Is a Range Tribune a good cylinder

It is a sound choice. The vessel is duplex stainless, expansion is handled by a replaceable external vessel, the immersion on the common models is a standard screw in element, and the inlet controls come apart into individually replaceable parts. That combination is what decides whether a cylinder is still easy to repair in year twelve, which is the thing that actually determines whether you stay happy with it.

What usually fails on a Range Tribune

The wearing parts around the vessel rather than the vessel itself. The most frequent calls are a dripping tundish caused by a passing expansion relief valve, a perished expansion vessel diaphragm or a drifted pressure reducing valve, and a burnt out immersion element, which in London is normally scale related. All of those are ordinary repairs with standard parts, usually finished in a single visit.

Can you still get parts for a Range Tribune

For the parts that actually fail, generally yes and often the same day, because an expansion vessel, the relief valves, a pressure reducing valve and a screw in element are merchant stock rather than proprietary items. Components unique to a long discontinued variant may need ordering in. Have the model designation and serial number from the data plate ready when you call, as that is what avoids a second visit.

How long does a Range Tribune cylinder last

A duplex stainless vessel that is serviced annually, fed through a correctly set inlet control group and not run permanently hotter than the household needs will normally outlive several sets of valves and several immersion elements. What shortens that life in London is hard water scaling the coil and the element, an unnecessarily high store temperature, and skipped services that let a worn safety valve pass water unnoticed for years.

Is a Range Tribune the same as a Megaflo

No, although both names now sit within the same parent group. They are different cylinders with a different approach to expansion. A Tribune uses a separate expansion vessel on the cold feed, which is an ordinary replaceable part. A Megaflo holds an air pocket inside the vessel, which needs a manufacturer specific step at every annual service. Read the data plate, because the two are quoted and serviced differently.

How do I tell which Range Tribune I have

The data plate on the cylinder is the only reliable answer. It gives the model designation, the capacity in litres and a serial number. Photograph it before speaking to anybody. Guessing from the pipework is how a direct cylinder gets diagnosed as a boiler fault, or how a communal thermal store in a purpose built flat gets quoted as an unvented cylinder replacement.

Does a Range Tribune need an annual service

Yes. Manufacturer warranties on unvented cylinders are routinely conditional on annual servicing being carried out and documented, and that applies across the market. Beyond the paperwork, the annual visit is what catches a tired safety valve, a failing expansion vessel or a scaling element before any of them turns into an emergency. Keep the records, because a warranty quoted without mentioning that condition is worth less than it sounds.

Can a Range Tribune be repaired rather than replaced

Almost always. Relief valves, the pressure reducing valve, the expansion vessel, the immersion element and the motorised valve are all replaceable parts on a cylinder that may have years left in it. The single genuine exception is a weeping stainless vessel, which cannot be patched on any brand. Get the fault diagnosed before you accept a replacement quote for anything short of that.

Do you need to be an approved Range installer to work on a Tribune

No. We are an independent firm rather than an agent, partner or approved installer of Range, Baxi or any other manufacturer. What matters is that whoever works on an unvented cylinder holds the correct qualification for unvented hot water and understands the specific model in front of them. Ask to see that qualification before any work starts, on this cylinder or any other.

Range Tribune Cylinders Explained

The Range Tribune is an unvented stainless steel hot water cylinder made by Range Cylinders, a Stoke on Trent manufacturer that sits inside the Baxi Heating group alongside the Megaflo name. If you have a tall white insulated cylinder in an airing cupboard, no cold water tank in the loft, and a badge reading Tribune HE or Tribune Xe, that is what you own: a sealed mains pressure hot water store fed straight off the incoming cold main, with its safety and control gear bolted to the outside where an engineer can reach it. That last point is the character of the appliance and the reason it is straightforward to live with. This page covers which models exist, how to identify yours, what fails on them in London, and when replacement is the honest answer rather than the expensive one. We are an independent plumbing and hot water firm with 20 engineers. We are not an approved, authorised or appointed agent of Range, Baxi or any other manufacturer, and the views below are ours.

What is a Range Tribune cylinder

A Range Tribune is an unvented hot water cylinder with a duplex stainless steel vessel, built by Range Cylinders. Unvented means the store is sealed and pressurised by the incoming cold main rather than fed from a tank in the loft, so the hot taps and showers run at mains pressure and there is no header tank to maintain. The Tribune is the flagship unvented family in the Range catalogue.

The vessel is duplex stainless steel, the correct material for a sealed hot water store. It resists the chloride stress corrosion that finishes off weaker grades and needs no sacrificial anode. That is not a Range advantage as such, because every serious unvented cylinder sold here now uses a comparable vessel. What separates brands in service is never the steel. It is how expansion is handled, whether the immersion is a standard element, and whether the control gear comes apart into replaceable pieces.

