aldi help

[jcousins23]

hi anybody out there help i have just boat a new old boat and it is fitted with a aldi 2928 gas central heating as well as central heating it provides hot water for the boat however although the radiators are piping hot the hot water stays tepid at best anybody go a notion whats going on please

[journeyperson]

hi anybody out there help i have just boat a new old boat and it is fitted with a aldi 2928 gas central heating as well as central heating it provides hot water for the boat however although the radiators are piping hot the hot water stays tepid at best anybody go a notion whats going on please

 

I've got an Alde 2928 and to heat the water I have to have the system balanced so that just enough water is getting through to the radiators, otherwise it doesn't circulate through the calorifier.

 

For information; if a gas cylinder is getting low the boiler won't stay lit either.

[MtB]

hi anybody out there help i have just boat a new old boat and it is fitted with a aldi 2928 gas central heating as well as central heating it provides hot water for the boat however although the radiators are piping hot the hot water stays tepid at best anybody go a notion whats going on please

 

Can you confirm you have a conventional calorifier which is 'heated' by the Aldi, and not some other arrangement?

 

If a conventional calorifier, how long are you giving it to warm up? I'd suggest a couple of hours might be necessary, with the heating OFF. If it never warms up, then you have restricted circulation through the heater exchanger coil inside the calorifier OR a seriously water-scaled calorifier. How old is it?

 

Mike

[Radiomariner]

Possibility of an air lock or blockage in the calorifier coils or piping to it. The Alde water pump is not very powerfull if there is any resistance the hot water flow will take the easiest path and that could well be through the radiators. Shut all the radiators off, it is my bet that the calorifier will then heat up quite quickly. Then, gradually open the radiator valves a little about half a turn at a time until a good "balance" is achieved. My Alde runs two radiators which are only 1/3rd open. My reason for completely shutting the radiators first was to perhaps clear any air lock in the calorifier coils piping and confirm that it actually works. Once set up it does not need to be adjusted again.

Tip:- Count the number of turns on radiator valves when setting up. When you need hot water a little quicker screw down the radiator valves and when the water is hot open them again by the number of turns required.

 

Edited to add :- In this really cold weather I find the Aldi a bit poor at maintaining a comfortably warm cabin, but good for the cold Spring and Autumn nights. Comments welcome

Edited January 28, 2011 by Radiomariner

[dor]

Have you recently topped up the water? If so, an imbalance in the density of antifreeze can cause circulation problems. If not, then air lock is likely and as has been suggested, turn off all the rads to try and force a flow. Ease the connection on the top of of the calorifier may help to bleed air. IF the calorifer is in a parallel circuit then probably needs the radiators balancing to it.

 

I fitted 22mm full flow lever ball valves into the rad & cal circuits so I could choose whether to heat HW, rads or both.

[rgreg]

My system has separate control valves on the supply pipes to the radiators and the calorifier to balance the system. Ie all the hot water can either go to the radiators or the calorifier or varying levels to both. When the calorifier supply valve is opened the water heats up very quickly (about 20 mins for a shower). It Maybe worth checking to see if yours is set up the same.

[jcousins23]

Can you confirm you have a conventional calorifier which is 'heated' by the Aldi, and not some other arrangement?

 

If a conventional calorifier, how long are you giving it to warm up? I'd suggest a couple of hours might be necessary, with the heating OFF. If it never warms up, then you have restricted circulation through the heater exchanger coil inside the calorifier OR a seriously water-scaled calorifier. How old is it?

 

Mike

hi mike its 10 yrs old to my knowledge but i have changed water AND blown through with compressed air so the calorifier seems ok though it takes a long time for the engine to heat the water but i think thats a seperate issue am checking the thermostat

[jcousins23]

thanks to every one who replied i will try the fixes you suggeset there is no balance valve that i can find but i will try balancing the radiators first if that dont work then put in a valve to force the flow through the tank if that dont work im going out like a viking

[Evo]

I have the same boiler with 22mm pipe running all around the boat, literally all around. Fin rads under bunks etc and std rad in the sitting area. The Aldi has to be on 30-45mins to get the sitting room rad hot.

 

There are 2 coils in my upright calorifier. The engine is connected to the lower coil and the Aldi to the upper. The Aldi only supplies half a tank of hot water at the best of times and to do that it has to be running a long while (couple of hours or more). I speed it up by doing as Radiomariner - closing a gate valve in the 22mm radiator circuit. This encourages the flow through the calorifier.

 

I used to be up and down all the time twiddling the valves to get both hot water and hot rads. The missus used to get really peed off with me. "Sit down...!!!!"

 

I have now settled on a permanent solution of 1 complete turn out of my rad circuit gate valve and I leave the calorifier valve fully open. Works well, its only a little boiler you know, you cant expect miracles.

 

Ours is only a holiday boat, I wouldn't want to rely on something as flimsy as an Aldi on a liveaboard for my main heating.

[jcousins23]

I have the same boiler with 22mm pipe running all around the boat, literally all around. Fin rads under bunks etc and std rad in the sitting area. The Aldi has to be on 30-45mins to get the sitting room rad hot.

 

There are 2 coils in my upright calorifier. The engine is connected to the lower coil and the Aldi to the upper. The Aldi only supplies half a tank of hot water at the best of times and to do that it has to be running a long while (couple of hours or more). I speed it up by doing as Radiomariner - closing a gate valve in the 22mm radiator circuit. This encourages the flow through the calorifier.

 

I used to be up and down all the time twiddling the valves to get both hot water and hot rads. The missus used to get really peed off with me. "Sit down...!!!!"

