Where to put our accumulator tank...

[Dekazer]

Morning all,

 

Having finished repainting our water tank, we've now got a new hot water tank ready to install. As part of the grand plumbing, we're going to move our water pump nearer to the integral cold water tank and install our new accumulator.

 

Question is: does the accumulator need to be positioned as close as possible to the pump, or could it cope with being 25 feet away?

 

All advice about the whole process gratefully received. Unless it's 'call a plumber'

[dor]

In my experience it can be pretty much anywhere. Mine are under the bed in the stern.

[Ray]

We've got ours near the water pump so that we can get to the two if we need to. However, I've seen installations where the two are remote.

 

Don't forget that you'll need to be able to check and possibly adjust the air pressure in the accumulator so you may need to be able to get a (car/bike) pump near it.

Edited November 22, 2009 by Ray

[n.b.Goldie]

Morning all,

 

Having finished repainting our water tank, we've now got a new hot water tank ready to install. As part of the grand plumbing, we're going to move our water pump nearer to the integral cold water tank and install our new accumulator.

 

Question is: does the accumulator need to be positioned as close as possible to the pump, or could it cope with being 25 feet away?

 

All advice about the whole process gratefully received. Unless it's 'call a plumber'

It matters not where the accumulator is put into the system except that it must not be plumbed into a pipe carrying hot water!.

 

Put both the pump and accumulator in a postion where they are easily accessible for maintenance.

 

Assuming your batteries are at the stern end of the ship and the pump will be at the fore end near the water tank make sure that the wiring is substantial enough to avoid voltage drop on the journey from the batteries to the pump and back. I would be surprised if there are not old threads on this forum discussing this issue.

 

Ditchdabbler

[Cosmic]

Tony Brooks' site has a good article on this.

 

He suggests mounting the accumulator, pump etc. on a single board so they can easily be removed for winter or for maintenance.

[RLWP]

Think carefully about moving the water pump. We have two Shurflo pumps, and usually they are OK. But if the pipe to the inlet gets emptied, like when a pump or filter is changed, they are difficult to get started because they are really bad at pumping air. I wouldn't want a long pipe from the tank to the pump if I could avoid it.

 

Richard

[Dekazer]

Thank you all very much for your help. We have now installed our new hot water immersion tank. We fitted the immersion coil ourselves which was a bit tense but has worked fine. We've replaced all the old water pipes, moved the pump from under the bed (20 odd feet from the integral cold water tank) to the wall beside the front door (about 3 inches from the water tank) and fitted a new accumulator.

 

The water tank is newly re-painted so the water's still a bit smelly, but we just need to fill and empty a couple of times. The hot water tank is now running off shore 240v power, and we're adjusting our usage to measure the cheapest and most efficient option for turning it on and off/leaving it on.

 

Last night we refilled the engine water and reconnected that to the hot water tank. We were only able to run the engine for a couple of hours, so it didn't really heat the water, but hopefully we'll manage a long-ish run soon to make sure that's all working as it should.

 

Now we just need to re-build the damn wardrobe and take all our clothes out of the bath so we can actually use the bloomin' thing

 

Next step, a quick lesson in carpentry!

[RLWP]

Thank you all very much for your help. We have now installed our new hot water immersion tank. We fitted the immersion coil ourselves which was a bit tense but has worked fine. We've replaced all the old water pipes, moved the pump from under the bed (20 odd feet from the integral cold water tank) to the wall beside the front door (about 3 inches from the water tank) and fitted a new accumulator.

 

The water tank is newly re-painted so the water's still a bit smelly, but we just need to fill and empty a couple of times. The hot water tank is now running off shore 240v power, and we're adjusting our usage to measure the cheapest and most efficient option for turning it on and off/leaving it on.

 

Last night we refilled the engine water and reconnected that to the hot water tank. We were only able to run the engine for a couple of hours, so it didn't really heat the water, but hopefully we'll manage a long-ish run soon to make sure that's all working as it should.

