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Good morning, I am looking for information about the Kabola that's installed on my boat. I believe it is functional but we have yet to try and fire it up. Any information at all regarding this type of system would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi all, Hopefully someone knows the answer to this. I have an Eberspacher that heats a calorifier. I run the Eber for about an hour and we get a decent amount of hot water for showers. My issue is the amount of time it takes for the hot water to reach the taps. I measured it this morning and it took 12 litres of water before it turned warm. This is the same every time the first person wants hot water. Can anyone suggest why this would happen? The shower is quite close to the calorifier, just a bedroom in between, so I'm finding it hard to make any sense of why it takes the amount of time. Please help!

Hi I've been living aboard for over a year now and each of my 13kg Propane bottles has lasted about 3 months. Pretty good! However, the most recent bottle has only lasted one month - pretty poor! I have a Rinnai instant water heater on board and the only thing I've done differently is to leave the pilot light for this heater on permanently. Prior to this, I would only turn the pilot light on when I had a shower or did some laundry or some washing up. Obviously, having the pilot light on permanently will use more gas up, but I can't believe that it would use 2 month's worth of gas over a period of one month - if you see what I mean! Of course, I could have been given a bottle that was only half full or something but I've been reassured that the stockist simply takes deliveries and has empty bottles collected. It's unlikely I've been deliberately short-changed. So, does anyone have some idea of how much gas having a pilot light on 24/7 might use? Photo of Rinnai with pilot light lit attached! Many thanks

Hello everyone, complete newbie here! Let me start by saying I am not a canal boat owner, but my mother and father are. It is coming up to their 30th wedding anniversary and to celebrate I would like to purchase them a new stove for their boat! I have read around and it seems like the 'Morso Squirrel' stoves are a poplar choice. If anyone is interested i found a nice guide about them here. Anyway I was wondering if any of you have them or can suggest any alternatives? If it helps at all they do not live on the boat and use it for weekly 3 day trips (both retired). Thanks in advance for your help

Hi All, I am in the process of buying my first narrowboat, 46ft and it has a really rubbish wood burner that I would like to rip out and put in a new bubble diesel stove. The little 4kw corner one. What I am struggling with is approximate costs for retro fitting one. Has anybody done this and what were the rough costs involved. I know it's really dependant on the boat etc, but I I am mainly wondering how much to budget. Not including the stove are we talking £500? £1,000 £2,000 etc. I don't currently have a dedicated diesel tank, just the main one. Any help appreciated.

The stern end of my boat is freezing! But I don't want to constantly run my noisey & expensive diesel powered central heating all the time. Is there a small heater, perhaps paraffin, gas or something else that is safe to use, easy to install and that would heat just this room inexpensively? I already have a multi fuel stove but that is at the other end of my 70 foot boat. Many thanks!

Hi everyone, Me and my partner have just moved on to our 57 x 10 wide beam and are having a slight nightmare keeping the boat warm! Where we are moored we're not allowed to use the multi fuel stove so that leaves us with either the 5kw Webasto or electric fan/ convection heaters. The Webasto heats the radiators and we've balanced them so that all get equally hot but there are only three and all are small so it does very little to actually keep the boat warm. The electric heaters do warm the boat up but over the long run I'm assuming the cost will be more than other heating options? We are permanently moored with 240v I think our options are 1) take the hit and use electric to keep it warm 2) buy a bigger webasto and presumably also bigger / more radiators or 3) install a diesel fuel stove? Although I'm not sure if this would be allowed either (I would need to check), the issue with the solid fuel stove is the smoke it creates, even smokeless coal Any suggestions about which option to go for? Or anything else we could do?

I'm busy trying to get to the bottom of what a narrow boat build would entail so my head is swimming with info - in particular heating options! Ideally the hot water tank and/or radiators could be heated from the engine, a stove or an auxilliary diesel burner, however the plans i have found tend to use the engine on one calorifier coil and the stove / diesel heater on the radiator loop to calorifier which i dont think is as flexible. The engine would be used when cruising or charging batteries (maybe assisted by solar panel), the multifuel stove would provide primary source of hot water and space heating, and a diesel burner would provide a backup/fast heat. It would be good if any of the pimaries could be fed to either the hot tank or the radiators using a 3-way motorised valve. Please see diagram below of what im thinking, which im sure needs tweaking if not scrapping completely! Is the basic principle of what im geting at workable?