On all three the Tribune takes the plain route. Expansion is taken up by a vessel on the cold feed rather than inside the cylinder, the immersion on the models we see most is a conventional screw in boss, and the inlet control group is assembled from discrete parts rather than moulded into one sealed unit. That is exactly what you want in an appliance that must survive several changes of ownership and several different plumbers.

Which Range Tribune model do I have

Read the data plate on the cylinder and photograph it. It gives the model designation, capacity and serial number, and it is the only identification anybody should act on. An engineer naming parts before reading the plate is guessing.

If the plate has faded or been decorated over, the installation still tells you plenty. Look at the cold feed. A separate vessel on a bracket near the cold connection means expansion is handled externally, which fits the Tribune and rules out the Megaflo style internal arrangement, even though both names sit in the same parent group. Note whether there is one coil connection pair on the side or two, because a second pair means a twin coil model.

Establish direct against indirect early too. An indirect cylinder is heated by a coil from the boiler with an immersion as backup. A direct cylinder has no coil and is heated by immersion elements alone, which turns up in flats with no gas appliance. If yours is direct, no boiler fault can be the reason there is no hot water, and that one fact saves a wasted visit.

Photograph the data plate, the top of the cylinder and the cold feed before you ring anybody. Those pictures answer almost everything a parts supplier will ask, and are the difference between a one visit repair and a two visit one.

The Range Tribune range, model by model

The variants exist to solve installation problems rather than to sell tiers of quality. The two names you will see most on London badges are Tribune HE and Tribune Xe, both unvented duplex stainless cylinders. The differences that matter to an owner are coil arrangement, shape and capacity.

Within those names there are indirect models with a single boiler coil, direct models with no coil, twin coil models for a solar circuit or a second heat source, and slimline and horizontal shapes for awkward spaces. Heat pump versions with a much larger coil exist, and if a heat pump is in your plans that is a decision to make at purchase.

Range has sold appliances outside the Tribune name that get confused with it. The Powermax causes the most trouble: it is a combined unit rather than a plain cylinder, with different parts and a different failure pattern. Do not let anybody quote a Tribune replacement until the badge confirms a Tribune is what is in the cupboard.

Tribune HE and Tribune Xe: the two names most often on London badges.
Indirect: heated by a boiler coil, immersion as backup. The common case.
Direct: immersion elements only, no coil, common in all electric flats.
Twin coil: second coil for solar or a second heat source.
Slimline and horizontal: shape variants for narrow cupboards and lofts.

Where Range Tribune cylinders turn up in London homes

We find them most often in Victorian and Edwardian conversions, where an old vented cylinder in the first floor cupboard was replaced and the household wanted mains pressure hot water without the loft tank. That is the classic Tribune installation here, and usually a sound one.

The second is the new build house or flat, often with underfloor heating under liquid screed. There the cylinder was specified by whoever built the scheme rather than chosen by the person living with it, and the commissioning paperwork has usually gone missing. Photograph the plate, rebuild the service record and get it looked at.

Purpose built blocks are the case to be careful about. Plenty have no unvented cylinder at all. They run a communal system with a thermal store in each flat, which looks similar in a cupboard and behaves nothing like a Tribune. They fail differently and are quoted differently, so establish which you have before any conversation about cost. The other common setting is the loft conversion, where a new shower room needs pressure the old vented system was never going to give it. A Tribune answers that well provided somebody measured the incoming mains first, because an unvented cylinder of any brand is only as good as the supply feeding it.

How a Range Tribune is actually built

Four things decide whether you are still pleased with an unvented cylinder in year twelve: the vessel material, how expansion is dealt with, whether the immersion is a standard element, and whether the inlet controls come apart. The Tribune scores respectably on all four.

Expansion goes into a vessel on the cold feed rather than an air pocket inside the cylinder. That is the less elegant of the two approaches in this market and we prefer it anyway, because the vessel is a commodity component. When its diaphragm perishes, an engineer fits another and leaves. Nothing about that repair depends on Range still supporting the model or still stocking the part. For an appliance with a twenty year horizon, boring replaceability beats clever integration.

The inlet control group on the cold feed drops the incoming mains to the pressure the cylinder is designed for, stops hot water pushing back into the cold main, isolates, and provides the expansion relief protecting the vessel. On the Tribune those functions sit in discrete parts with their own references, so a passing expansion relief valve is a valve change rather than a whole assembly change. The immersion on the models we attend most is a standard screw in boss, so the element is a merchant part, though confirm that against your own model manual before ordering.

