blackrose

I find those rubber strap filter tools tend to slip on filters and the chain ones crush them. I'm sure it's my fault for doing filters up too tightly when I fit them. On several occasions I've had to knock a big screwdriver through the filter to get it undone! I once removed an oil filter from a honda car and it had a big nut shape at the end of the steel pressing so you could just put a spanner or a socket on it. Made me wonder why they're not all made like that? I guess people like me would do them up too tightly.

Thanks, that is what I originally said previously in response to Cheesy who said that a gas appliance needs to be installed by someone with Gas Safe certificate and the relevant boat and LPG endorsements. That is only the case if the boat is residential.

So for my understanding, gas appliances need to be installed by someone with Gas Safe certificate and the relevant boat and LPG endorsements, according to which organisation?

I thought that was only the case where the boat was a primary residence? Or is that not correct?

I assume domestic gas appliances that come with LPG jets have FFDs on every burner? If that's true then is the only search criterion finding a unit that comes with LPG jets?

Why bother when it's so cheap and easy to bond a piece of wood to the steel with some PU sealant? It doesn't have to be ply, you can stick a thick lump of wood to the steel if you really feel that's necessary. I only used some pieces of hardwood under the gunwales at the bow for my gas pipe because they're outdoors and I thought that would be better suited, but apart from that I've always used ply to mount things on steel. If it's got to take the weight of a human I'd use bolts though a bulkhead or welding, but anything else and the ply bonded to steel with PU sealant/adhesive and then mounting onto that with screws is fine.

Yes we all read that, but it didn't say it was locked in the basket. That's an assumption on your part. I've known cats to be put into baskets and staying put without actually being locked in.

Where did you get the "locked in a basket" bit from? How do you know someone took the basket too? I only read the cat had gone.

That's sounds much more likely to me. Hopefully it'll wander back soon.

So use 18mm ply. I've used this method to stick pumps to steel bulkheads, gas pipe under the gunwale at the bow using pieces of hardwood with pipe clips screwed on, etc. None of it has ever come off. You don't need very long screws to mount things, but if your screws are slightly too long just put them through some washers.

For that job I'd key the steel, clean off the dust and stick a piece of 12mm or 18mm plywood or perhaps heat resistant board onto the steel with your choice of polyurethane sealant/adhesive: CT-1, Sticks Like Sh*t, Stixall, etc. There's a variety available at Screwfix and Toolstation. After 24 hours you won't be able to get the ply off the steel and you can just screw your parts onto the ply. The advantage over JB Weld is that it stays flexible and should cope with thermal expansion/contraction better. I have used JB Weld before but only for plugging a couple of small leaks in skin tank welding, rather than as an adhesive.

I read an independent test of fuel additives in PBO some years ago which I posted and is in the archives. Some additives are snake oil and some aren't and the reason Marine 16 became much more popular was because it isn't. I suggest you read the article otherwise you're basing your views on feelings and heresay rather than data and evidence. https://www.pbo.co.uk/gear/12-diesel-bug-treatments-tested-43353 __________________ I had my integral tank grit blasted late last summer in preparation for painting with Jotun water-potable epoxy, but then I was away for a few weeks and by the time I got back the water/steel temp was too low to paint. I sealed it up for winter - stupidly leaving 2 angle grinders inside! I'm just going to go over any gingering that's bloomed over winter with grinders, wire wheels and give it all a good key with a coarse sandpaper before giving it a good few coats of the epoxy. I don't know much about fibreglassing but my worry in coating the inside of a water tank would be the bond between the steel and resin. As we all know, materials react to changing temperatures differently, expanding and contracting at different rates, so my concern would be separation. I might be wrong, perhaps coating steel with fibreglass resin is a standard method. __________________ I think the idea of sticking a physical liner to the steel is interesting. If those hovercraft bladders fail prematurely because of all the repetitive inflating/collapsing as you fill and drain the tank, then why can't the lining material be stuck to the tank using the tank's breather pipe as usual? I guess the problem would be that unlike a one-piece bladder you'd need to stick it to the inside of the tank in sections and unless you can get a good overlap seal between edges there's the risk of water getting behind the material.

