Rebotco
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Posts posted by Rebotco
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2 hours ago, David Mack said:
Although after a few years it will need a very good stirring to remix the the thin solvent on the top with the almost solid material in the bottom of the can.
I always store new or opened tins of paint upside down. This considerably improves its natural mixability.
And for opened tins, any skin that forms will be on the bottom, instead of the top.
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13 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:
Converting the 2D flourescents on the boat to LED, the switch wires are something like 30awg kynar. Can anyone recommend some wire strippers that will cope with this, i’ve a few to do and they’re overhead so don't fancy beggaring about with a craft knife or the crap pair i’ve got that look like big fat-bladed scissors with coloured dots on.
These are the same sort of thing I use for those jobs. Brilliant!
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That blue cable is not connected to the inverter.
It is to a connector block (or possibly its a fuse box?)
Your fridge runs on 12 volt battery power. Your inverter provides 240 volt mains supply.
If your fridge light comes on it is receiving 12 volt that it needs.
To switch the motor on, turn the thermostat switch anywhere between the numbers shown 1 - 5,
If it doesn't start the thermostat may be faulty or your battery voltage may be too low.
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If you search the Gas Safe site HERE you can find qualified engineers by location and the categories they are authorised to deal with.
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In defence of CraftInsure, I had my first ever claim last year.
Due to two bilge pumps in my cruiser stern narrowboat running excessively in the rainy season, they eventually flattened the batteries and stopped working.
The engine bay consequently got flooded to about 12"+ deep. Luckily it was spotted before the whole thing sank.
CraftInsure paid out in excess of £6K for the damage, and were very fair about it.
That's far more important to me than saving a few bob on the premium.
Although in fact, they were the lowest of the quotes I had at the time.
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1 hour ago, Tracy D'arth said:
Dragging up Zombie threads again, you really are a pain. why don't you take up Base Jumping or something equally dangerous instead of wasting our time on here?
Aren't you being a bit over-stroppy here?
He has added some useful info and links that may well help others using the search facility in future.
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1 hour ago, blackrose said:
No I don't think so. As it's been stuck on 20ppm for some time the indicator is obviously faulty. That doesn't necessarily mean the detector/alarm itself is faulty - unless you think that all CO alarms without indicators are faulty?
Would you trust your life on a guess that it might be faulty or not?
I sure wouldn't.
Just as well you're planning replacing it.
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1 hour ago, blackrose said:
As someone already said, LCD displays on CO alarms are a bit of a gimmick. Either the alarm goes off or it doesn't. If it goes off you get out. You don't need to see that it's reading 40ppm
I've got a a Kidde alarm with a display in the saloon which reads 18ppm wherever I put it - even if I put it outside! The accuracy of any CO alarm display is questionable and its utility is negligible.
I think your reply exactly illustrates the benefit of an LCD display.
It is telling you that either you or a neighbour is introducing CO into your boat. Or possibly your monitor is faulty.
Either way, it is information you will want to act upon.
Without the display you would have no idea of either danger.
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Neither of the above two are directly comparable to the Lidl one, as they are not the LCD display versions.
None of them seem to advertise whether they are the type1 or type2, if that does actually matter.
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1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:
If you can afford a London residential mooring, you can probably afford something a little more up market than Leyland for your boat.
https://www.farrow-ball.com/white-paint
The farrow and ball stuff I have used was all watery junk.
They are masters at colour shades and marketing, but rubbish at paint.
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49 minutes ago, Opener said:
According to the box, the ones for sale in my local Lidl are dash-1s with pictograms on the box suggesting it is unsuitable for anything that moves ie yacht, caravan or mobilome. Hey-ho! Better luck next time (they've got a stove fan, though!!!)
A lot of boaters happen to also have homes!
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30 minutes ago, Puffling said:
Not quite sure how the digital display helps. "Oh, it's just 200ppm in here, I can switch it off and get another half hours' kip"
But a good find at a good price. If the blinking LED 'on' indicator is less of a hazard warning beacon to shipping than my FireAngel alarm (which, even with two layers of masking tape over the offending beacon, manages to disturb my slumbers if I open my eyes while facing it) I'd be delighted with one.
I would suppose the chief value of a display is that you can see whether the level is increasing or decreasing.
The danger is not in just the level, but a combination of time and level.
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At under £10, this Lidl offer looks to be a very good price for a CO alarm with digital display.
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Thanks for that - the results are mighty impressive.
