Roger Gunkel

I would suggest that you are suspected pf being a spammer, as a quick look at your profile shows that all your posts on this forum so far are in response to heating enquiries and all promote the same company. There is also no other information in your profile to suggest that you are a boater rather than representing that company. Apolpgies if incorrect, but it certainly appears somewhat suspicious from a new member. Roger

I would seriously consider replacing the Eberspacher with a solid fuel stove if you are intending to live aboard,. The reliability and cost of keeping the Eber going is going to be very high and replacing it with SF would be a cheaper option. For those with any doubts about diesel or solid fuel for long term heating, just look at the current threads with calls for help on diesel heating systems and the number of new threads on the same subject over the next few months. Roger

That looks like the same deal as mine at a lower price, so on the face of it looks unbeatable. Roger

Just to clear up a couple of things, I have an O2 contract on an LGP920 smartphone. My data package allows tethering, and the phone can be set up as a wifi hotspot. However, the internet signal and speed are very poor in my area although the phone signal is good. O2 also have limited monthly data allowances, I believe 2gb is the max they offer. As I work from the boat and need a good internet connection, neither the O2 speed or data allowance are enough for my needs. As my previous private broadband supplier allowed unlimited data and a reasonably fast connection, I needed to replace that after our move. Because I previously had unlimited data, I have no idea of my monthly useage, but I regularly upload and dowload pictures and files that can be fairly large. I also maintain a couple of websites, so didn't want to risk a fixed data limit. 3 offer the One Plan, which is their only 'All you can eat' plan with tethering. The package included a Samsung Galaxy Ace phone, which is wifi hotspot enabled and includes 2000 minutes 5000 texts . The wifi hotspot facility enables the phone to be used as a router, and I have my ipad, 2 laptops and my wife's netbook all able to wirelessly connect, all at the same time if neccessary. The phone can also be used for texting and calls while being accessed by the other devices, so no need to come off line if the phone rings. I can get the wifi signal from the phone anywhere on the boat, which is a 57ft x 10ft widebeam. The phone is kept on a car windscreen cradle on one of the boat windows. Finally, the phone contract costs me £26 per month. Roger

Just downloaded the free 'Jasmine' app for the iPad, which replaces the missing YouTube and seems to work equally as well. I've mentioned it before and make no excuse for giving another mention for 'NAVFREE' which is an excellent and very accurate satnat programme if you have built in GPS. I also added the additional UK 6 digit postcodes for £1.99. Maps are all saved on your device and you need no internet connection to find addresses or set up routes. Roger

I'm near Littleport in the Fens and having moved to a new residential mooring have tried a number of options. Vodaphone was incredibly slow so I cancelled the contract, I have an O2 contract which is also painfully slow for internet although the phone signal is fine. I settled for a new contract with 3 for my main internet use and that has been totally reliable in the 3 weeks we have had it with very fast connection speeds, ranging from 2-7mbs. The new phone may be allowing faster speeds and is a Samsung Galaxy Ace with WiFi hotspot function. While I am typing this, my wife is 30ft away at the end of the boat browsing on her laptop via the Samsung WiFi Roger

I don't often view Youtube on the iPad, but after reading your post I thought I would have a look, only to find the icon seems to have disappeared Roger

Well said that man mind you, if I had spent £100 on an ecofan, I'd probably tell everybody I had spent my money wisely Roger

Running out of coal/ wood..... With two types of fuel, you would have to be pretty dumb to run out of everything burnable, so really a non argument against, particularly as the same argument can be applied to diesel or gas. Breaking stove glass.........not a failure, just a nuisance as you will simply have more air being drawn in, so will have to do a temporary repair as others have suggested. A crack in the glass in far less of a problem, a friend of mine has been using his stove with a crack in the glass for the last 3 years. Being too old and infirm to fetch coal/wood........Come on , get your coal in smaller bags, carry smaller logs. If you have reached that stage, then how are you going to get on and off your boat, moor up to fill up with diesel, carry gas cylinders , empty the toilet or get out of bed. Losing your chimney........ Secure it properly, perhaps add a thin safety wire incase you knock it off on a bridge. Even a total loss can be overcome with a bit of imagination to knock up a temporary chimney with a bit of drain pipe or pop rivetting one up with a bit of thin Ally sheet. Try getting a quick repair done on a failed Eberspacher or Webasto over a freezing Winter weekend, or in my case on Christmas eve. It took 3 weeks!! None of the above render a SF stove totally unuseable, which is why they are the only sensible solution to full time liveaboard heating in my opinion. Just a metal box to burn things in, can't get simpler and more foolproof than that, apart from a bonfire. Edited for spulling mistooks Roger

