The new house is much better, instant hot water. Most systems have a pump, which circulates the hot water constantly, during peak periods, but the landlord installed the system himself - he is a heating engineer, but the place is a shambles, the heating doesn't work properly (I have to turn it above 30 to get 20°C in the living room and the bathroom doesn't get above about 14°C in winter!

Germany has good and bad, just like the UK or any other country. Just, the way the Labour government seems to be doing things at the moment, the UK appears to be on a slippery slope, to outsiders.

The UK is also, currently, the number one shopping destination for Germans. It used to be Eastern Europe, but there are better bargains to be had in the UK, because everything is so cheap there at the moment.

It's obvious to most of us still here, too.

My comment about German heating systems was a subtle dig. Best Beloved served in the BAOR in the early 1960s, and stayed on for a while after he left the forces. He recalls German plumbing as being noisy, creaky and inefficient, and it struck me things haven't changed that much.

It has changed a lot

After the war, with the rebuilding, a lot of stuff was rushed through, much like the prefabs in the UK after the war, for the areas that had been devastated. That changed in the 60s and 70s and changed again in the 90s and even more now. The plumbing is, generally, of a very high standard in modern buildings. I couldn't say it is better or worse than the UK, but I would guess plumbing put in over the last 30 years is probably equal between most major European countries.

I have a combi boiler. It's great for the flat. It heats up a seconds and hot water is almost instant. The wife loves it as at her old place, she had to switch on the water heater about an hour before she could use the shower.

The only problem I had was when a colleague stayed with me for a few days. The pressure was too low (not a problem when living on your own) so when I had a shower, he'd use the loo and the shower would be reduced to a trickle until the loo completed the flush.

We get round the problem by having an electric shower which is not reliant on stored hot water, or a system that heats the water elsewhere.

The most common reason for Combi boiler issues is that people fit the smallest ( and so cheapest) on they can rather than the correct one for the size of the house

I've been without heating now for 11 days, so phoned the letting agency to get chasing. It's damn cold here! Due snow over the next few days as well, and current temperature is lower than last night's minimum. Hrmph.

Our's has always been great, but the shower's started running hot and cold over the last month or so. We live in a very hard water area, so I suspect the heat exchanger's scaled up. I'd get onto the letting agents, but they're so utterly useless, there's not much point.

This is normally the case where British/Scottish Gas (or whatever they are called these days) do you a quote. The smaller the boiler, the more it is on and with everything working at max tilt, it's not long before stuff starts to go wrong.

I was in the shower the other day and one of the kids flushed the loo then ran the hot water tap to wash his hands. The water went cooler for half a second but was not uncomfortabe and the flow seemed to remain fairly constant

Al