Microbore central heating

[booshank]

My new house has a microbore central heating system running from a back boiler with hot water tank (ie not the combi type I'm used to).

Anyway, the system works, but I'm not sure how well as I have not moved in yet. What should I look out for?

The internal walls of the house are hardboard on timber studwork with the wallpaper applied directly. In order to redecorate I'll need to take that off and replace it with plasterboard. If I'm going to strip off that wall covering, I was thinking that would obviously be the time to put any pipes, cables etc into the walls, especially as the downstairs floor is concrete so there are fewer options on where they can run.

[PowerFlushAssoc]

It would be better to replace for 15mm pipes, if you have the opportunity. Microbore tend to clock up really quick and it's hard to power flush or clean in any way.

[ericmark]

I have had micro bore 8mm, 10mm, and 12mm in my house for last 30 years and never blocked up. My sister however had loads of problems is seemed there was a scale on inside of pipes which was shedding and blocking up the pipes.
My car brakes also use micro bore and I am glad to be able to say they have not blocked up. It is all down to quality of materials used and how good the plumber was at keeping it clean when he installed it.
Having seen the unsightly pipes in my mothers house where the plumbers used 15mm copper I would use micro bore again. The only change is today I would use plastic except for first few feet from boiler. I used plastic pipes at work for years with some very high pressures and temperatures and have been impressed far fewer problems than with old steel piping. Not sure I would want plastic brake pipes through!

[Perry525]

I have micro bore 8 and 10mm pipes. They have been in place 25 years.
They don't clog up as I live in Wales and we have soft water.
People living in hard water areas are told to fill with soft water (they never do, and wonder why they have problems.)
Micro bore uses less water, that equals lower running cost - less water and less pipe to heat up every time your boiler lights up. Micro bore looses less heat per metre run.
It will deliver up to 2500 watts per radiator. Long runs may require 10mm to enable heat delivery.

[booshank]

I'm in Bath, so the water is very hard as the surrounding district has limestone geology. Where do you get soft water to fill a central heating system if your tapwater is hard?