geehils

Thanks, I'll do that It wasn't the whole unit, just the heat exchange. I'm pretty sure there's an 'hours run' caveat on all of this too. It's a bit like insurance, paying up front to hopefully avoid something that may or may not happen later! I get my gas boiler at home serviced annually too and I'm pretty sure that's just checking, no bits ever seem to get replaced, nevertheless I'm reassured that it's not going to catch fire or vent Carbon Monoxide! As you say, personal choice and how risk averse we feel about things.

Eberspacher Servicing.pdf

Thanks this is what I'll do if I can't find a personal recommendation. As it happens Simon Pollard looks after the engine/gearbox/electrics of my boat and I would recommend him wholeheartedly, provides a first class service, but sadly can't help with this problem. Interesting, wasn't aware of this, thank you. The Eberspacher unit cycles on and off, once the boat has hot water at the taps, so I'm sure that it's something like this, as adjusting the thermostat (which has been replaced) makes no difference at all, other than cut the unit out when thermostat temp = cabin temp.

I'm looking at two separate things. 1. The Eberspacher requires a service as it was last serviced two years ago (and I appreciate some would say let it break, then fix it). 2. The radiators and pipes not getting anywhere like as hot as they did the last time the system was run a month ago. Checked the basics and no change. If I don't need a 'Boat heating engineer' to assess/fix this, then what would be the correct title of the person to search for? They don't have to be the same person, just working on the assumption that it would be more cost effective to do the two together. Unfortunately drawn a blank thus far as sadly the previous engineer who did work at the Marina has passed away.

I appreciate the suggestions, but it's a boat heating engineer I need, preferably one who can service Eberspachers

Hello. My Eberspacher runs fine (but needs a service), but the central heating radiators it drives are not heating up properly, especially the bathroom one which used to get to hot to touch and is now less than luke warm. Can anyone recommend an engineer to service the unit/sort this problem out. The boat in question, if it helps, is a 2001 Colecraft. Thanks in advance, any help appreciated

Just in case anyone else is in the same boat! Spoke with Avtex. They are in the process of getting a code from Amazon, but don't have a timeframe for when they will receive this. Until it is provided, the amazon remote won't work their TV's

I'll give 0000/9999 a try when I'm next at the boat! Thanks all.

I think you are correct, the initial one I sent was three week's ago, with a follow up last week!

Hi I suppose I could, but I just want to fine-tune what I already have in place. It all works very well now, except that I'd prefer to use one, rather than two remotes. Thus far I've yet to have a reply from Avtex so I thought I'd post here to see if anyone else had experienced this and found a work around

I inherited an Avtex combo TV, It’s an L187 DRS V2 18.5 inch digital LED TV and it works very well. I've got a wifi and unlimited data card, so I'd rather stream from my Amazon Fire TV, than use terrestrial or satellite. That works very well too - but there is one snag! When I use it with my Amazon Fire TV, latest generation, I can’t get the Amazon remote to work either the TV volume or on/off. Looking at the list of TV’s on the Amazon set-up, the Avtex brand is not mentioned and I could not get Amazon's manual set-up process to work. Does anyone know if the Avtex remote is another brand in disguise or a way around this? Thanks for reading, any help appreciated

I like the idea of the Kelpies. Sorry, should have said Booked ourselves. Mrs W's coming along and her eyes light up when 'Locks' are mentioned (so long as she doesn't have to steer into them!). Haggis, thanks for your good wishes too.

Booked myself a little treat, as I've always wanted to take a boat on the Falkirk wheel. The question I have is, "Do I go to Glasgow or Edinburgh"? I don't have time to do both, so forumites thoughts and ideas gratefully received. My thanks in advance.

My thanks to all, for your helpful comments and suggestions - makes more sense to me now!

