Kassia

Hi Bill Yes I did find it in the end, took all the stuff out the front box and there was a little pipe like you guys described. I think it may be rusted but good to have something to work with, I plan to do some more exploring when I have a chance but it looks about 8mm, very rusty on the outside so makes me wonder if the inside is the same. I still want to try what you suggested to see if water comes out of it then we will know it’s not blocked. Its re-assuring to hear other peoples tanks ‘boom’ it either when we put water in or when someone is using the shower. Hopefully I can have a proper look at it this weekend, would be great if it’s just blocked, we shall see. . . Thanks again for all your help! Kassia

Hi All, thanks very much for your responses on this, all a great help and it has given us something to try. There is a small hole on the side of the boat which we though was our overflow but nothing seems to come out of it. I will take a better look keeping all advice in mind as it could be something is blocked. Ill let you know how we get on! Thanks again Kassia

Hello When we fill our water tank we have to keep pulling the hose out as we get air trapped in it, creating a boom if we don’t take the hose out every now and again. I have been told this is because our tank doesn’t have a breathing hole. I wondered if this is something we could do ourselves and if so how best to go about it? We don’t have a viewing hatch or anything at the bow so I’m wondering if it would be a massive job. I’m keen to try and get it sorted before it causes any long term problems to our water tank. Any suggestions would be a great help as I can’t seem to find much information on breathing holes. Thanks in advance Kassia

Hello again well I did speak a little too soon. The problem recolved itself but then happened again. Alan I think you may be right that I misunderstood or something else is not quite right. We added more air to the accumilator and our pump seemed to turn on and off better than it every has. But over the day we used the taps and then the pump would not cut off again. We checked the accumilator pressure again yesterday and it had gone down to 1bar, ( we pumped it up to 2.5 on Friday)so we pumped it up again. I also read in our survey that becuase our pump is far away from our batteries this could cause a problem but we keep the batteries But if some systems omit the accumilator then maybe I am focusing on the wrong thing?! So we are a bit baffled really. Im wondering if we have a small water leak somewhere, we did check what we could and there didnt seem to be one but I would have thought that is the reason we are loosing pressure? I plan on looking at the pump again this eve to see if we can figure it out but any more thoughts from you all is always a help! Cheers Kassia

Thanks for this guys. Now all sorted with the help of Spencer at the boatyard going through it with us. It was our accumilator pressure not being high enough. SO chuffed we have fixed it. Our first boat DIY, great feeling to learn a bit more about our boat. Thanks all, enjoy the snow!

Hello. Does anyone know of a good plumber who works the kennet and Avon? We are moored in saltford near the bird in hand pub. Last night our water pump would not cut off. We think there may be a problem with either the pump or the accumilator. In our survey it mentions the fact the accumilator is quite far away from the pump and so this effects the water pressure and stops it cutting off at the right point. This problem has worsened over time so Im wondering if the pump may need replacing. Our problem is as we have a back boiler on our wood burner so we can't use the fire as the pump is just going continuously without cutting off. And with all this snow we could do with a fire! If anyone knows whether we could still run our wood burner can you let me know but I imagine it wouldn't do the system any good. And if anyone knows of a plumber we could call that may be willing to brave the weather that would be a great help. Thanks!

Thanks all for your help on this. Im sure Ill be back with more questions soon!

Hello We have a Nanny Diesel engine in our boat which powers our batteries but also heats our water. As we are yet to buy a generator we generally run the engine a couple of hours each night and then longer at the weekends to maintain the batteries. Normally we just have the engine ticking over but I wonder if this damages it long term? Is it best to vary what we do to ensure we are not causing any problems? Thanks Kassia

Hello We have a Nanny Diesel engine in our boat which powers our batteries but also heats our water. As we are yet to buy a generator we generally run the engine a couple of hours each night and then longer at the weekends to maintain the batteries. Normally we just have the engine ticking over but I wonder if this damages it long term? Is it best to vary what we do to ensure we are not causing any problems? Thanks Kassia

Hello Our wood burner is in the centre of our boat rather than down one end. We have been thinking about building a sofa/seating area in from of the fire to make the most of the space there. I wondered if anyone knows of any regulations we should follow? We will obviously not be building it really close to the fire but our friend pointed out we should check before we build in case it would mean failing our Boat Safety. Any advice would be great. Thanks Kassia

This is great advice, thanks everyone! Im pleased I asked

Thank you all for this, I think like you say the amp hours is a bit missleading. We are now trying to focus more on the Volts showing rather than the Amp hours. our inverter seems to scream at us if it drops to 10V (only happened once). We will generaly run the engine a couple of hours in the eve maybe but I am also trying to do a deeper longer charge when we are around all day. Its all a bit new but thats part of the learning curve and joys of living on a boat isnt it!

Hello, we have a Morso wood burner on our new boat but were thinking of burning coal over night to keep the boat warm for the morning. Is there a certain type of coal I should buy that is suitable for that type of burner? I have seen house coal and smokless house coal but having never bought coal before I thought I better check! Thanks

Hi, we have just bought a boat with a Sterling power management system. I read somewhere a while back that you should not allow your batteries to drain past a certain point. If that's right I wondered if any one knows what point that is? We charge our batteries by the engine and have been using the engine a lot while cruising but I want to make sure we charge them enough when moored anywhere. Also probably a really stupid question but am I right in thinking Ah stands for amp hours, so if it says 114Ah does that mean we have 114 hours?! The batteries are all a bit of a mystery to me but I want to make sure we look after them. . .