Johny London

According to the above ?

Not having that - you've obviously never had chips from the chippy by the tube station in Camden Town, London. Very big paper cone full, fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outer - obviously doubled cooked. Just the thing to revive the weary reveller. Not expensive either. Mind you, I'm going back a few years... If it's a fish and chips you'll be wanting - you can do a lot worse than Daves Fish Bar in Sheringham, Norfolk.

If I "watch" an item, I now make sure to add a note of the price it was when I saw it. As sometimes I "shelve" things and go back maybe weeks or months later and just want to buy the item without re doing all the research - that's when they get ya. If the price goes up, no one mentions it, but ebay is quick to let you know about any reduction!

This one has a chassis terminal, I've taken it to the earth on a 13a plug. That's what it said to do in the instructions for boats. Obviously I don't have the benefit of the rcd though. The sunshine inverters look good - I found the tech spec for the 3000w, standby was quoted at <1amp, which is an improvement on 3.5a at least. The c series 3000w (which look like the best of the lot?) quoted efficiency was a little higher but I didn't find the standby current. Though I'm not sure standby is the same as quiescent (which is more relevant). Standby might just be if it's connected but switched off, I'm more concerned with the least it self consumes while switched on but doing very little. Just a bit of experimentation really.

It's making me rethink my whole power philosophy. Why was your new large inverter so much more economical than the orignal? Presumably not pure sign? But then would things with motors run ok? And do those cheapo inverters rated supposedly at 3000w actual achieve that? Why is my Victron so thirsty? The little thing I've got was only £13, ebay special. Food for thought innit! If I put the little one over at the stern with the other electrics I'd have the bebefit of all the mcb/rcd stuff (if a cheapo waveform doesn't screw things up). One other annoying thing was that while I was in the marina, the inverter had to be on the whole time, to pass the 230v hook up through and provide 12v resupply. Just a waste of equipment and power again.

Just got a little 300w (continuous) modified sine inverter. The idea being to hook it up over at my tv/media centre area and run those bits without needing to switch on the Victron 3000 (which I discovered sucks 3.5a per hour). Last nite I retired with sufficient charge to run the (12v) fridge over night, thanks to this new little inverter. I was concerned the fan would kick in and get noisy but as I was only using a relatively small part of its capacity, though it did get pretty warm the fan never ran. It makes me wonder if I should fit it at the stern next to the Victron and configure some kind of switching - routing one or other to the entire mains ring, as needed. Just thought I'd share that. Ps I think efficiency is more than 90% and standby current less than 300ma

Must say I have long dreamed of a "landline" on the boat so this business with the unlimited minutes and data sounds good to me. Ideally I'll be seen pacing up and down with a nice old skool dial phone hooked up to the router. I wasn't quite clear about this - so you use an adapter to go from the normal bt (larger) phone plug to the smaller squarer one that goes into the router? And as I have a router with nothing other than two external aerial connections, I'd need to upgrade my router. So the 4g aerial connected to the router will help with the call reception??? I am with three. Though, I have found the phone reception hopeless for months now (Devizes and east of) and am on the point of trying another network. (I have two three sims, one for the data/router and one for the mobile phone, I like it that way). Certainly, things are looking better and better for the boater, where coms are concerned.

Just corrected that for you! Water points and so on are often either present but not shown, or vice versa - (certainly on Nicholsons) for example. Another useful source of info is crt's own website with map - though again not wholly accurate . On another point - have you seen the prices? I'm saving nearly three grand a week! https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/anderton-marina-and001/?clickcd=50124&s_kwcid=AL!2504!10!79920784498505!79920812200826&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Anderton+Marina&utm_campaign=M-HB-050-AND001-Anderton+Marina&ef_id=Wj6JkwAAAKC_5Tfn:20190316141606:s

I want to do exactly the same thing as the op. And had the idea mrsmelly mentions - just uprights to take the horizontal piece that the deck boards or whatever would sit on. They'd stay in place ok with a bit of fixing through to the horizontal and deck boards, or as above with a bit of sticky. Mind you - I've never been 100% happy with that idea and so when I saw this thread I was hoping for a better solution! In my case I want to reserve the option to convert the bow locker into an extra water tank, so didn't want bolts making a good area for rust to start, but the principle is the same. If you use wood for the vertical supports, it'll be easier to build than with box section or similar, but may trap water and allow rust to build, so probably box/square tubing?

Back to the original topic for a moment, I thought someone (?) might be interested to know my progress. I disassembled the potentiometer housing and took the coat hanger bit off so that I could fully withdraw the pot from the housing. I pulled out the long, custom spindle of the pot as it was just turning around and around (of course normal pots stop at kind of 11pm and 1am). Tried pushing the spline end into the pot, but whatever I do it just goes round and round - so it occurred to me it might be meant to be like that, in which case of course the rotational orientation that the pot is fitted when tightened up (there is the usual retaining nut) would be quite critical. I also metered it out and it does go from zero up just past 2k (Its a 2k pot). Now my job is twice as hard because even if I put the pot back as it originally was, there is no guarantee that the moving bit inside is in any particular orientation. Of course, I can set the spline with the coat hanger fully in the up position, and fiddle with the pot until it reads zero ohms (shorting out wire sent gauge to full) but it would still take a great deal of care to get right. Aside from all that, the readings were a bit touch and go and I wonder if the spline sits into the pot well enough. Maybe the original fault being that it was just turning on its own and not moving anything in the pot itself. Anyone any experience of this type of pot?