Hi all. I'm writing this in a hurry so haven't time to trawl through what is probably a huge number of posts re the installation of Eberspacher heating. Do redirect me with links if you know where my thread is already answered. :-) I live aboard a 70 footer at Droitwich and the Glembring stove I have installed, with its back boiler, is reasonably efficient but due to the tiny hole designed into the stove lid, the entire boat and its contents, including me and my Pooches, have a permanent whiff of diesel about them. As a student nurse, I can no longer go to work smelling like a fuel canister! I'm considering installing Eberspacher heating for radiators along the boat and a solid fuel stove in the main cabin. The boats I've stayed on where these are installed smell like homes and not garage forecourts! This is my dream.... What are you experiences of Eberspacher or similar systems, have you installed it and had a nightmare or a genuine success? Do let me know. Cheers. D

Hi everyone, My partner and I live on a tidal part of the Thames on a little wooden boat. We're in the process of building out new dream home - a steel Dutch barge, and we're looking into the best ways to heat it. At the moment we're strongly considering a pellet stove boiler, linked up to a thermal heating store. We could also link up a solar heat panel to the thermal heating store too, to give us a bit of leeway in the summer months. One major concern for us that this point is that boats move! We wanted to see if anyone has any insight or opinion on the impact this could have on the plumbing, and specifically the thermal store. We're unclear on how robust the various pipes leading in and out of it are, the connections between the pipes and the store, as well as it's internal mechanisms. Is it something that could break if it moves around too much...? We could keep it as secure as possible so it isn't bumped, but we certainly can't prevent the boat rocking when faster boats whizz by, as they often do! Any and all insight really welcome! Big thanks in advance, Gabs

Hi all, Am new t this forum but my girlfriend and I recently purchased our first narrowboat, but unfortunatel the eberspacher central heating system which hasn't been used since last winter won't turn on. We're currently moored in Uxrbidge and plan on bringing the boat across to east Lonon eventually. Does anyone know of any engineers that could help with this in the Lonon area? Many thanks Malcolm

Hi I had my Lockgate diesel-fuelled stove serviced a couple of months ago, but have been unable to test it due to an apparent blockage in the fuel line. Now that the weather's beginning to turn, I need to sort it out. It has been suggested that I get a simple pump and install it inline, close to the stove. This will allow me to run it very briefly until I can see fuel entering the bottom of the stove, then flick it off again. I'm not sure, without removing wooden panels, whether I have a 12v supply near the stove but I definitely have 240v as there is a wall light right next to it. So, I'm thinking that 240v will be fine, especially as I will only want to run it for a few seconds at a time and when I'm on the cut, this won't draw too much from the battery bank. Has anyone else done this before? Can you recommend a pump? Is this a good idea?? Many thanks

Hello Just when i thought I'd got our Eberspacher D4 Hydronic sorted out ... something new, which I have not seen discussed elsewhere (apart from maybe in a section of the Murkin Bros' site under 'Weird Faults'. Ebbie had failed a few times so took it to bits and found it was in a bit of a state - badly coked, gaskets falling to bits, glow-pin screen coked and blocked. Sorted all of these out. Still not happy on restart and showing a code 052 so replaced (rather than just cleaning) the fuel intake filter and made sure no gunk in the fuel intake pipework. Now it starts up, runs for about 25-30 minutes, though not sounding 100% happy - labouring a bit. Then smokes, makes a booming/honking sound which causes a bit of vibration, and cuts out. Error code 030 which is: "Fan impeller of combustion air fan motor blocked (frozen, dirty, stiff, lead chafes at end of shaft …)". There doesn't appear to be any blockage or damage to the fan, and I am puzzled as to why it runs for the length of time it does before conking out. Any experience of this or similar problems? I've learned that error codes tend to report only the last in a sequence of things going wrong (!) so trying to understand what root cause of this might be ... wiring/connections to the impeller motor? Any thoughts? Before I go and buy a whole new impeller unit which I might not actually need? Patrick

Our Paloma MkV is playing up. The pilot light has a tendency to go out and when I tried to relight it last week there was a bloody big fireball! I've since had Buster over to have a look at it and he's got it working again. He advised that we replace it with a sealed unit, as we have a newborn on the boat. Also he said that it's not really suitable for our situation as we have a bath and the Mrs likes to indulge every so often. Apparently the Paloma isn't designed to heat a bath's worth of water, having a recommended run-time of about 5 mins? Can anyone advise on a good replacement? Obviously needs to be about the same size so that it fits in the same nook in the bathroom. OK, not sure why the image got rotated. Turn it clockwise in your mind.....

