starman

Only 10v which I’m very surprised at.

Ive just got rid of a troublesome Seaflo water pump and fitted a new Sureflo as it has like for like connectors. Worked fine for a few days. Then we left the boat for a week, came back today, turned water back on, opened taps and the pump runs but won’t turn off! The water runs fine from all taps and I can’t find any trace of leaking anywhere. It’s been cold here but not cold enough to blow pipes. Baffles me. It’s a surecal calorifier with accumulator, expansion vessel, prv and non return valve. Any suggestions very gratefully received. This water system is jinxed!

Sorted and closed up using heat shrink - but you really shouldn’t have to bodge up mains connections - especially on an £800 bit of kit!

I stopped, had a cup of tea and thought ‘ heat shrink’ - and if our Tony suggests it too then it must be ok. There have been too many niggling problems with this job so that one really irritated. Grrh. Exactly!

I’ve got a bag of crimped ferrules; if I crimp them on the end of the inners I can’t manipulate them into the terminals with the tiny length of inner I can use before reaching the outer’s clamp. I don’t see why crimps would make it easier anyway - it’s the thickness of the cable in relation to the plug that’s the issue - I can’t pull the two Halves together

What am I doing wrong? My Multiplus 1600 comes with tiny AC input and output plugs. After much fiddling I’ve got the wires into the terminals but the cable is way too fat to close up the plug. Any suggestions??

Next question - how is that ‘close to’ any possible AC bonding point? Must be 12ins minimum on mine.

Now my old grey matter is seriously struggling. I already have a 50mm2 +ve to the starter solenoid, a 50mm2 -ve to the starter and a 50mm2 -ve from the start battery to the house side of the shunt. All correct so far? You’re saying add a further 50mm2 cable from the house side to my hull bonding point (which will need to be close to my AC hull bond). I know one thing for sure - I wish I’d bought a Smartbank system like I had in the last boat. None of this complicated shunt stuff, just a relay a couple of wires and a box of tricks.

I’m plodding through my new electrical installation and have arrived at earth bonding: plenty has been written here about the AC side and I think I follow all that it’s the DC side that’s puzzling me. Im fitting a Victron shunt and following the instruction that all negatives return to the shunt and then a single connection to the battery. That includes the hull earth grounding lead (and also in Victron’s guide, the Multiplus case earth) The question: what size cable for my 12v ground? Or how do I work it out? Im also a bit bit bemused because it’s a trad engine solidly mounted to steel and therefore already earthed via the starter negative.

I think that's only in the engine space (mine's under the back cabin floor. But I've got four years before I find out 😏

IT'S RUNNING!! Swapped out the modern alloy filter for the little plastic job - a couple of tries later and it burst into life. A little bit of smoke from the joint into the silencer which I'll sort after it's had a run but otherwise ok 🤞. Thanks for all the advice.

Are the little plastic Webasto filters allowed under BSS? I replaced mine with an alloy bodied fuel filter and I don’t think the pump has the guts to pull through it. I still have the old one.

It’s fuel - I’ve cracked the pipe and it’s not getting through. The pump speeds up and the first bubble or two starts to appear then the system cuts out. Is there a way to run the pump without the heater etc to draw fuel through?

Fuel pump ticking, heater and circ pump running but exhaust cold (though no sign of smoke this time either).

If I can persuade it to fire again I'll stick my hand there...apologies for not answering question properly teacher; I thought exhaust smoke was sufficient evidence..

It's lighting (smoky exhaust evidence) then shuts after 10-20 secs.

The flue pipe from stove to roof gets very, very hot. For personal protection buy one of the Refleks guards that encircles it. They look good too.

Now I've discovered another re-set sequence – take out fuse 3secs - put in 'start' - take out 3 secs - in again. That got everything working but still stops after a period. Now to check fuel (with the inevitable leaks afterwards as per usual diesel work). PS I am missing Fuse 3 in the unit fuse box - never was there and the system worked okay. What's it for?

Tried it this morning (checking jetty wasn’t covering exhaust) and it went through the sequence and clearly fired - slightly blue exhaust. Then it stopped!’ Now all I’m getting is the hum of the pump. No circulation problem - two pipe header as Webasto recommend - and watching water bubbling through it. All rads bled.

I press the 'fire' button, the fan starts whirring, the pump starts ticking then the whirring gets louder and faster and the ticking gets faster and faster until even the dog prepares to abandon ship! And I don my tin hat. Then it stops. It's a Thermotop C; I've moved to a new location in the boat. It worked before though it has been stood around a while before attempted re-firing. The manual is suitably vague about it cycling through the start process: do I have to keep manually starting it and how do I know it it's locked out? TBH it doesn't ever make the sort of firing up sound I hear in a central heating boiler.

I've decided to install a Victron Easyplus Combi because, as the name says, it's easy to fit and that suits me. Inverter, charger and breaker panel all in one unit. Connect a few cables and off I go. So the question is: as there is an RCD in the Easyplus do I need to fit another immediately after the shoreline connection? As far as I can see it'll only be protecting about a metre of cable which is already protected by the shoreline breaker. 12v question: on my last boat I fitted a Smartgauge/Smartbank combo - I know it has its limitations in battery monitoring but it worked for us as we cruise a lot and tend to keep the batteries well topped up. Should I stick with it or go for a Victron BMV monitor and different VSR?

Our steel-under-canvas boat lacks the canvas bit at the moment. It’s obviously a bit more specialised than the regular cratch cover - does anyone have any recommendations for someone who does this sort of work?

I have done a semi-permanent fix by discovering a somewhat elderly Sureflo 3901-0213 pump buried in my ‘may be useful’ box. It’s certainly cured the lengthy pump running but now the system is rather slow running instead! Now the Seaflo is out I’ve also seen it seems to have a pressure adjuster. I’ll have to have a play.

Sorry - brain failure; the name should have been a clue!