Reading with interest as I'm heading that way myself. Sounds like I might give up at Bath now though.

The marina I was in recently had the crt man coming round every week. He seemed to keep his van there too. Maybe it depends on whether it's a marina that requires you to have a crt licence? I think most do but I have heard that some may not?

They do look very similar to the Caldwells that I have. If so, you will be bang out of luck as far as any help/advice goes - at least from my own personal experiences with them. Are the drain holes free at the bottom? The problem with mine is that both the glass and the seal block those holes so I end up with water spilling over.

Most tv's will show power consumption in watts, so you can compare regardless of the voltage. If not, just remember P(Watts) = I (Amps) x V (volts). Small tv's don't have much room for big speakers, hence the inherently tinny sound, though I find I get used to a certain tone quite quickly then don't notice anything untoward. Sure, if the inverter really is always on, you are not losing anything by going for a 240v set.

I think I'm gonna file this one on the back burner! If ever I get the side of the boat apart I'll be sure to look at the air vent. Thanks for the help.

I sometimes wish my tank was integral. I presume you have a nice big inspection hatch bolted down on the well deck too - so you can really get at it to inspect and clean. Still, I have what I have and will have to work with it. Either way (be it the air valve is for admittance or release) it seems it can spill water into the boat if not very careful. However, it occurs to me that the water this time could be from condensation - I certainly haven't let the hose get jammed in blocking the filler hole, and I rarely turn the fill tap on all the way, plus I make sure to turn off the minute it starts overflowing when full. Bottom line I could do with accessing that valve but it will be the job from hell - a bookcase to remove (plus contents) pus the ply wall of the boat, by the door.

So, with no tank breather, air can escape by the fill hole when filling as long as the hose is a loose fit and not "coupled" in some way, but what would happen when using the tap later? Surely a vacuum would be created and soon the water would be unable to be pumped? Mind you - that means what I thought was an air escape valve might be designed the other way around! (thumbs up for the bug guards!) To add to my confusion, I see nothing on the top of the tank, and indeed cannot actually see anything of the air valve.

Surely the whole point of having a valve is that it allows things to go only one way? Though I think in practice, the advice is good! I can't see the valve, only hear it. Unfortunately it is at the side of the tank, and will require removal of half the boat to get at it.

Cold water storage.

Ah, I suspected as much - I may have to pipe the air vent to outside the boat. Are you saying that with the Ardino thing it switches off the water at a certain pressure? I don't want to go that elaborate - just a dry bilge would be enough. Presumably in my case I can then (once air pipe routed to exterior) happily let the air release valve splosh out water until I turn it off.

And so onto the next thing... I have a small amount of water in the bilge up by the water tank, and I have reason to suspect that it has come from the air release valve on the tank, which can be heard burbling away at times. It is mounted to vent the air inside the boat, which I'm not sure is a good idea, because on one occasion, when I had a hose end attachment that happened to sit in the water filler hole quite snugly. water definitely overflowed from the air valve and came in the boat. Since then I have been careful, using just a loose hose end when filling - in order to avoid any pressure build up. Though - I have seen other boats that seem to have a lock in hose filler end, so presume they have a different type of valve for air release, or something. Anyway, as I said, it's a little wet in there now (under the tank which is a stainless steel one) and I think it's prolly just due to that stupid air valve, no sign of leaks. I wonder if anyone can offer advice - for example should I route the air release to outside the boat, is it just faulty or is there a different/better way of doing things (even permitting a tightly connected hose when filling?).

You have miss quoted me - I wrote metre not meter.

I've made a dipstick, and I can estimate with sufficient accuracy. What I don't appreciate is having to go outside, take the cap off (often with water all around it that risks getting into the tank) dip the stick in, pull it out and drip diesel on the deck and in the canal, put the stick somewhere it doesn't matter, put the cap back on. Rather I would glance at an easily accessible dial to keep an eye on things. I can't believe narrowboats don't tend to have fuel gauges, seems like the most rudimentary thing you would want. So, the waste tank sender repair is still on the to do list, the water tank sender I'm looking at right now (It looks non serviceable but while it's apart I've squirted some limelights into the sensor hole to try and unsilt it) and the fuel gauge will have to be right down the list on the back burner for now. btw I'm metric so mines a metre.

I've got the digital msc fresh water gauge on my fresh water tank - and that doesn't work properly either (it's the next job down on my list and I was going to post to see if anyone has had luck trying to service them!). Tell you what though - I wouldn't mind the diesel fuel gauge.,