Help - my Paloma froze!

[Alistair]

Aaagh. Got back to the boat to find the Paloma dripping. I hadn't been there for a few days, and the thing's gone and frozen. I assume that a gasket has blown, rather than splitting the brass at the bottom of the machine.

 

At least now I've turned off the water and drained the Paloma down.

 

Anyone had this happen to them?

 

What did you do to make it work again?

[nigel carton]

I think you can still get parts on fleebay, but prevention next time, turn water off and drain down your paloma, hot tap open and there's a knurled drain plug at the bottom right of the unit, it only takes seconds to do. I would leave the drain plug out till you return.

[rjasmith]

Aaagh. Got back to the boat to find the Paloma dripping. I hadn't been there for a few days, and the thing's gone and frozen. I assume that a gasket has blown, rather than splitting the brass at the bottom of the machine.

 

At least now I've turned off the water and drained the Paloma down.

 

Anyone had this happen to them?

 

What did you do to make it work again?

 

Oh Dear!!!

 

Yes this happened to my son in the big caravan he lived in while at Uni a few years ago.

 

You may be lucky and only need to change burst gaskets etc which I'm sure are readily available but with ours we found that the brass pressure sensitive valve housing (where the rubber diaphragm is clamped) had distorted due to ice expansion.

 

Andrew took it apart and was able to use the Uni's Mech Eng facilities to get the mating surfaces flat again! Otherwise I suppose it would have meant buying a whole new valve assembly!

 

Good Luck!

 

Richard

[Batavia]

You may be lucky and only need to change burst gaskets etc which I'm sure are readily available but with ours we found that the brass pressure sensitive valve housing (where the rubber diaphragm is clamped) had distorted due to ice expansion.

 

Richard

 

We had exactly the same problem many years ago, at a time when I had no access to machine tools. I solved the problem by filing off the worst of the distortion and then lapping the housing flat on a sheet of glass, using carborundum powder. Took a while, but worked.

 

Chris G

[JGMarine]

Probably be the heat exchanger burst and the water valve distorted.

 

Im my experience the water valve can be a pig to repair unless, has been mentioned you go to great lengths to put it right.

Heat exchanger can be removed and the burst soldered up.

 

 

Re con units are available on ebay and this is normally the best option.

[AlanH]

I've repaired a burst Paloma using a small blow torch and plenty of solder.

[richardf]

There is a chap on ebay who does exchange Palomas and he makes a cracking job of it - but it will cost you around £125 from memory. Paloma spares are getting really hard to find - I have a spare unit in my attic ready for the time when my existing model fails, I reckoned it was money well spent.

[RobinJ]

Aaagh. Got back to the boat to find the Paloma dripping. I hadn't been there for a few days, and the thing's gone and frozen. I assume that a gasket has blown, rather than splitting the brass at the bottom of the machine.

 

At least now I've turned off the water and drained the Paloma down.

 

Anyone had this happen to them?

 

What did you do to make it work again?

Happens regularly every year!

You need to identify what is leaking.

1 Pull off the knobs and unscrew the cover retaining bolts at the side, remove cover.

2 Examine the gas control valve on the right (where the drain off pipe goes) and see if the housing is bent or the housing securing bolts have snapped. When water freezes in the gas control valve, the housing bolts should snap preventing damage to the housing - if they have been replaced with ordinary bolts because this has happened before, then the housing may be bent.

3 There are two places that a burst may have occured a) the top of the heat exchanger below the chimney (there will be two loops in the pipework on the right hand side of the heat exchanger), or rarely on the opposite side. on the hot water outlet connection at the bottom of the unit (this is soldered into the fitting and sometimes breaks the joint).

It may be necessary to reconnect the water supply to test for leaks, but sometimes splits are visible.

 

If the gas control valve bolts have snapped, you should be able to replace them and reseal the valve (please try to obtain some suitable failure mode bolts).

If the valve housing is damaged then it may be difficult to obatin a new one and you may end up buying a Morco!

