can do Lego then you can do plastic plumbing. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
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Just a driver wrote:

We have recently moved to a smaller place, cheaper to heat etc and it’s got a combi boiler. Was told it’s cheaper to run better for the environment etc. we can not believe how much water we have to run off before the hot water comes through. It’s a full sink of water before the hot come through. It must be right as the in-laws is exactly the same, she makes the bed or puts the hoover around while the water comes through on her shower. It seems an awful waste of water to save gas.

It’s our first time with a combi only ever had normal boilers before. Plumber came out and said it’s normal and nobody uses a kitchen sink for hot water, just put it in the dishwasher. I guess at our age it’s cheaper to waste water than pay plumbers to alter it. We was just surprised.

Another thing with a modern boiler, the pilot is 'nonmaintained' in other words, the flame is completly extinguished when there is no demand. So everytime there is a demand for hot water, (If the heating is off) it has to go through the ignition process.
You can save some water by not running it so quick whilst waiting for the hot to come through.

Just a driver wrote:

It’s our first time with a combi only ever had normal boilers before. Plumber came out and said it’s normal and nobody uses a kitchen sink for hot water, just put it in the dishwasher. I guess at our age it’s cheaper to waste water than pay plumbers to alter it. We was just surprised.

There is normally a setting that keeps the Combi Boiler Heat Exchanger at the the Hot Water Temperature when on Standby.
On mine it is set by rotating the Hot Water Control Knob fully clockwise, then back to selected Tap Water temperature.
This should speed things up as you will have instant hot water at boiler outlet.
I do not use that setting as for 6 months the Central Heating is keeping the boiler internal water warm anyway. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
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@Ian - Thanks for that - I didnt know gas combi boliers had that facility Jules

All valid points.
Depends on many variables.
Type of boiler, not all have a pre heat function.
Distance to the various outlets.
Quality of the installation. Good quality pipework with few restrictions make a difference. Now at the point when I learn something new something old is lost out the other side !
Now retired so it doesn't matter anymore.
Freelander now gone.

My mate has his combi in his loft. Rather than wait for the hot water to get to the sink in the kitchen (plus waste all the hot in the pipework when it cools down), they either wash up with cold or boil a kettle. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
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Yes our boiler is in the loft too, sounds just like us using the kettle.

Our combi boiler is in the loft and you can genuinely fill the sink with cold water before the hot water becomes lukewarm. Gill used to turn the tap on and then go to the bottom of the garden to feed the fish, pull up a few weeds and do general garden maintenance before going back into the kitchen to the now hot-hot tap.

The solution was to fit a Quooker electric hot water tap, so wish that we had fitted it years ago. Turn on the hot water tap, then turn on the boiling water side as well, = hot but not scalding water instantly.

Is it more expensive than wasting 15 minutes of water and gas gardening while the boiler does it's thing, not a chance. Is it expensive compared to a boiler fitted within a couple of meters of the hot tap, probably.

Got to admit at this point that we have soft water, so limescale is never ever going to be a problem, think 10 year old kettle that had no limescale build-up. Speaking of kettles, ours went when the Quooker was installed, instant tea is always welcome.

Yes it only takes 5 minutes to actually get hot water, but can you wait at the sink for that long, tapping your feet just waiting? Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
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We had a MOD house in Cyprus that had a hot water supply from solar, it had a recirculating system from the hot taps that always produced hot water at the taps almost instantly, very complicated with 2 pumps and an enormous storage tank and controller, it would be a toss-up as to whether a Quooker would be cheaper for installation but cheaper to run. Water being in short supply and fairly expensive,it could probably be simplified as one of the pumps was needed to pump the water to the bathroom above the colorifier and the water pressure was abysmal and the controller was to control the pumps depending on water temperature at the colorifier and an immersion heater. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.