Hello, I hope you can help. I have a single coil calorifier heated from the engine. I also have radiators heated by an eberspacher. They are on separate systems. Is it possible to connect the two systems so that the calorifier can be heated from both sources? As the eberspacher is mounted higher than the engine, would there be a problem with water from the radiators circuit causing the engine cooling circuit to overfow? Thanks!

Hello! Having found some very useful anwers on here previously, I was wondering if someone might help us with a problem we've got concerning the engine. To turn the engine on, we turn the key 90degrees clockwise and wait while it beeps for about 10 seconds. This is supposed to heat the engine. Then we can turn the key down once and this will turn on the engine. Since yesterday, after having turned the key down, the engine turns on and makes a happy noise, but the beeping doesn't stop, even after a few minutes of the engine being lit. Looking at the electronics control panel,one warning light is on: "Batteries D". (We were also told that the batteries should always remain above 12.8V. The inverter is off, however, they are now at 11.7V.) Is there anything we could try to do to fix this problem? Can we run the engine anyway (we were told that the engine should be run every day in winter)? Any help or indications on this topic would be much appreciated! Many thanks

I'm considering installing diesel heating on my 57ft boat. Not yet made the decision on whether to go Eber or Webasto. My question concerns the best method of mounting the parts in the engine compartment. Searching the web I've seen the various parts mounted around the compartment, or grouped together on what looks like a plate or painted board. All on a board looks neater to me such as in the picture I've attached. Is it normal practice to get nuts welded on to secure the parts, clip hoses and so on, or is there a better way? I could drill and tap into the bulkhead, or am I then opening myself up to lots of noise being transmitted into the cabin? I've picked up on the 22mm pipe for the feed and return lines to the rads - Is it acceptable to go through the bulkhead at 15mm then increase afterwards? The picture seems to show 15mm polypipe coming off the Webasto. I believe I need to get the install commissioned properly once I've done the install to check the burn etc. Can anyone recommend someone in the Loughborough / River Soar area? Thanks a lot

Hi all, my stove looks like this at the moment: http://imgur.com/a/oZk6q The flue needs to be replaced, and it also needs a new bit to connect the flue with the stove. What is that called? A flue collar? I'm talking about the thing in the photo that's split in two halves. Does anyone know if and where I could source this online? Are they all different for different stove brands? Thanks a lot for any hints!

Hi, new to the site I am looking to remove gas heating system and replace with diesel boiler, I need advice and someone local to Crick to fit. David NB Salford Lass

Boaters using damp wood and logs in their stoves could be risking a triple whammy including increased costs, stove damage and carbon monoxide poisoning says the Boat Safety Scheme. It is crucial that wood fuel is kept in a dry, well-ventilated area. If not, the damp fuel will cause the stove to run at a lower temperature as the heat of the fire will be producing steam and so the stove needs much more fuel to keep the boat warm. Even worse, the steam dissolves-out flammable, acidic tars which will cling to and block up, as well as inevitably damage, the stove and its chimney. Damaged stove installations are more likely to leak combustion gases into the cabin space, and because of incomplete combustion as the fuel is damp, those gases are more likely to contain carbon monoxide (CO) – giving the vicious cycle that could see a highly toxic atmosphere in the boat. Stove flues lined with tar could also lead to a chimney fire... ...read more at http://bit.ly/woodfuelwisdom Hope it helps forumites to avoid being hit by unnecessary costs, carbon monoxide or fire. Regards Rob

Hi all i thinking of fitting secondary glazing using clear acrylic sheet and magnetic tape. Has anyone done this and if so how effective has it been. My boat has 18 windows and umpteen vent on the roof. i am looking at way of keeping the boat warmer. I have a morso squirrel with a eco fan but this only tends to heat one end of the boat. we also have a back boiler but this only heats the radiators if the fire is absolutely blazing. we are just getting the hang of keeping the fire going all night but it is still really cold in the mornings and I feel having so many cold pain of glass and draft has a lot to do with this problem.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231401856821 Has anybody used something like one of these neat radiators, they will take 8mm microbore fittings. I wanted to link them into the engine's cooling system and I'm concerned that these radiators may not take the pressure.