I might be wrong but didn't read the OP's questions as his criteria on whether to buy the boat or not, I thought he was asking for his own understanding. I wouldn't rush into any boat purchase, do it at your own pace. If someone else grabs a boat you're looking at so be it.

Ok might, not usually. 😊

I say it because that's what I have and that's also what I've seen on several other boats. Yes I have a Webasto with an expansion vessel, but I'm not sure what you mean by "sealed"? Pressurised? My backboiler heats 2 small rads in the bathroom and bedroom that occupy what would otherwise be dead space so they're not occupying valuable wall space I'd use for anything else. As I've said they are plumbed to thermocycle the water using a fairy short run of large bore copper pipes from the stove in the middle of the boat, going above, below and right around both rads to encourage thermocycling. The Webasto on the other hand uses a pump and 22mm plastic pipe at floor level to 4 large rads. I don't know why anyone would want to combine those two plumbing systems. The backboiler isn't going to be able to thermocycle water through plastic pipe at floor level and heat the 4 big rads, and although the Webasto could flow through the backboiler it's just unnecessary. There are also advantages in having 2 separate systems: Bleeding separate systems is simpler as is draining down if you only want to work on one or the other. Anyway, that's just my take on it. As someone said at the start of this thread, each boat is bespoke so there are lots of different ways to do it and no single correct method.

That looks like it. If you're draining it down then disconnecting the plumbing, turning the calorifier to give you access to the boss and re-plumbing the pipework to fit the new connection positions is your best bet. If it's just plastic pipe it's not difficult. Buying a new calorifier is expensive and if yours has lasted 20 years there's no guarantee that a new one of the same type will be better quality.

Yes, then you'll get a reasonable approximation of Thai food.

If your PRV pipe is plumbed to a skin fitting in the hull, have a look outside when you're moored up on that side and look for signs of water weeping out of that fitting. Obviously not just after you've been twisting the PRV!

Do you have a non-return valve in your cold water inlet pipework to the calorifier? If not that's fine, some boats have them fitted to prevent the calorifier heating up the cold feed pipe. If you do have a NRV you should also have a hot water expansion vessel on your system fitted between the NRV and calorifier or sometimes on the hot water pipe out of the calorifier, it doesn't really matter which side of the calorifier it goes. With a NRV but without a hot water expansion vessel your calorifier is effectively a pressure vessel with nowhere for the pressure to escape apart from the calorifier PRV which will occasionally activate releasing the pressure and activating your water pump. This not only wastes hot water but relies solely on the PRV to stop your calorifier or pipework from rupturing. So if you have NRV either remove it or fit an expansion vessel, similar to an accumulator tank.

I found mine by looking around at the bottom of my vertical calorifier for a raised lump in the insulation. I then cut that insulation away to reveal a brass boss. If you cut away insulation and find nothing you can always repair the damage with sprayfoam from a can.

Give the spring-loaded red top of the PRV a few turns too. It might dislodge limescale that's causing it not to seal and leak.

If your pump is activating for no reason it often means there's a leak, but that could be your calorifier prv leakingas Isambard said. It could also just be your calorifier cooling down or even a leak back through the pump from the pressurised side of the system to the unpressurised side.

If the stove has a backboiler with rads then usually the eberspacher would have a separate set of rads. On my boat the backboiler cycles the hot water though the rads without a pump by thermocycling (convection/gravity), so the pipework is large bore and visible copper pipe, whereas my Webasto diesel heater (and your eberspacher) uses a pump so the plastic pipes are boxed in at floor level. Some boats have stove backboilers/rads cycled with pumps and some boats even have combined rads for both systems. Most people who liveaboard and others who understand these things tend to use the solid fuel stove as their primary form of heating with the diesel heater used for an hour or two in the mornings or when returning to a cold boat for some quick heat while the solid fuel stove gets going - plus hot water of course if it's plumbed into a calorifier.