JoshS
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Posts posted by JoshS
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Looking at the installation instructions, it doesn't say whether the quick connect connectors are attached to the pump / accumulator by threaded connections or what size those threads are. So even if I did want to use a flexible hose (for example with a 3/4" BSP thread) I would presumably have to use a short section of their proprietary pipe and a Quick Connect to BSP adapter?
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Hi! I'm getting a new water pump from Whale, which apparently uses 15mm "Whale Quick Connect" fittings. Has anyone got a pump that uses this to tell me if I'm going to be able to connect standard 15mm barrier pipe (with inserts!) that works with all the other push fit connection systems (JG Speedfit etc) or am I going to have to buy some Whale pipe and faff about with BSP connectors to connect it to my system?
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On 14/12/2022 at 12:15, Jen-in-Wellies said:
Are you sure? More usual sizes are 32mm (1.25") and 38mm (1.5"), though 35mm does exist.
Turns out that although the OD of the fittings are 35mm, it's still a good idea to use 32mm ID hoses for a snug fit! 😁
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Well, it's taken a while, but I've finally got it all working! Blown away by how well it works tbh, can get the bedroom radiator up to 60°C in about half an hour, or with the saloon radiators on as well, up to 48°C in around an hour.
Was definitely a struggle to get it all leak-free, I've learnt a lot about how to use PTFE tape and Fernox effectively, and am now competent at draining, refilling and bleeding my skin tank after having done it three times over the last couple of weeks 😂
Everything could definitely be neater but overall I'm still quite proud of the result. I gave up on the non-return valve in the end as I couldn't get it leak-free without screwing in the push fit connectors so far that they got in the way of the flap. Used a lever ball valve instead which in retrospect will also be useful in the summer to quickly shut off all the radiators and use the eberspacher purely to heat the calorifier.
I've got the big red gate valve completely closed at the moment and have been monitoring the engine temperature with the infra red thermometer, which seems to be normal (around 80°C at the hottest point around the exhaust manifold). Will have to see what happens when we go for a cruise, as we've not tested it with the engine in gear yet. I'd really like a proper temperature gauge though, our engine only has a warning light. Has anyone got any suggestions for what, and where we could install one?
Anyway, some pics below, feel free to point out everything I've done badly! 😂
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Ended up managing to get the boat around just below Fosse Top Lock so didn't have to go much further than the water point after all! ☺️
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41 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:
Cheers, its 22mm x 3/4 BSP but looks like Screwfix have them too. Seems like a better idea than the brass ones!
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On 15/01/2023 at 19:50, Tony Brooks said:
Just make sure you mount it so the arrow on the casting points the right way and get it horizontal and the right way up, big hexagon at the top.
Another question sorry. The brass compression fittings have come with copper rings which I believe are called olives. Since I'm using plastic barrier pipe (with inserts of course!), should I still use the olives too? They seem to fit over the plastic pipe ok.
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Cheers all! Welsh Road lock is just about in dog walking range from our current location so I'm going to go eyeball that, but it looks like we have a few places we can try out. If the worst comes to the worst it'll be good reversing practise! 😂
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2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
Just make sure you mount it so the arrow on the casting points the right way and get it horizontal and the right way up, big hexagon at the top.
Good knowledge, cheers!
Think I'll be ready to put this all together next weekend, so I'll post back with how it turns out! When I looked into the price of a heat exchanger I thought it was going to be a cheap project, but now here I am having spent 4x that with a bag of parts I can barely lift! Still, it's worth doing these things properly, just hoping I get even a little bit of heat to the radiators from it now! 😂
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DN20 Female Thread Brass Non-Return Swing Check Valve 232PSI Prevent Water Backflow 1Pc https://amzn.eu/d/cn2nxzo
...and this...
UKDD® 22mm Compression by 3/4" BSP Brass Male Iron Coupler (Pair), 22mm x 3/4" Straight Adaptors https://amzn.eu/d/fNeGTZo
...might do the job?
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2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
If you are worried about low pressure I would use a flap valve like this https://www.bes.co.uk/water-swing-check-valve-brass-3-8-bsp-7518/
It will needs adapters to fit it to pipe work. If anyone has successfully used a sprung valve then that the one in your link should be OK.
2 minutes ago, jonesthenuke said:I would not use that valve it's a spring loaded one with plastic
Internals(probably) look for a swing check valve, with a flap. I doubt you will find one with compression connections, they are usually screwed ends. Try BES ltd
Cheers both! Will look for a swing check valve and some bits to connect it to 22mm push fit then 😬
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On 14/12/2022 at 22:31, nicknorman said:
You just have to be a bit careful - bog standard plumbing non-return valves have a very high opening pressure such that a circulation pump won’t open it. Hence the specialised low opening pressure ones I got. Or maybe look into flap valves (sometimes called swing check valves) which also have low opening pressure. Flap/swing valves have to be mounted in the correct orientation I think.
Still collecting parts for this project! Just wanted to check (valve hur hur) that this was the right sort of valve I needed to be low pressure enough to not offend the eberspacher, whilst still preventing the extra central heating pump pushing the hot water back that way?
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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:
How about Kate boats or even Saltersford Arm
Saltisford arm is past the stoppage at Cape locks, and Kate boats have moved their office so the wharf isn't operational put of season anymore unfortunately!
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Cheers all, had the opportunity to walk between Bridge 25 and the bottom of Bascote staircase today and they both look like they are worth having a go at so I'll have two options if I do decide to head up that way. I also, noticed that they don't seem to have started working on Bridge 24 yet so depending on when that actually starts I might be able to wind at the arm anyway!