Duplex stainless vessel: rarely the thing that fails.
External expansion vessel: an ordinary part, replaced on the visit.
Inlet control group of separate components, each individually replaceable.
Screw in immersion boss on the common models, taking a merchant element.
Temperature and pressure relief valve discharging through a tundish to outside.

What actually fails on a Range Tribune

Not the vessel. On the Tribune cylinders we attend across London the faults are almost entirely in the wearing parts bolted around the outside: the inlet pressure reducing valve, the expansion relief valve, the temperature and pressure relief valve, the expansion vessel diaphragm, the immersion element and the motorised valve on the heating side. Every one is a repair rather than a replacement, and a part an engineer can fit on the same visit.

The most common call out is a dripping tundish. That is the discharge arrangement doing exactly what it exists to do, telling you a safety valve upstream is passing water. On a Tribune the usual causes are a perished expansion vessel diaphragm, a worn expansion relief valve, or an inlet pressure reducing valve that has drifted off its setting. It is ordinary work. What it is never is a reason to cap the discharge pipe, and anybody who suggests silencing a discharging safety valve rather than finding out why should be shown the door.

The second is a dead immersion element, and in London that is scale far more often than age. Scale builds on the sheath, the sheath can no longer shed heat into the water, and the element burns out under its own crust. On a Tribune with a standard boss that is a stock part fitted the same day. The one terminal fault is a weeping stainless vessel, which cannot be patched on any brand, and which is uncommon on a duplex vessel that has been serviced.

A dripping tundish is a symptom to investigate, never a nuisance to silence. A safety valve is passing and something upstream needs attention.

How Range Tribune cylinders cope with London hard water

Hard water does more damage to a cylinder in this city than any difference between brands. Almost the whole London supply area is hard, and scale settles on the two surfaces that matter: the boiler coil inside the vessel and the immersion element. On both it acts as an insulating blanket, giving slower reheat, a boiler or immersion working harder for the same bath, and eventually an element that cooks itself.

A Tribune is no more immune than anything else, but it makes the consequences cheaper, because the element is a stock part on the common models. Two decisions are worth making at purchase. Specify an Incoloy or titanium sheathed element instead of the cheapest copper one, because a better sheath tolerates scaling far longer. And do not raise the store temperature above what the household needs to compensate for a cylinder that is too small, because running hot permanently accelerates scaling and buys nothing correct sizing would have given you for free.

The other London problem is physical. An element needs clearance to withdraw fully, and in a Victorian conversion the cylinder is usually boxed into a first floor cupboard with joinery built tight around it. Ask an installer where the element will come out to. If the answer involves dismantling a cupboard, the cheapest repair on this appliance has just been made expensive.

Scale is the real enemy of any London cylinder. A better sheathed element and a sensible store temperature will do more for its working life than the name on the badge.

Can you still get Range Tribune parts

For the most part, yes, and this is where the plain engineering pays off. The parts that actually fail on a Tribune are largely universal rather than proprietary. An external expansion vessel, a pressure reducing valve, an expansion relief valve, a temperature and pressure relief valve and a screw in element are all merchant stock in London, so an engineer can often finish the repair the same day without ordering anything.

It gets slower with items unique to a long discontinued variant. Tribunes have been installed here for many years and the range has changed, so a part for an old one may need ordering. That is normal for any cylinder of that age from any manufacturer. It does mean having the model designation and serial number ready before you call, because that is what turns a two visit job into a one visit job.

The comparison with the bigger names is about familiarity as much as stock. More engineers here have worked on a Megaflo, simply because far more were fitted. Against that, the Tribune asks less of the engineer: no manufacturer specific procedure at the annual service and no branded immersion to source.

Should a Range Tribune be repaired or replaced

Repair is the right answer far more often than the quote in your inbox implies, and on a Tribune particularly, because the failing parts are standard. A passing relief valve, a drifted pressure reducing valve, a perished diaphragm, a burnt out element or a failed motorised valve are all repairs on a cylinder with years left in the steel. Replacing a repairable cylinder is the most expensive mistake available in an airing cupboard, and it is made every week here.

Replacement is honest in a short list of cases. A weeping or corroded vessel is terminal. So is a cylinder so undersized the household has never been satisfied, or one positioned where it cannot be serviced without dismantling joinery. A change of heat source is another, because coil surface area cannot be added to an installed cylinder.

What drives the cost of a replacement is not the badge. It is the physical work: whether the old cylinder gets out of the cupboard and the new one in, whether pipework needs rerouting, whether a proper discharge route to outside exists or has to be created, whether the incoming mains can genuinely feed an unvented cylinder, and what the household does for hot water meanwhile. Get a diagnosis first and a quote second.

Repairable: relief valves, pressure reducing valve, expansion vessel, immersion, motorised valve.
Terminal: a weeping or corroded stainless vessel.
Judgement call: wrong size, wrong position, or a change of heat source.
Cost drivers: access, pipework, discharge route and the incoming mains.

