We've just changed our elderly boiler for one of these modern miracles (hah). 

It's great for the CH but the DHW is another matter.  You wait 15 seconds (longer upstairs) to get hot water.   It comes but it's only warm.  Then it goes cold again, then it comes boiling hot but only for a time - and very cloudy.

I like to sink in to a hot, and I mean hot, bath and top it up to keep it that way - something our old boiler supplied with no trouble but with a big expensive hot water tank as my husband never tires of pointing out. But the new one? Forget it.  I've even given up bathing the toddler grandson because I can't stand to see his little teeth chatter while waiting for the hot water to come - again.

Any advice or is it a lost cause?

Have to say its a lost cause...

I've lived in two houses with Combi boilers and both have been the same for hot water. Having the heating on helps to get it through faster, but still not enough to fill a bath. Sometimes in my kitchen without the heating on I never get hot water and have to boil the kettle! It can run for going on 10 minutes and you can barely tell it the hot tap opposed to the cold!

It's been checked by various engineers and there is actually nothing wrong with it, although one did say because its in the loft and the water travels along way to the kitchen it doesn't help. He didn't know why we never got hot water in the bathroom sink!

However, on the brighter side....the radiators are so hot you can barely touch them and the gas bills are very reasonable.

I would never have another Combi boiler if someone offered to give me one, I'd sooner go to electric storage heaters and an open coal fire!

When my parents first had their combi boiler installed the water temp wasn't right, it is fine now,  in their case it was something to do with the pressure that was causing it. Have no more detail than that sorry

Another loather of the Combi here.   I have the opposite problem with mine Chatsworth.  If you run hot water for any length of time the boiler will stop running anything into the radiators for a good half hour so, in the depth of winter if I am brave enough for a bath and have a spare two hours to run it, the bathroom will be stone cold by the time I get out. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

I have a Worcester Bosch combi for 5 years here.  Radiators lovely and hot and plenty of hot water (up to my neck!) in the bath once it comes through from the loft.

Seems to be hit and miss.  My friend and my ex's parents both get scalding hot water continuously after less than a minute with their combis, whereas mine is another of the lost causes - I can have a hot bath but it takes an age, and a couple of pauses in filling to let the water heat up again (which means running the hot tap in the sink so I don't cool down the bathwater).  PITA and one of the reasons I only have showers!

We have no problem with hot water with ours and we have three showers and a bath.

I can have a good hot steaming bath without any issues.

It doesn't matter where the hot water outlet in the house it takes a few seconds to warm up.

Call the people back out who installed it and say it doesn't work !

I think the important thing is where the boiler is in relation to the bathroom and pipes.

Mine is only set to half on the domestic hot water thermostat to avoid scalding, but it is sited in the kitchen and the bathroom is above it, so very little pipe run.  Yes it does take a few seconds to run hot as ti switches from CH to hot water but then ti runs reliably hot. 

You do have to remember though that it has to heat the water in the chamber, so the so the rate it does this needs to be faster than you emptying it, so don't run the taps too fast.

We have a vailant combi boiler with no trouble at all.
I would not expect to be having the issues you are having. You definitely need to contact the manufacturer and get one of their engineers to come out and diagnose and fix the problem. It wont cost you a penny as will still be under waranty.

Had the same combi for about 12 years and have no problem at all, constant reliable hot water for a shower even if the toilet is flushed - you can turn the temperature of the hot water to the level you want so turn it up, mind you if the water is going from hot to cold and then back again it sounds as if the boiler is shutting down because it is over heating. If it is old then the filters are probably silted up with lime scale so have it serviced if it is new get the fitters back to sort it.

Just seen it is new - get them back to sort it, it should be no problem at all - the hot water takes precedence so you should be able to run a bath no problem- mind you if it has been fitted with miles of pipes between the boiler and the bath it may take a while to start to run hot.

> You definitely need to contact the manufacturer and get one of their engineers to come out and diagnose and fix the problem.

Not really the manufacturer, but the company who sold and installed it - they are the people you have a contract with. If they knew you wanted it for baths then either it has been installed incorrectly or they have sold you something that isn't 'fit for purpose' and they should sort the problem either way - if not, say the magic words 'trading standards' :)

We had the same problem when Combi fitted a few years ago.Engineer advised us to run the bath slowly....problem solved.