I upgraded my iPad2 to IOS6 yesterday and haven't noticed anything different except the maps. For the first time last night, I tried the supplied maps app to give me spoken turn by turn directions to an address I was visiting. It worked fine until I tried to input the address back to the boat, whereupon it asked for an internet connection to find the route, no change there then! Navfree is a vastly superior connection free navigator that I will continue to use. Sorry, edited to say that I haven't used it with the chatroom so can't help there. Roger

It's always interesting to read these threads about heating and see the comments about having two types of heating as a backup for when one goes wrong or breaks down. Having originally had diesel heating that was constantly going wrong which was later replaced with a solid fuel stove, i have yet to find what it is that can suddenly go wrong with a solid fuel stove to leave you with no heating I have replaced the grid on my stove a couple of times in the last 5 years, and reseal the flue every year, but these are maintenance jobs, not sudden failures. Since fitting the SF stove, my heating costs have dropped substantially, maintenance is minimal and I haven't ever felt the need for a backup system. Even on cool Summer nights, it takes only a few moments to chuck in a bit of kindling and a couple of logs to quickly take the chill off. Spending a couple of grand on a diesel backup seems pointless. I can certainly understand though spending £2-3000 on a full diesel central heating system then needing an extra few hundred on solid fuel for when the diesel packs up Roger

That might be ok on a calm day on a sailing boat Bizz, but I'd be worried about anchoring off Southend in a narrowboat if there is any sort of wind blowing. There ain't many places to make for at 5mph Roger

Did you make this journey on a narrow boat and if so where did you moor when you reached Southend?. It doesn't sound like the sort of trip that a narrowbpat would make as the estuary waters can be treacherous and there seems to be nowhere to safely leave your boat or any way of getting off. Roger

Just a quick speed update for those who aren't already bored to death! Carried out a speed test at 11.30 last night and again at 9.30 this morning. Last night was Download. 5.65mbs,Upload 2.43 mbs, which impressed me as it was higher than I ever got on my pre moving High Speed connection. I was even more impressed this morning though with 7.82mbs Download and 3.57mbs upload. I would never have expected those kind of speeds with mobile broadband on a boat in my wildest dreams. It's even more unexpected in view of the fact that the Cambridge 3 shop virtually refused to sell me a contract based on my new location and their map telling them that the signal would be poor outdoors and non existent indoors. They suggested that I try Vodaphone, which I did, which worked but very slowly leading me to camcel straight away. The Newmarket 3 shop were also extremely doubtful that I would get any sort of signal, but I went ahead anyway. As I have a 10ft riverbank and a line of 60ft trees between me and the nearest mast, which is some miles away, I am highly delighted Roger

You're right there I've lost count of the hours I've spent researching and sifting through all the misinformation hoping to find a solution that is workable for business and personal use. In my case the end result has been worth the pain for my particular requiremnts, with the extra benefit of being able to ditch the reliance on BT. Roger

Looks like a very useful device at a better price than the Maplin one and looks smaller. My only concern would be the limit on the data plan of the dongle. my wife thought that was brilliant I'm doing the coal for this year and have collected all but one payment, but you still have time to join in if required. I'll pm you after posting this. Whether I carry on next year is dependant pn having a convenient drop point, although with members from Cambridge, Isleham, Popes Corner, Ely and Upware, it would be a shame to let it go. Roger

I think you are absolutely correct John. I spent an entire day trawling the phone shops and my experience is that most of the sales people have little grasp on tethering and wifi hotspots etc. I made 2 visits to the 3 shop and received different information on both visits, but it was made quite clear that the One Plan was the only one that would allow unlimited connection and tethering with no capping. Tethering refers to both USB connection and wireless connection to other appliances. The fact that your phone has wifi hotspot and tethering capability, does not mean that your plan allows it and you will have to pay for the bolt on. My other Android phone was hotspot capable, but the o2 data plan that I had wouldn't allow tethering. On the Samsung Galaxy Galaxy Ace, you can make and receive calls and texts, without disrupting the wireless signal for other users. The One Plan also allows 2000 minutes of included calls, so for those like me who require regular daily use of phone calls and lots of internet use, it's a price well worth paying. Roger

As Ange says I found that the 'One Plan' with 3 was the only way to get a wifi hotspot phone and 'all you can eat' broadband'. I initially looked at Mifi units which are basically a wireless router with a built in simcard, but discarded the idea as they were limited to a maximum data allowance of 15gb, with companies such as 02 and Odhone only allowing a maximum of 2gb. I have no idea what my monthly data useage has been for the last few years, but as I frequently send and receive fairly big pics, didn't want to risk exceeding my allowance. As I was giving up my business line, I needed a second mobile to replace it and also needed connection for up to 3 laptops or Ipad simultaneously. As 600 minutes is only about 10 minutes per day, I wanted more phone time just in case, so the One Plan was ideal as it allows 2000 minutes. Finally, after long talks with BT, I found that I can have my old number retained as a redirect only, which costs £30 per quarter, with a message saying 'This number has been changed to 07..........'. This is totally seperate from my old BT contract which has been cancelled, so there are no other costs. It means that customers from the last eight years, will still be able to reach me if they dial the old number. I can also renew the redirect for as long as I wish, indefinately if required, so all of our advertising material will not have been wasted. Finally, if you already have a mobile dongle and want to use other laptops simultaneously, Maplin sell a wireless router to plug your dongle into LINK Roger