Would we fit a Range Tribune

Yes, and we service and repair them regularly. In a two or three bedroom conversion with one bathroom and a system boiler, a mid sized indirect Tribune with a standard coil, a well sheathed element and the mains measured beforehand is a sensible installation. In a house with two bathrooms and real simultaneous demand, the answer is more volume and a higher output coil rather than simply more litres, because the complaint there is almost never storage and almost always recovery between showers.

If a heat pump is in the plan, say so before anything is ordered and buy the version built for it. A heat pump delivers water far cooler than a gas boiler, so the coil needs much greater surface area to move the same energy. That is the specification mistake we see most often across every brand, and it cannot be corrected afterwards by adjusting controls.

None of this makes Range the only defensible choice. Telford, Gledhill, OSO and Albion are easy cylinders to live with for the same reasons, and a properly serviced Megaflo will give years of trouble free hot water. The Tribune belongs in that group: a sound vessel with its wearing parts on the outside where any competent unvented engineer can reach them.

Questions we get asked

What is a Range Tribune cylinder: It is an unvented hot water cylinder made by Range Cylinders, a Stoke on Trent manufacturer within the Baxi Heating group. The vessel is duplex stainless steel and the cylinder is fed directly from the incoming cold main, so taps and showers run at mains pressure with no tank in the loft. Expansion is taken up by a vessel on the cold feed rather than inside the cylinder itself.
Is a Range Tribune a good cylinder: It is a sound choice. The vessel is duplex stainless, expansion is handled by a replaceable external vessel, the immersion on the common models is a standard screw in element, and the inlet controls come apart into individually replaceable parts. That combination is what decides whether a cylinder is still easy to repair in year twelve, which is the thing that actually determines whether you stay happy with it.
What usually fails on a Range Tribune: The wearing parts around the vessel rather than the vessel itself. The most frequent calls are a dripping tundish caused by a passing expansion relief valve, a perished expansion vessel diaphragm or a drifted pressure reducing valve, and a burnt out immersion element, which in London is normally scale related. All of those are ordinary repairs with standard parts, usually finished in a single visit.
Can you still get parts for a Range Tribune: For the parts that actually fail, generally yes and often the same day, because an expansion vessel, the relief valves, a pressure reducing valve and a screw in element are merchant stock rather than proprietary items. Components unique to a long discontinued variant may need ordering in. Have the model designation and serial number from the data plate ready when you call, as that is what avoids a second visit.
How long does a Range Tribune cylinder last: A duplex stainless vessel that is serviced annually, fed through a correctly set inlet control group and not run permanently hotter than the household needs will normally outlive several sets of valves and several immersion elements. What shortens that life in London is hard water scaling the coil and the element, an unnecessarily high store temperature, and skipped services that let a worn safety valve pass water unnoticed for years.
Is a Range Tribune the same as a Megaflo: No, although both names now sit within the same parent group. They are different cylinders with a different approach to expansion. A Tribune uses a separate expansion vessel on the cold feed, which is an ordinary replaceable part. A Megaflo holds an air pocket inside the vessel, which needs a manufacturer specific step at every annual service. Read the data plate, because the two are quoted and serviced differently.
How do I tell which Range Tribune I have: The data plate on the cylinder is the only reliable answer. It gives the model designation, the capacity in litres and a serial number. Photograph it before speaking to anybody. Guessing from the pipework is how a direct cylinder gets diagnosed as a boiler fault, or how a communal thermal store in a purpose built flat gets quoted as an unvented cylinder replacement.
Does a Range Tribune need an annual service: Yes. Manufacturer warranties on unvented cylinders are routinely conditional on annual servicing being carried out and documented, and that applies across the market. Beyond the paperwork, the annual visit is what catches a tired safety valve, a failing expansion vessel or a scaling element before any of them turns into an emergency. Keep the records, because a warranty quoted without mentioning that condition is worth less than it sounds.
Can a Range Tribune be repaired rather than replaced: Almost always. Relief valves, the pressure reducing valve, the expansion vessel, the immersion element and the motorised valve are all replaceable parts on a cylinder that may have years left in it. The single genuine exception is a weeping stainless vessel, which cannot be patched on any brand. Get the fault diagnosed before you accept a replacement quote for anything short of that.
Do you need to be an approved Range installer to work on a Tribune: No. We are an independent firm rather than an agent, partner or approved installer of Range, Baxi or any other manufacturer. What matters is that whoever works on an unvented cylinder holds the correct qualification for unvented hot water and understands the specific model in front of them. Ask to see that qualification before any work starts, on this cylinder or any other.