 

Now we just need to re-build the damn wardrobe and take all our clothes out of the bath so we can actually use the bloomin' thing

 

Next step, a quick lesson in carpentry!

Excellent!

 

And it shows some of the ambiguity of text based media like forums. You said move the pump, I assumed you would move it further from the tank. In reality you have made things better by moving it nearer the tank!

 

Our rubber liner in the water tank tasted bad originally, so we fitted a plumbed in water filter, which we now use all the time to fill the kettle. It wasn't too expensive either.

 

Richard

[gilby]

Whilst we are on the subject, what sort of pressure should the accumulator be at? Just replaced the aqua king junior pump and we are suffering with a non constant flow at the taps.

[Dekazer]

Whilst we are on the subject, what sort of pressure should the accumulator be at? Just replaced the aqua king junior pump and we are suffering with a non constant flow at the taps.

 

The chandler where we bought ours set the pressure to 4 bar.

 

I have no idea what that means - I just remember the number!

[gilby]

The chandler where we bought ours set the pressure to 4 bar.

 

I have no idea what that means - I just remember the number!

 

Thanks for that. 4 bar's 58 ish psi. Just pumped it to 50 psi and it seems to have solved it.

[Keeping Up]

That sounds far too high a pressure to me. I thought it was supposed to be nearer 1 bar (15psi)

[Ray]

Snip

 

Last night we refilled the engine water and reconnected that to the hot water tank. We were only able to run the engine for a couple of hours, so it didn't really heat the water, but hopefully we'll manage a long-ish run soon to make sure that's all working as it should.

 

Snip

 

I believe that having run the engine for a couple of hours you should have had a cylinder full of hot water in that time. From memory, the usual suggestion is that you'd have hot water within the hour.

 

Is there a chance that you have an airlock?

[gilby]

That sounds far too high a pressure to me. I thought it was supposed to be nearer 1 bar (15psi)

Hmm, worried now.

Any other opinions please.

[wonderdust]

Hmm, worried now.

Any other opinions please.

 

Think he's right! There is lots about it here.

[alan_fincher]

Hmm, worried now.

Any other opinions please.

Yes,

 

Allan is correct.

 

Assuming your pump has a 30psi cut-out pressure, it would not be normal to pump the accumulator up to much over 15 psi (about 1 bar).

 

At 4 bar it is way above the cut-out pressure of any standard domestic water, pump, so the air inside it will never get compressed further, and no water will enter, rendering it uselessfor it's intended purpose.

 

Note accumulator pressures must be set and checked with the pump off, water system unpressurised, and a cold tap open.

[gilby]

Yes,

 

Allan is correct.

 

Assuming your pump has a 30psi cut-out pressure, it would not be normal to pump the accumulator up to much over 15 psi (about 1 bar).

 

At 4 bar it is way above the cut-out pressure of any standard domestic water, pump, so the air inside it will never get compressed further, and no water will enter, rendering it uselessfor it's intended purpose.

 

Note accumulator pressures must be set and checked with the pump off, water system unpressurised, and a cold tap open.

 

Ok, just redone it and all seems good.

Learnt something new, did something practical and it didn't seem to go wrong so I'll call this day a good one.

Many thanks for advice, 'tis greatly appreciated.

[Neil@CanalVoyagers]

Your accumulator should be set to just above the cut in pressure of the water pump, therefore giving you maximum water volume before pressure decreases and the pump kicks in.

[mikevye]

Thanks for that. 4 bar's 58 ish psi. Just pumped it to 50 psi and it seems to have solved it.

 

Just replaced my factory supplied Calorifier PRV which is pre set to 4 bar so I think you've got something wrong in your system operating parameters.

[Dekazer]

Haha, there's a lesson here for me about trying to remember things I don't understand

[mikevye]

Haha, there's a lesson here for me about trying to remember things I don't understand

 

I think this is one forum where you can ask and anyone who can help will without thinking your a numpty. The only exceptions to this are electrical when "experts" try to get one past Gibbo and then the sh*t hits the fan fine style !!!!!!!!!!!