Just read Biggles speed test post and tried one of my own on the new home mooring. It shows 4.7mbs download and 2.78mbs upload. That's considerably better than I was getting on the old mooring with my supposedly 8mbs package. The new mooring has 10ft banks either side of the river and a poor signal on the coverlage map, so I am highly impressed with the results. So far the signal has been stable throughout the day, when I previously had poor connection at peak times on the old system. The Galaxy phone has a decent size pad on the large touch screen, so that even I can text with it, but the best thing is the hotspot facility which means that I am typing this post in the lounge at the front of the boat on the Ipad, while Claire is checking her emails in bed at he other end on her laptop. I was really concerned about losing my BT phone and wireless internet when we moved, because of the possible effect on the business, but in fact I have a far better internet connection and 2000 minutes included with the contract and am saving £20 per month- brilliant Roger

We have just moved to a new residential mooring after 8 years at Upware Marina in the Fens. As we run our business from our boat and internet connection is essential, we have used a very effective privately run local network which was wirelessly transmitted. We also had a BT landline with a box on a tree next to the boat for disconnection when we were cruising, but too slow for BT internet. The problem has been that now we have moved permanently, we needed a second phone and a good internet connection for use with two laptops and an Ipad. As the new mooring is in the middle of nowhere, all the mobile providers were showing a very poor signal. Our O2 mobile gets a weak signal, but struggles with the internet, so I trawled around the phone shops for advice. 3, O2, Vodaphone, and Tmobile all said that their coverage maps showed very poor or no signal at our new location and that being on the boat low down would make matters worse. Vodaphone seemed to look the least poor, so I took a gamble on trying their service, but although I could get online, it took about 5 minutes to download 1 email. I cancelled that and tried a dongle that o2 had given me, with no connection at all. Finally, I went back to 3, who told me that I was highly unlikely to get a signal or connection. As others nearby had 3 network phones that showed a weak signal and CWF member Ditchcrawler had picked up a 3 signal as he passed our mooring, I decided to take out a contract for a new phone to at least get a second number. The phone is a dual core Samsung Galaxy and is wifi hotspot enabled to allow up to five other simultaneous device connections. Even with one bar of signal strength, it has maintained a very stable broadband connection which is faster than I was getting at Upware on my £20pm connection. Instead of paying over £40pm for my BT line plus my wireless broadband, I now have a £26pm contract, a new second number and phone, with multi device wireless mobile broadband all around the boat, unlimited data useage, 2000 free minutes and 5000 free texts. Unlike my previous setip, I can of course use the new connection and phone wherever I go! The moral of the story is don't believe everything you are told, try for yourself and you can still cancel within 7 days if it's no good. Roger

For the last couple of years we have used Supertherm which has been excellent, replacing Taybrite that was the previous favourite. The Supertherm leaves less ash and seems to burn longer. All the consortium members have asked for it again this year, and we are also adding the new Maxiheat to try this year as it looks like a good price for performance option. Roger

I have to say that I'm in total agreement! Roger

It's important to know what sort of coal prices are being quoted for. Whatever price you say you are buying a bag of coal for, someone will tell you that there's was much cheaper, so you need to compare like for like. So compare one supplier of Taybrite with another, or Supertherm, Phurnacite etc. There are always cheap bags of mixed chippings and dust at give away prices, but you will use 3 times as much as something costing twice the price. My Coal consortium was offered 25kg bags of 'mixed' coal at £4.50 this year, but it will produce far less heat and more ash than better fuels, plus it will not stay in overnight. Generally, this years prices have all been slightly up on last year for the same fuel, although the Summer price will usually be less than last year's Winter price. Coal is also usually cheaper in the North of England, so northern prices are not likely to be matched in the south in my experience of large quantity buying. Roger

As far as I recall, the Teal 22 started life in the 70s as a centre cockpit, V hulled, simulated clinker narrowbeam cruiser. It was for inland and calm estuary cruising and usually had an outboard. The accommodation was open plan with no proper bulkheads between cabins and central steering position. They seem to have often been supplied as unfitted shells for owner completion. The hull moulds were resurrected in the 80s with a different upper moulding, giving a forward cabin and a more modern looking raised saloon and steering area and a rear cockpit. These were able to take an inboard engine, commonly with and inboard/outboard drive. Roger