Central Heating and Refleks Stove

[Patrick_C]

I have recently bought and moved onto a narrowboat with a Refleks Diesel Stove which is fitted with a heating 'sleeve' inside (not a coil with the actual copper pipe exposed) which is part of the central heating system. A circulation pump is also fitted, and the same central heating system (four radiators) can also be heated by an Eberspacher Hydronic 4.

 

The system was pretty clogged up - the pump had seized so initial experiments with the Refleks led to the water boiling and tripping the heat sensor. Now we have flushed the system, replaced the gunged up pump and put everything back together. The Eberspacher will happily heat the whole central heating system but the Refleks, even when on high heat and warming the cabin it is in, boiling kettles etc, struggles to heat more than one radiator - two at a stretch. Water seems to be moving through it, there are no airlocks, the new pump is working, but we are disappointed ...

 

We are wondering if (since we have the Eberspacher) it may even be worth:

 

a) disconnecting the Refleks and just using it as a space heating stove

ditching it entirely and going for a woodburner

 

But if it *should* be doing more and just needs cleaning/replacement sleeve etc, then maybe it's worth persevering.

 

Can any Refleks (or similar) owners advise us? Is this the best we can hope for, or has something horrible happened inside the Refleks' heating sleeve?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Patrick

[Boatingbiker]

we brought a boat with a refleks stove connected to 3 radiators, all of which are heated by the Refleks. However, we have noticed that if the Refleks is turn up to medium heat or higher then the annular (coil) inside knocks as it expansions and contracts in the heat. Our local boat yard confirms this is normal. It does not prevent the boat from getting up to temperature with once last year we recorded an internal temperature of 35 deg C- HOT !

 

What you do not say is if the alturnative form of heating (Eberspacer) heats the radiators adequately ? Are the Eberspacer and Refleks both connected to the radiators or have I misread this?

[koukouvagia]

Assuming that the Refleks is working properly - i.e. a bluish flame, then the problem lies with the water circulation. Turn off all the radiators and light up the Refleks. Within about 15 minutes the return pipe to the stove should be nearly as hot as the flow. If it's not then you have a blockage/airlock somewhere. Now turn on the radiators one by one, starting with the one nearest the stove. When this is hot to the top, go on to the next one. If the radiator doesn't get hot you've either got an airlock or the radiator needs balancing - i.e the water is flowing out too fast and one of the balance valves on the radiator needs adjusting.

Just a thought - you're not using the Refleks to heat up a calorifier as well, are you? If there's one in the heating circuit, you should be able to isolate this until the radiators are hot. If I heat up the calorifier and the radiators - it can take several hours. I like to get the radiators hot first and then heat up the calorifier over night when the radiators are turned off.

The Refleks, depending on the model, will easily heat three radiators and give you all the hot water you need.

[Patrick_C]

Yes, the Eberspacher does heat the system OK - but to be honest it seems overpowered for the length of central heating system and the four radiators we've got.

 

We'll try adjusting the refleks - the flame is still a bit yellow on a'4' setting and will try rebalancing the rads. We did have them all off for flushing.

 

Thanks for advice. Will report back!

 

PC

[Boatingbiker]

sounds like air in the system, from the last post then

[Patrick_C]

sounds like air in the system, from the last post then

 

I'd assumed that initially, but there's no air emerging at any bleed points, or at the circulation pump, and the Eberspacher starts up ok, so no air pockets there.

[Patrick_C]

Here's the Refleks flame with the regulator set to about '4' - blue flame emerging from the side holes, yellow where it hits the top of the mesh, which is glowing nice and orange. Is this what I'm after at this kind of setting? If so, it's off to balance the radiators, I suspect.

 

We recently used Koukouvagia's very helpful account to get the filter and regulator cleaned and it's just had a paraffin tablet burned in it.

 

[koukouvagia]

That flame looks pretty good to me. Slightly high, but nothing to worry about.

Just a thought. When you bled the radiators was the circulation pump going? If it was, depending whereabouts in the circuit the pump is, you could be sucking air in, rather than expelling it. You need to bleed the radiators just relying on the pressure from the header tank.

[Patrick_C]

OK, so things have moved on. We have decided to separate out the Refleks from the Central Heating circuit, which is adequately served by the Eberspacher. This was in part brought about by the discovery that the back boiler (we have the 'sleeve' type rather than a coil) was leaking from welded joints - which meant that gradually water leaked into the burn pot and the efficiency of the stove gradually decreased as it ran - there are previous threads on here about this.

 

So we want to remove the back boiler completely and cap the two copper pipes that used to bring the central heating water in and out.

 

Anyone with experience of doing this? The back burner looks as though it just its on a ledge inside the stove, but obviously the pipes (or rather the holes the go through) will need sorting out.

 

DIYable? Or a job for Lockgate?

 

Patrick

[koukouvagia]

So we want to remove the back boiler completely and cap the two copper pipes that used to bring the central heating water in and out.

 

Anyone with experience of doing this? The back burner looks as though it just its on a ledge inside the stove, but obviously the pipes (or rather the holes the go through) will need sorting out.

 

DIYable? Or a job for Lockgate?

 

Patrick

 

I'd say it was pretty straightforward. However, you'll probably need to dismantle the outer and probably the inner cover which are held in place with pop rivets. These will need grinding off. I replaced them with 4mm self tappers. The water tank can be retro-fitted, so it's obviously meant to come off. You'll need to blank off the two holes in the casing - again a fairly simple job.

 

eta link to dismantling instructions http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=51727&view=findpost&p=967534

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2013 by koukouvagia