Jak

Hi. We have similar caravan 12v LED lighting units and they work well. I replaced all our old lighting with them a couple of years ago.

Seems like a lot of money for a project boat though.

This really is very frustrating. That heater in mtb’s link is £110, battery ignition and probably perfect for my simple needs. It looks like sonething like this is perfectly acceptable provided its fitted correctly. @MtB fancy a trip over to Leigton Buzzard with your plumbing and gas kit?

Reply from the marine heating specialist. They had already said that they will not fit open flue water heaters and are referring to the current Morco range of room sealed systems. So that’s a complete blank. And the gas safe LPG man I know said he does not fit open flue heaters either.

This is all really interesting. I can see that you can buy referbished open flue heaters and I’m not residential, so perhaps for a simple older boat thats the way to go. I am just reading too many reports of problems with the various expensive diesel heaters and really do not need any rads, just more convenient hot water. I have a boat gas safe contact (connected up a new cooker a couple of months back) so will run it by him and see what he says. I’m hardly a “competant person” so shouldn’t take the risk of trying it DIY…

Thanks for this rusty. I’d not thought about the need for another coil. And yes, do want to keep the engine heating which is a great system when cruising. An instant hot water system like yours or Arthur’s sounds ideal. But I am not clear on whether an open flue set-up can be retrofitted or whether I’d need a ”room sealed” set-up now…

Hi all. I’ve been mulling over this for a long time, and was going back to the back catalogue of posts again. But still not sure of the answer. At least I am now clear what the question is! I’ve a simple boat. Originally 12v only with a Squirrel stove and no rads. Happy with the heating as only a 47 foot boat and stove is close to the middle of the boat. No rads required. I added a simple 240v system with inverter and a few sockets. This also works well with 300w solar and my alternator to fill in the gaps in winter. What doesn’t work for me is hot water. At the moment is calorifier only and I need to run the engine daily for hot water, which is inconvenient and sub-optimal as I see it. Options? - I read a lot about boaters with diesel water heaters and understand I might use one to heat the calorifier tank. Sounded like a good option. Not hard to fit from the look of the kits I’ve seen, though appears to need a separate exhuast and some posters were critical about reliability and cost of maintenance. But I like the idea of running on a timer for an hour or so a day and looks like they run on 12v.. - Paloma / Morco open flue. Lots of boats my age (1989) have these fitted for instant hot water to taps and shower. Some say they eat gas. And its not at all clear if they can be fitted by a boat safe gas engineer now. Or not clear to me anyway! There are more advanced heaters without open flue, but I have power limitations and have read these need the sort of 240v I would not want to give. So whats’ the practical and realistically priced solution to supplement or replace the engine / calorifier set-up which just sucks! Thanks once more for your experience and advice 👍 Jak.

Haven Knox-Johnston £187. Policy looks good, though I’ve never needed to claim so far. And no need for a survey for a few more years on my 1989 boat.

Ouch. Not cheap though. You might want to practice a bit and see? There’s a lot of more essential kit for that sort of money. And always a few surprise maintenace jobs. I lit my Squirrel last week and a big plate I didnt know I had fell out and landed on my foot…

I would also cut the bottom off the doors an glue on new wood. I’ve done this very successfully on our rear doors. Then make sure the bottom of the door wood is properly sealed to prevent this happening again. Having just spent a lot of money on some bespoke replacement doors, I wish I’d done more preventive maintenance! Good luck, Jak.

We have Virgin mobile unlimited data. The SIM is in a little Huawei mobile router. It connects to a small stubbie mag mount ariel attached to the roof. Virigin uses O2. Only got a deal on it as a Virgin cable home customer. Its a good setup. Amazed how much difference the tiny aeriel makes. We gave up on a telly ariel years ago as we can stream tv live as well as Amazon, Netflix, etc. Using a firestick or internet telly. its a really good and cheap set-up 👍👍 unlimited data makes so much difference. Never need to worry.

Ffffs. Who would have known. No more tea for me then 😵‍💫

That sounds like a Park Home to me. If you arent interested in boating, why buy a boat?

Thanks Nick. I get it now. Just read the manual!

The sqealing is probably a red herring as I didnt tighten up the bracket properly and it worked itself loose…

Nick. Hmmmm. I just checked my multi-meter and is looks like it is only rated for 10amps. If connect it to the 55amp alternator wont that blow the fuse? Tony. I tried almost 2 hours running the engine at more than idle and still max 13.6v.

But after charging for and hour and a half still at 13.6v.

Batteries were down to 12.4v with nothing drawing current. Then I fired up the engine to get charged. So cloudy nothing coming in from the solar. I’d normally see 14.5 straight away.

Fwitw the solar controller is connected directly to battery terminals by short cables…

Hi Alan. Thanks. No the 14.5 has been in the dark too! Yes, I dont have a tester to hand but agree of course. Its just that the big drop is visible on the solar controller where I am used to seeing the 14.5v plus volts with this set-up.

Hi all. So i replaced my batteries and alternator a couple of weeks ago. 1.5 BMC, new 55 amp alternator and 3 95ah leisure batteries (the 105s are just too big for the battery box). All was good once fitted. Seeing 14.5v to the batteries (according to the solar controller). I have renewed exactly the same set-up I had for the last 5+ years as it has worked well. Yesterday the fan belt was squealing. Fair enough. Loosed off the mountings, gave the alternator a good tug, tightened them up. checked the connectors. No squeal and the charge light gone out. Excellent. Job done. But no its not. Now I am only seeing 13.6v. I have double checked everything, always had 14.5v plus - up until today - from this set-up. Fired it up again today. Still 13.6v Why? The connections look good. The belt is definately not slipping now. Where have my volts gone?! Is it really likely my new alternator has gone duff already or should I be looking elsewhere? Thanks for any ideas. Jak.

Agreed. Ive a 48ft trad stern boat and have no such issues. Tbh its nice that the bedroom is a little cooler (furthest room away from our stove). edited to also agree with Jen. Stove mounted more centrally a better idea. Always thought having one right at the bow doors was daft.

Happy days 😎👍

Thanks all. Looks and works great. A good recommendation. BSS finally passed too.