Our boat sits in a marina for most of the winter, however we visit and use it whenever we can even if its cold. Fully draining down all the pipes etc is a time consuming affair but needed to protect against freezing (I am not keen on adding antifreeze to the water supply even if it is supposed to be safe). Even with draining down there is some risk of water being left in pipes and freezing. Consequently we use an oil filled heater on a frost thermostat to maintain some background heating but I am not convinced that this is effective as the items I am trying to protect (calorifier, pipework, pumps etc) are generally behind woodwork and unlikely to feel much benefit from heating the main cabin spaces. I do not want to take the other option of draining at the beginning of the winter and then not using the boat until the warmer weather arrives so am looking to obtain adequate protection whilst minimising the burden at each visit. I am thus considering trace heating of the self regulating tape type. This would be installed in the pipe runs, around the calorifer and the pumps, thus ensuring some direct protection. Such a system would have thermostats to switch on at a few degrees above freezing. As the heating is localised and controlled I judge that less electricity will be used which is another benefit. Clearly I would drain the bulk of the water from the system, leave taps open etc etc, but would spend less time trying to get the last of the water out. Has anyone considered or tried this, if so I would welcome advice. Thanks

Good evening everybody. This is my first post here after joining so forgive me if my questions are a bit basic (or thick). I am serious about moving on to the water to live. It is something I have been wanting to do for a long time as bricks and mortar are not really for me. However I am a complete novice when it comes to the world of canal boats. I have been on them and even stayed on one before but I have never been involved in owning one or knowing anyone who has. And so before I buy a boat which I have seen I have a few basic questions relating to making a leisure boat suitable for living aboard, and please forgive me if these questions have been answered a thousand times before. And so in no particular order, if anyone could help me with these questions to start: Survey: Not knowing much about boats I assume it would be sensible of me to have the boat surveyed first, can anybody give me a rough idea of costs involved? (I was chatting to another boat owner when I went to view it and he had worked on the boat and said it was in really good order mechanically,had low hours on the engine, had recently been blacked, and had a long safety certificate etc... Plus he said it was the same owners for 14 years and they looked after it really well and this is reflected by the overall decent condition the boat was in when i viewed it) Electrics: The boat currently has a 12V system running the lights and a 12V fridge. As I have a small number of appliances which would require traditional mains sockets what would be the most cost effective solution to providing power for these? Batteries: The boat has been up for sale for quite a long time (over 9 months i think) and the owner only comes out every now and again to turn over the engine and occasionally take her out. Is there a simple way to check the state of the batteries or would I need to rely on a full survey? Hot Water: The hot water is currently supplied by this method: 'engine cooling water circuit is fitted to a vertical calorifier' - As i understand it I would need to run the engine every day for a couple of hours or so to provide hot water. What is the best/most cost effective alternative to this system so that I could have hot water without running the engine? Heating: The boat currently has a solid fuel stove which is connected to two radiators for heating. Is this the most effective way of heating the boat or are there better alternatives? These are the most basic questions I have at the moment and I would really appreciate any advice you all can give (after browsing the forum for a while I know that have more money is probably the most valuable advice). Finally, my plan is to be as independent as possible which means not using a residential mooring and so having limited access to on-shore power so any advice on starting up, converting a leisure boat to a live aboard or any other general advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all your help Dave

Hi All, 2 of the radiators on our boat have a leak in the bottom weld so I want to replace them, and while I'm at it I may aswell replace all 4 since they are all about 15 years old now. Currently they are all 500mm high single (K1) radiators but I am thinking of replacing with 600mm high ones, and slightly longer to account for the odd imperial lengths they are at present. The boiler is an Eberspacher D5W and the total output for the 4 radiators would be 3.5kW so would the boiler be able to cope with this? With the old radiators (total 2.7kW) it seemed to cycle on and off every few minutes so perhaps the boiler was overpowered? Also, I assume that as long as the header/expansion tank is higher than the top of the radiators it doesn't matter that the Eberspacher will be roughly in line with the top? Many thanks David