johnlowe

Unfortunately we will be selling our boat soon. We really want to sell it through a broker, can't be bothered advertising it myself, so we need everyones advice on here who has used a broker before. We live in Cheshire so your advice will be welcome on brokers from round the area, or at least the Northwest. Thanks

Yes you are probably right, I will rip al the old tiles off and start again, was just trying to save time, however in the long run starting from fresh will be the way to go. Anyway thanks everyone for your feedback.

To be honest Daniel I was going to stick directly over the remaining sound tiles, because there is enough depth remaining on the sides to allow an extra layer on top. As far as the bottom, well I shall just take them off and fit a new piece of wood and fix onto that.

I was thinking of using something like silicon sealer or maybea no nails, gripfast type adhesive, but wasn't sure what effect the heat may have on it.

I am going to be re-tiling around our solid fuel stove this week. The problem is the original tiles have now fallen off, presumably with the heat, now bear in mind they have only been on 2 years, put on by the boatbuilder when the boat was built. So what I wanted to know, is there any alternatives to tiling adhesive, I don't want to spend time tiling it, to have to re do it again in another 2 years time. What do you guys use to stick your tiles on behind a fire? Thanks

I totally agree with Gary, they tell you anything to get your business at the shows, BUT then when the toilet system is installed and starting to go wrong within weeks of installation *****************suddenly turn round and say they cannot help you any further, no warranty what so ever. There chief salesman *************** has more faces than big ben. *****************total SH..T!!!!........ John "Please do not name companies.."

Just an idea, but have you considered wood chip wall paper, that should give you the non slip element, then you could always wack it over with emulsion after!!!!!!

The instructions say that any type of toilet tissue can be used, apart from thick quilted tissue such as ' Charmin ', after all the vacuum process disintergrates everything into liquid, you never see any paper or lumps of anything ( sorry to be so crude ) when you empty the cassette out its all liquid. As far as the O rings I've never heard such rubbish, the O rings are on the outside and never come into contact with any excrement inside the cassette or pipework of the base unit. The O rings break because of the action of the cassette being pushed onto the base unit filler pipe. As I explained in the earlier post we liveaboard, when we bought the unit we were told by Lee Sanitation that the system was perfect for us, when we started having problems and they had visited us about a dozen times they admitted that the system is really only suitable for occasional use, ie the family who holiday 4 or 5 times a year. Apparently we were the first liveaboards who used this system in this country, so were the guinea pigs. The system was originally developed for the caravan industry which really backs up the occasional use theory. On a lighter note I thought it was only the Greeks who wiped there bottoms and placed the offending tissue in the bin, maybe some package holiday makers liked this type of recycling and are trying to introduce it over here, can't see it catching on though can you? John

Sorry if I have put you off but that is the reality of the equipment, better to find out off someone like me who has had there fingers burnt, than to put your own hand into the fire. Best of luck anyway John

I have one of these fitted, I will try to give you a taster of what the vacuum cassette is like in the real world ( not the world that the company who market them live in). Good points Can be sited upto 20 feet away from toilet bowl, ours is in the bottom section of the wardrobe No smells coming back through bowl, like you get with a Thetford Automatically shuts down when cassette is full Bad points It has several ' O ' rings of various sizes, these break on a regular basis, and some are tricky to replace especially the 2 fitted on the non return valve on the actual cassette. The system blocks up often, it likes the tissue paper to have had a good soak in the water first, tricky as there is not a lot of water in the bowl to start with. Kids forget this, I can assure you The filter on the base unit needs changing every 3 months, these cost around £40 from Lee Sanitation, Dometic say it should last 3 years, WHO ARE THEY KIDDING We live on board with 2 small children and the cassette fills up every 24 hours, you will need a spare cassette cost £90 We were advised by Lee Sanitation it would be ideal for liveaboards at the London Boat show 2004, so we bought one for our new boat, they now say it is no good for liveaboards it is only really any good for ocassional use because the ' O ' rings could break if used frequently, ( I now know this after replacing what must be the 50th or so ' O ' ring this weekend ) Thats just some of the good and bad points, let me just say I love the system when its working ok, its excellent, but when it goes wrong which it does quite a lot, then I could launch it into the marina. Hope this helps. John

Double glazing or not, you will still get condesation on the frames. We have double glazed windows, and to be honest they don't really benefit the extra expense.

What is Vactan?

For health and safety reasons a food grade hosepipe must only be used for drinking water, garden hose pipe can leach chemicals into the water, thus tainting the taste. Food grade pipe is always coloured blue, you can get it from most caravan shops and chandlers. After all if a plumber fitted cheap pipe into your house with a risk of leaching chemicals into your water supply then I'm sure you wouldn't be happy chappies. John

well in my opinion they work very well indeed, in fact I am pleased we bought one last year, I was sceptical like some of you at first. We live on a 70' boat and the fan blows the heat over three quarters of the boars length, leaving the bedroom at the stern just nicely aired ready for bedtime. Night, Night John

thanks, I didn't think there was much to it as the guy who did mine last year was soon done and gone. Will be better if I can do my own, plus save a few quid in the process. john

Does anyone out there know the procedure to service a central heating boiler such as a Ebersbacher or Mikuni, I would like to do my own. Thanks

We are liveaboards and also have a family, our washer is on every day at leasst once

Canal Cruising company at Stone on the Trent And Mersey have 3 Dry docks, they are very friendly, helpful. They will allow you to stop onboard, not all dry docks will allow this. You can DIY or they will do it for you. Oh and the best thing is you cross the road and you are in the town centre, just 1 minutes walk, inclusing a supermarket.

The proper sound insulation is only £21 per section, approx 1m x 0.5m, so for around the same £100 you could sound and heat insulate the engine bay with the correct material, and this is fire proof ! John

Ok, these answers are really helpful, but just one last question. What size pipe should be used for the back boiler. The Mikuni runs into 15mm pipe, can this be used or does a back boiler use a different size. Thanks John

Rog The only pump I have on the system is the integral one fitted to the Mikuni boiler, which in turn is directly wired to the dc distribution board. Thanks John

Thank you all for replying to the subject, but unfortunately none of you have answered the original question, which was, can a back boiler on a solid fuel stove be plumbed into the central heating boiler system, if the answer is no then does anybody else have a back boiler and a central heating boiler, and how do they run both systems side by side, ie. do you have 2 sets of radiators. Thanks

I have a solid fuel stove which I would like to fit a back boiler to. I would like to plumb this into the central heating circuit which is run by a Mikuni Mx40 boiler, obviously the Mikuni will be off when the back boiler is being used, does anyone know whether this can be done, ie. will the back boiler cause any ill effects to the Mikuni with them being on the same circuit. I can't see how else I could fit a back boiler without having a second set of radiators. Thanks

My boat is moored in a marina, so I have got the luxury of a broadband connection from a landline, but this also means no internet connection whilst out cruising.

I am blacking my boat next month, and was wondering whether bitumen paint from B&Q Warehouse will do the same job as the more expensive Intertuf 16 that is usually used, does anyone have any experience of this? Thanks