IdealStandard

Interesting. That does make a lot of sense. So plumbing the heat exchanger back in to allow direct heating of the rads from the engine is probably a more effective way of heating them up? Not much use when I'm up at 7, but for lazy mornings it's an option. Ideally I'd have a backboiler with rads in the bedroom (at the stern) as the heat really doesn't make it down there and particularly not overnight.

So I've been planning an adaptation to my heating system for a while - it's one of those things where I'm planning to build something as a stopgap with the potential to expand it later, but I'm not sure by how much. Currently I have a Chelsea Villager Duo stove without a backboiler as a main heat source. It's great, but it's old and keeping in a fire overnight is near enough impossible without using loads of smokeless (which feels like a waste). I have a Rinnai instant water heater that does the job for showers and washing up. I've got a water cooled engine and I set up a really simple system of heating some radiators using a heat exchanger and a small 12v pump. It did the job, but there's obviously no heat storage and what I really want is a system that allows me to flip a switch and have heat in the morning. The radiators are still there, with pipes heading out to the engine bay. The plan was always to leave potential for a calorifier and I think it's now time to sort it out properly.I'm not shorepower quite a lot, but I want to be able to cruise in comfort and use the engine for heat. So....... For my current setup to function I require a calorifier with enough capactiy and heat retention to allow me to run the engine before 8pm and have hot rads for around an hour at 7am. I think I need a single coil calorifier (in the future a backboiler would be sensible, but it's a bit of a pipe dream so not sure I need to plan for it) with pretty minimal capacity but good thermal properties. I also don't want to spend much money! Will 22l be enough? Is single coil much cheaper than double or should I just get a double to futureproof? Are the immersion heaters pretty standard in term of efficiency? Can anyone see any flaws in my current system? Does the PRV on the calorifier negate the need of a header tank? Any links or leads to cheap/secondhand/good calorifiers? Many thanks Tim

Hi All Thanks for all of your excellent advice and help. I looked into a few of your suggestions and then tried wiring in a seperate fuse for the water system which has solved the problem. No overheating or blown fuses which is great. It also has the appropriate fuse now too. It's all a bit of a mess and I will look at getting a new fuse board/circuit breakers soon but this only cost £2 so it was a winner for th eitme being. Thanks again and happy boating Tim Oh and I think JonathanA was spot on in his diagnosis after some head scratching.

I'l take some pics tonight and post tomorrow. Thanks.

Interesting. The only problem with that diagnosis is that the fuse had only gone once, whereas the problem of the fuse holder snapping has happened twice now. I originally though it might be due to the plastic simply corroding, but I purchase a new fuse holder and it happened again and I think it must be down to the heat that they are going. Is the heat cause by excess resistance?

Hi All I've been having a problem recently with fuses blowing and the fuse board getting warm when using my water pump. I have installed new batteries recently and the problem only seems to have started since then. I have a Jabsco Par Max 4 and it works perfectly. When I use the water system for any period of time (say a five minute shower or more) the fuse board gets warm. Recently I have had the 10amp fuse blow and even more annoyingly, the fuse holders have been popping out (this type http://www.iboatsimages.com/mall/image/view/4/6/fuseholder_1.jpg) and snapping so that they don't clip back in again. Am I right in thinking that this is likely to be due to the cable to the water pump being too thin? In the short term I need some replacement fuse holders and in the long term I need to figure out exactly what is going on and remedy it. All suggestions welcomed. Many thanks Tim

Looks like this is now sorted.

The barrus engineer pressure tested the coolant system and recommended against doing it. I was more than willing to lap up that information as I really needed to get going. It was obviously bad advice. Interestingly the gasket hasn't blown around the sheared bolt, but it seems far fetched for the two things to be coincidence.

I was given the green light on the engine by Barrus, set off towards Bath and only got as far as Keynsham. Gasket between the water pump and block failed, dumping all the coolant in the bilge and overheating the engine. I'm not stuck tied to a tree with heavy rain forecast tomorrow. Great.

I tried Chandleries and garages, didn't think to check plumbers merchants. Thanks for the tip.

Bath narrowboats quote me £2.25/litre to pump out my bilge. That must be some kind of joke!

Found the bugger. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270790303008?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 Only problem now is that I'm going to have to do at least a couple of days of cruising with an engine that has recently overheated more times than I've had hot dinners. So any suggestions for a quick fix? I've got some little temperature stickers on the engine, but I'm not sure how much I trust them.

Pretty sure it's NPT. I'll check those out, thanks.

You would hope so wouldn't you. Only problem is that they delivered the last part as they sent and engineer. My nearest dealer for their products is in Trowbridge and I'm in Bristol. Bit of a nightmare.

Hello My temperature sender is knackered and I sourced a replacement from the distributors. The old one was just a switch, whereas the new one is both gauge and switch. I tried to install it only to find that the threads on the replacement were far smaller than the threads in the housing. I phoned them up and they reckon the old one could be 3/8" and the new one 1/4". Is there an easy way to convert the threads, or another way of setting up the sender? If I had the time I would try and source the correct size, but I have to set off on Monday and need a quick fix. One of the engineers suggested just strapping the sender somewhere so the end was making contact with a how surface. Would this work? Any other way solving the conundrum? Many thanks Tim