Having owned two previous boats, I'm now in the market to buy a third. I've identified three boats on GHBS's books that I would like to see; they are all within 20 miles of each other, but also nearly 120 miles from where I live. Despite highlighting this with the agent I spoke to, they refused point blank to arrange for three viewings on the same day - I had to choose my favourite boat and then if that didn't suit, come back on a different day to see the second and then a further different day to see the third. Apparently this is company policy. The sales particulars are very average too, with no layouts or much detail in the description, but on the basis of this I was happy to accept the time and fuel to view three boats on one day, but not one. So, the outcome was my declining to see any of them (which is a shame as they all looked lovely boats). I wonder if the owners of boats on brokerage with GHBS are aware of this policy?

Depends how the image is used; as a web page probably not, but enlarged to A4 plus and yes you could. In its day the GF1 was a great top end compact and will outperform many of today's cameras. However, compare the spec 'side by side' with the current GF7/8 and you can see the difference and how things have moved on, which was the point I was making. Whether these spec. changes or additional functionality make any practical difference to the owner really depends on how they intend using the camera

In the sense that it's a very fast changing market and over a very short space of time there have been massive improvements in the sensor capturing the image and firmware operating the camera.

It really depends how 'Automatic' you want things to be. For your budget you will get an aged DSLR, which will still take great photo's but, for a boat, will be rather bulky and have lots of lenses. If you want point and shoot, then the latest phones have brilliant cameras in them. If you want a compact complex camera, with great flexibility on movies, then the Canon GX7 series II is fantastic. It will also shoot in RAW should you wish to edit. When cruising I just kept a Sony Digital Camera hanging by it's strap, took reasonable photo's and if I wanted to take a video, just got my iPhone out. At the end of the day, digital cameras get out of date very quickly, so I would avoid getting any compact more that 2/3 years old. Why not go to a second hand camera shop and have a play with the stock they have; at the end of the day the choice is so personal

Thanks Athy, pénichettes look like fun!

I'm looking for two weeks holiday on the French Canals, this June. Probably flying Ryanair/Easyjet to get there, but I might be tempted to drive if it's mid France. I don't want to get into a precession of boats, preferring rural quiet and beautiful. Suggestions as to where and who to hire from would be much appreciated. I don't know if it helps, but UK waterways I like, very much, are Leicester arm of the GU, Ashton, Shroppie, South Oxford, Thames, and (out of season) Llangollen. Thanks in anticipation of all your thoughts - appreciated.

I'm looking at this return trip for April/May and was wondering the pro's and con's of going through Birmingham and up the Shropshire Union, compared with going up the Trent and Mersey, as I have never been on either of these canals. Canal plan calculates they take about the same time, but the shorter route has more locks. I'd appreciate others thoughts and experiences and details of places they found interesting to stop at along the way. Thanks all.

I would plug London VTS's tel number and any other services you may wish to contact into your mobile, just in case the handheld can't get through. It's helpful having someone with you on the back to help watch out for other traffic (the clippers are very quick) and to confirm which bridge span to go through. Turn into any wash. ENJOY. It is the most brilliant trip, I'm still grinning about it two years later!

Had a Pure DAB radio which I used at home, with a Roberts FM on the boat. Could never get the FM working inside the boat, so swapped it over with the Pure and got one of these Haven't looked back. Works perfectly, inside the boat, 95% of the time

I have had boats with Eberspacher and Mikuni diesel heaters. Both work well when running, both can be expensive to fix when they go wrong. They also produce a kind of shushing whistleing sound which can be annoying. I've hired a boat with an Alde gas heater and that worked fine too and was quiet. The Morso stove I have is great and heats the saloon really well and provides great entertainment, but the heat doesn't travel through the boat very well. My experience with a back boiler was dire. Didn't heat the radiators at all and pressurised the system so that I was regularly getting blow backs from the reservoir which resulted in a lovely greasy antifreeze mix being blasted all over the engine room on a regular basis - had it taken out and not looked back

My boat's based at Yelvertoft (Leicester arm of the Grand Union) and the hull requires blacking this year. I would be interested to hear any recommendations as to where to take her and also folk's experiences of the different types of product that can be used. Thanks for your help.