My reasons for asking all this is because we're currently on the winter moorings at Radford Semele but have just found out that Delta Marine aren't currently offering pump outs like we thought they were (I know, we should have checked this before willingly getting trapped!). So if our tank fills up before the stoppages end and we have to switch to the emergency cassette, we're hoping to be able to be able to cruise up to the Fosse elsan point to make emptying them easier!
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2 hours ago, alias said:
Next winding point from the Warwick direction is below the Bascote staircase.
Interestingly, that isn't marked on any map either! Just an unofficial point that's wide enough?
Thanks for the infos about the Cuttle winding point though, doesn't sound like it's worth risking winding there!
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Hi and apologies if this is the wrong forum for this.
I was wondering if it was possible to wind a 57' narrowboat at Bridge 25 on the Grand Union (by the Cuttle Inn and Two Boats Inn). Its marked as a winding hole without length restriction on the Waterway Routes map but doesn't seem to be marked on any other map or guide. Looking at it on Google satellite view it doesn't appear to be very wide there, but it can sometimes be deceiving.
There is currently a stoppage at Bridge 24 preventing me from winding at the arm past Stockton Bottom Lock.
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17 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:
Maybe its handy for refilling to get the calorifier loop air free.
Edit I see its already been done.
On my engine I fill the coolant system full, start the engine and as it warms up open an air blead at the highest point, the coolant expanding pushes the air our.I then just close the blead point.
That sounds like a nice idea, I might look into that!
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2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
Not if the header tank on the engine was fitted with a pressure cap. My guess is that the plastic tank was either a device to aid bleeding the calorifier engine circuit or a misunderstanding by whoever fitted it in the first place.
It does have a pressure cap. So if I was to remove the tank from the calorifier circuit when I replace the hoses, the calorifier coil will get filled by the water pump on the engine when it runs? Or will I have to somehow prime that circuit when I'm putting the hoses back on?
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1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:
I would ditch the tank completely, the engine obviously works without it if it has been closed off for so long. I fail to see any purpose in it.
It seems strange to me that the calorifier coil ever worked though, since it is higher up than the engine. Surely all the coolant in the coil would just drain out into the header tank on the engine itself?
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Thanks for all the comments with useful tips and advice so far! The heat exchanger has been delivered to my parents and I'm going to pick it up this week, and am starting to accumulate the fittings required as well.
Since I'm replacing the hoses between the engine and skin tank, I thought I would also replace the ones that go to calorifier as well. These say 15.8mm on them and one side has a rather dodgy looking homemade copper tee which connects THIS header tank, which I've recent been told is a central heating header and therefore not appropriate!
I was told by the previous owner that this header was just for the calorifier engine coil and that he'd never needed to top it up. We recently had the calorifier replaced and the engineer pointed out that there was a closed ball valve under the tank (explaining why the levels never changed). Since opening this the tank has effectively become the engine header tank too - I can no longer open the one on the engine with the pressure cap without all the coolant coming out of the tank!
This is fine, but I guess the appropriate solution is to replace the crappy grey box tank with something which is suitable for use as an engine header. I'm struggling to find something appropriate though, so does anyone have any recommendations?
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3 minutes ago, nicknorman said:
I put the HE in series with the skin tank (before it, obviously). I also installed a HE bypass with a gate valve with the same diameter as the skin tank pipe, so if the valve is closed, all the coolant has to route through the HE. If the valve is open, the coolant can bypass the HE and there is no restriction.
However in practice I have never had to open the HE bypass and that included Keadby to Torksey (Tidal Trent) at 2200rpm all the way (Beta 43) because the temperature gauge didn’t budge at all from its normal indication of around 75C. And that was with a rather undersized HE. With a larger HE there would be less restriction. So in reality I don’t think it’s an issue.
I was about to say having a bypass valve might be a better option than having it in parallel with the skin tank, good to hear someone else has implemented that option!
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20 minutes ago, nicknorman said:
I did this. I would go for the 45kw version. When I did it I went for the 25kw version but it isn’t really enough, rads could do with being hotter. Bigger kw rating =hotter radiators.
It was a slight faff getting adaptors for the pipe fittings but not that difficult. Sorry, it was several years ago and I can’t remember the detail.
As to the plumbing I put them in parallel with low opening pressure non-return valves from Solarproject, such that there was no back-circulation through the diesel heater when the exchanger was in use, and vice versa. No need for manual valves, it was “automatic” in that you just turned on the thing you wanted (diesel heater, or heat exchanger pump) and it worked without any faffing. So I also needed to pump the coolant when the exchanger was in use. I used a pump from solarproject too. https://solarproject.co.uk/phoenix15/index.php?cPath=5 Hmmm, can’t immediately see that they still sell the low opening pressure non-return valve but you could ask them.
If you put them in series, you will be heating up the “other one” which will waste heat.
Mon return valves seem like a great idea cheers! Will definitely look into that.
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2 minutes ago, jonesthenuke said:
I suggest you need to place the HE in parallel with the skin tank rather in series with it as the small ports out otherwise restrict the flow to the skin tank. Probably not a good thing to find out next time you are cruising a river against the flow.
I have used these for domestic solar water heating projects and they are very good. Add valves to make it easy to isolate and drain etc. Filters (strainers) are a good idea. The comparatively high rating in relation to the radiator load means that some fouling will have limited effect on overall performance. Take care for find pipe fittings where you can have rubber seals acting on the flat ends of the pipe connections as its harder to get a good seal on the threads as they are parallel.
Hmm yeah I did wonder if it would be a bad idea to restrict the flow, putting the heat exchanger in parallel is a good idea though and also covers me in case it gets blocked!
The pipe fittings are definitely my biggest concern right now, I think I'm going to get the heat exchanger now so I can spend a decent amount of time hunting down the best connectors before I actually put this project together!
Whale Quick Connect
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Cheers! That doesn't seem to be mentioned on the Whale website 😭