If the heat exchanger or the pipework has farctured then this can be repaired by someone who is good at brazing etc., however it may be difficult to remove. The hot water outlet is secured by a retaining plate in the bottom of the unit, but you need to remove the adpator fitting first. You will have to loosen the gas control and gas metering valves from the back plate to gain access to the heat exchanger securing bolts behind, then the whole heat exchanger lifts upwards and off its securing lugs at the top, remember to disconnect the water inlet from the gas control valve. All this is best done with the unit removed from the wall and the flue diverter unscrewed.

 

None of this is a task to be undertaken lightly and an expert or reference to the service manual is reccommended.

[stuart23]

I disconnect the water outlet from the paloma as well as removing the drain plug, as one year when I'd only removed the drain plug, when I reset it in the spring, water which hadn't drained out had frozen and caused a problem

[Alistair]

There is a chap on ebay who does exchange Palomas and he makes a cracking job of it - but it will cost you around £125 from memory. Paloma spares are getting really hard to find - I have a spare unit in my attic ready for the time when my existing model fails, I reckoned it was money well spent.

 

I reckon I've found him - his name's Bob, and he sounds very much like he knows what he's talking about.

 

Within the next couple of days I'm going to remove the sad frost-damaged Paloma and take it round to the Post Office to send to Bob. The gas and water are both off, so no worries there, and a local gas-fitter mate of mine is up for attaching the reconditioned one when it comes back.

 

I'll let you all know what transpires. Til then, fingers crossed, and I hope nobody else has the embarrassment or expense that I'm facing...

 

[magpie patrick]

I reckon I've found him - his name's Bob, and he sounds very much like he knows what he's talking about.

 

Within the next couple of days I'm going to remove the sad frost-damaged Paloma and take it round to the Post Office to send to Bob. The gas and water are both off, so no worries there, and a local gas-fitter mate of mine is up for attaching the reconditioned one when it comes back.

 

I'll let you all know what transpires. Til then, fingers crossed, and I hope nobody else has the embarrassment or expense that I'm facing...

 

 

How to fix it, do you want the truth or something beautiful?

 

 

And you thought Paloma Faithwas a warranty package...

 

<MP sees the Coat Faerie is making an appointment>

[Barry]

And quite right too!

[alan_fincher]

There is a chap on ebay who does exchange Palomas and he makes a cracking job of it - but it will cost you around £125 from memory. Paloma spares are getting really hard to find - I have a spare unit in my attic ready for the time when my existing model fails, I reckoned it was money well spent.

Yes,

 

But an exchange unit for an obsolete water heater for which parts are difficult will have cost you £125.

 

Or you can buy a brand new Morco for a little over £150, which is a current model you can easily buy spares for.

 

Linky

 

I appreciate the latter may not fit, or need plumbing changes, but the extra bother might be worth it to move up to something "current".

[Alistair]

But an exchange unit for an obsolete water heater for which parts are difficult will have cost you £125.

 

Or you can buy a brand new Morco for a little over £150, which is a current model you can easily buy spares for.

 

I appreciate the latter may not fit, or need plumbing changes, but the extra bother might be worth it to move up to something "current".

 

But any new equipment will be obsolete eventually, Alan. This way at least I'm gaining some more useful life for my Paloma, and saving energy, money, and hassle.

 

What's not to like?

[richardf]

But any new equipment will be obsolete eventually, Alan. This way at least I'm gaining some more useful life for my Paloma, and saving energy, money, and hassle.

 

What's not to like?

 

I could handle the plumbing, it is the hole in the roof that I know will be in the right place!

[TheWilk]

Alistair - you're not the only one!

 

I'm usually really good about draining it before I leave the boat but on Sunday I was feeling ill and decided to drag myself to my mum's to be looked after and forgot to do it. Came back the next day and the whole thing is POURING water. So I can't turn my water pump on at all now.

 

I haven't got time to even think about repairing before Xmas so I'm going to disconnect it. So, er... which one is the inlet pipe?