It could inspire me to do the same with the 12 tatty looking windows on my narrowboat.
👍
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1 hour ago, koukouvagia said:
I bought one of those expanding hoses. The first time I used it, it blew up like a balloon and exploded. Waste of money.
Unless it was faulty, you were probably using it wrongly.
I found it is most important to open the tap only a little way for the first couple of minutes, before then going to full pressure.
I've used my expanding hose for 4 years now without problems, and would never return to the old plastic type.
Reaches 150 ft fully extended, weighs next to nothing and lives in a small plastic bucket.
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3 minutes ago, tree monkey said:
Note the lack of mudguards on the unfolded bike and the "mudguards" on the folded bike
Best put brain in gear before operating tongue! 😝
There are no mudguards in either.
What you can see are the folded wheels included.
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And a new driver!
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The aluminium frames look to me to be in basically good condition.
Some fine grade wire wool and soapy water will probably bring them up a treat.
The seals may not be as bad as you think. On mine, the nasty bits turned out to be largely surface growth of moss/lichen etc, and cleaned up pretty well.
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21 minutes ago, Thomas C King said:
Ooh, I like a boat with a bit of history.
More Notoriety than History, I'd say!
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Well worth getting a hernia for!?
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UPDATE
As advised I put the battery on charge for a further 20 hrs.
But it kept going into float within 2 mins. I switched it off and on at least 10 times, but it thought it knew better than us and quickly returned to float.
Nevertheless, the differences in SG between the cells seems to have closed up a bit.
After leaving for a further 12 hours the no load voltage is 12.56v and the SG readings vary from 1.225 to 1.250.
So I think its got a bit of life left in it, but its not very healthy!
Am I right?
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Excellent - 2 birds with one stone!
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46 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
Re Ronaldo47's post. Low Sp.Gr. readings may not mean the battery is not as fully charged a sit could be. In this case it's more than likely its indicative of suffering from excess sulphation locking the sulphur into the plates (sulphation) and out of the acid.
Just turn the charger off for a few moments and on again. You may have to do this a number of times.
Good tip - thanks!
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19 minutes ago, Ronaldo47 said:
Was the battery gassing freely when charging ended? My now rather elderly 1940's textbook on accumulator charging explains that gassing occurs as the battery approaches full charge. When most of the lead sulphate that was produced during discharge has been converted back to spongy lead and lead peroxide, hydrogen and oxygen gases progressively begin to be evolved. When no more unconverted sulphate remains, all the charging energy is expended in producing these gases and there is no point in continuing charging any further. This description relates to traditional chargers that used a high voltage source and a series load to limit charge current and required human intervention to prevent over-charging. Modern sophisticated chargers using electronic control probably prevent excessive end of charge gassing. A charged +ve plate should be a dark chocolate brown, and a charged -ve plate, grey spongy lead.
The book says that a properly treated battery should exhibit no more than a difference of 15 to 20 points (1 point = 0.001 s.g) between cells, and yours is more than this. However, as your readings indicate incomplete charge, a further charge until gassing freely is observed, might be beneficial to bring up the more heavily discharged cells.
You might need to use an old fashioned unintelligent charger for this. Modern intelligent chargers are fine for batteries in good condition, but are often not smart enough to know the difference between a high terminal voltage due to all cells attaining full charge, and one caused by one or two fully charged cells developing higher-than- normal voltages while other cells are still not fully charged.
Other posts on this forum have reported how, when returning their boats to use after months of non-use , with batteries kept topped up by solar panels, the performance of their batteries had improved significantly. This could be attributed to the long period of charge (without discharge) which had allowed all the lead sulphate to be converted back to peroxide and spongy lead right through the plates rather than just the stuff near the surface (which is what you get when using a fast charger: it takes time for battery acid to diffuse into the interior of the plates, so the interior active material can suffer incomplete conversion).
Thanks for that.
Yes all the cells were gently bubbling on completion of the charging session.
I was using a halfords (semi - smart) 3 stage charger.
I take your point about the possible benefit of a further charging sequence and will try that.
I suspect the charger will go into float too soon though, and I don't think I can override that.
I will let you know the outcome in a day or two.
Opinion on Zinsser Cover Stain Primer Paint White 2.5L required.
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Yes Zinsser Cover Stain is the bees knees for that sort of job. It can be used on MDF as well as timber as a stain blocker and a base sealing coat.
It does have a high volatile content though, so be careful on a boat to ensure lots of ventilation, as you don't want a hull full of flammable fumes.