Luckily our plumber is a friend and when we moved here and had the house renovated he came in and checked everything. He advised against a combi because of the water pressure. Did the people who installed yours check it was suitable for your usage or did you decide it was what you wanted ?.

If I run my taps slowly it never gets hot.....and I mean never!

I had taps with levers put on so I didn't have to turn and turn the taps on full. I have arthritis in my hands so lever taps are easier.

Think you need to get the fitters back and not let them go till they can show you that you can get what you want - don't be fobbed off, Combi boilers do work and work well but they must be right for your needs and correctly fitted and set up.

Having said that I do have a problem with mine since we had the loft properly insulated, the boiler is in the loft and the frost protect system on it means it switches on when the nights are really cold and we finish up in a bed that resembles a sauna - we now leave the loft hatch open on cold nights and find that sorts the problem but is not really the idea of having the loft insulated. Will move the boiler into the kitchen soon to hopefully cure the problem.

My combi is a Vokera, 6 years old and doesn't have any problem supplying as much hot water as you want, it does take about 10 seconds for the hot water to come through but after that the water will be the same temperature for as long as you want it. I would get the people back that installed it, that can't be right.

Sincere thanks to all who replied.

The pressure may be a problem because of various things I won't bore you with here.  Have tried running tap slowly - hot water cuts out.

I'm going to tell husband to get installers out - everything's well in warranty.  But he's a shower person and just doesn't see the problem.

(PS Miss my old airing cupboard every day...)

Could you pick the brains of another engineer to see what they think? Do you know the water pressure for your home? I've been having major issues with builders at the moment but one thing which is true is that it needs to be a certain water pressure to run a combi boiler... I think around 2barr or less.. Just check on this as you may need a different boiler or something else to bring the pressure up

Eta: 2 Barr or less and you need something else, they recommend 3 Barr to run a combi

I have a similar problem,  for some strange reason our house came with the boiler in one of the bedrooms when there is no water upstairs!  We have a terrace with the bathroom downstairs and it takes a full 10 minutes to get any hot water anywhere downstairs.  So I run the bath without the plug in until it is piping hot, then fill it.  Before I get in I fix a rubber shower hose on the taps so when it needs topping up I turn the tap on and point the spray into the sink until hot, then refill.

My electric shower is also pants, it never gets above warm. I have to continually lean over the side and flush the toilet to get the water hot.

Who said modern living made life easier!

We have terribly poor hot water pressure (it just trickles) -but we still NEVER run out of hot water. We can have 3 baths on the trot and the most I have ever done was bath 8 dogs after one another, it still does not run cold. This was both with our old nearly 40 year old boiler and the new one that is less than 2 years old. BUT what is it set to do? We have ours set to heat the water all day (once, starts from a set point in the morning, stops at a set point at night) -didn't see the point in it being heated at night. However when somebody tried to use the 3 times a day setting, THEN the water ran cold.

I can have baths or showers with my combi, the bath does not fill up very very fast but it does not take hours and it is hot  Sounds like you have an actual problem soemwhere rather than it just being a combi thing

Location apart, the condenser we have just had installed is fantastic, the water pressure has improved so much that we have removed the power pump for the shower. The heat is fine and constant.

karen :)

On our combi boiler ( new Honeywell) we can control the heat of the rads and the water temp, can you up the water temp just for when you want a bath?
Turn it down again afterwards because, if its like ours, the handbasin hot tap would pour scalding water.

My mum's combi boiler is at least 16 years old and she originally had problems with hot water but was told to run it slowly until it was hot then turn up the tap and it fixed the problem. If yours is never hot then there must be a fault somewhere.

We got a new combi boiler last year and it is fantastic. No problems with hot water for bath , shower or kitchen - you really need to get the installers out because there must be something wrong with it - tell your husband that if it doesn't get fixed now then it might start to affect his shower too and you'll have to pay if it is out of warranty by then! :-)

Once again thanks for all the replies.  Husband (who researches everything to death) says no prblem with water pressue but has agreed to call engineer out.  Yay!

Have to say found some of the replies hilarious. The ways we find to cope!

Just to update - OH contacted engineer who talked him through some kind of adjustement on the boiler and it worked! Oh happy day!

CD to the rescue once again ! Glad it is sorted.

Pleased you can now get a cosy bath :-)

Glad you got your boiler sorted. I've had a very hot bath out of a combi boiler most nights for the last 15 years,
so I knew it would be doable :) Off to have one right now..