 

I have now settled on a permanent solution of 1 complete turn out of my rad circuit gate valve and I leave the calorifier valve fully open. Works well, its only a little boiler you know, you cant expect miracles.

 

Ours is only a holiday boat, I wouldn't want to rely on something as flimsy as an Aldi on a liveaboard for my main heating.

the rads are not issue they get red hot very quickly its the tank that dosnt i contacted aldi and they say they do a 12v circulation pump inline only uses .08amp but heres they rub £168 of my hard earned argggggg

[Alan Saunders]

Have a look at the Alde UK Website, it has good advice on system design and currently features narrowboats. They now supply a high output circulator for the 29xx, probably in response to the application of their boilers to larger caravans, motorhomes and boats. An external circulator may be a better option.

 

Is 5.4kW (on propane at 30mbar) a small boiler? That's more than the absolute maximum a Morso Squirrel can manage. The trick is to get the water circulating through the radiators and calorifier and size the radiators to suit the heat loss from the cabin. With my Alde (2920) thermostat set at maximum (90C) it only fires up for 40% of the time (~2m in 5m) with cabin temperature 18C suggesting that my radiators and calorifier can only sink 2.2kW (minus the heat used to warm my engine by thermo-syphon from the calorifier) . Other than the current extreme weather conditions setting my Alde thermostat at '3' (70C?) provides adequate cabin temperatures and hot water.

 

I do not have to 'jump up and down' adjusting valves because the single pipe 22mm/Finrad circuit is only restricted by a remote, mechanical room thermostat. My Alde boiler is in the airing cupboard with the calorifier at the bottom of the same cupboard with short 15mm connections in parallel with the main 22mm feed and return to the boiler. The calorifier connection has a valve wich I have now set to fully open. It takes twenty minutes for the furthest radiator to get unbearably hot to touch but it is noticeably warm a five minutes after start up. After two hours my small calorifier reaches maximum temperature (enough for two showers at 38C). I have no need for hot water for a shower before the cabin temperature is comfortable. A small (0.5m) Finrad in the (4'x 2'+) shower compartment (second in line) helps.

 

My engine (Vetus M3.10) is only a metre from the calorifier and the 15mm connections raise the calorifier from summer ambient temperature (15c?) to scalding in 20 minutes but hot water for a morning shower by this means is dissallowed by the BW ban on running engines before 8am. I do not have 'upper and lower' calorifier coils; the connections to the two coils are at similar levels but on opposite sides of the tank.

 

Domestic heating design criteria can be applied to boat installations but they usually assume minimum UK temperatures to be 0C. The maximum 70C radiator input is the best compromise to reduce hard water deposits. The 10C drop at each radiator and therefore the same at the boiler only applies to a dual pipe system with inadquate protection against corrosion and hard water deposits and is aimed at minimising pump noise. Alde require 50% antifreeze which will allow >100C+ in the boiler, prevent dissimilar metal corrosion and freezing damage.

 

At 15.6p per Kwh (using 13kg cylinders) Propane gas heating is not cheap (I am currently using 13kg in 3 or 5 days) but my Alde has run for 23 years, including many winter weekends and seven years live-aboard, with minimal maintenance costs and much less effort and mess than the solid fuel and Refleks diesel heaters on my other boat.

 

Whilst you may have an airlock or other restriction it is possible that the length and diameter of your pipes and restrictions (e.g. elbows) or the capacity of the circulator is inadequate.

 

Alan

[Evo]

Glad you're proving that they are reliable and up to it, especially for liveaboards during the last 2 winters.

 

I've never really bothered about gas consumption, we only use ours for weekends and holidays so I just keep the 3 13g bottles filled up all the time. Costs me about 3 bottles a year - i drink alot of tea.

 

I have to say though - from what I've witnessed on our mooring - theres nowt like a good squirrel chugging away 24/7. I'm definately guessing, but I reckon I would be running our stove 24/7 for heating and only switching the aldi on at bedtime If I wanted hot water in the morning.

 

Mind you, I'm not one of these modern fannies who has to have a shower every morning, gel his hair up, and cover himself in deodorant and smelly, I'm a sort of old fashioned type who has 1 bath a week wether I need it or not.

 

I followed the diagram that came with the boiler when I installed it, and it works . I definately had some initial tweaking of flowrates though, If i open up the heating circuit fully no water goes to the calorifier, I have to restrict the heating loop by closing down a gate valve. Ours is a 60ft boat and I dont need their extra circulation pump.

Edited February 1, 2011 by Evo

[philipdee]

My engine (Vetus M3.10) is only a metre from the calorifier and the 15mm connections raise the calorifier from summer ambient temperature (15c?) to scalding in 20 minutes but hot water for a morning shower by this means is dissallowed by the BW ban on running engines before 8am. I do not have 'upper and lower' calorifier coils; the connections to the two coils are at similar levels but on opposite sides of the tank.

 

 

Alan

 

Sorry for starting this old thread up again, but I found the reference to a Vetus m3.10 and calorifier and am just about to install one on my M3.10. I am not sure where the hoses should be connected - there is a pipe which seems to connect from the side of the thermostat housing back into the housing which I presume was meant for calorifier purposes. Is that the take-off and return or only the take-off? Any advice welcome.

 

Philip

[Alan Saunders]

Alan

 

Sorry for starting this old thread up again, but I found the reference to a Vetus m3.10 and calorifier and am just about to install one on my M3.10. I am not sure where the hoses should be connected - there is a pipe which seems to connect from the side of the thermostat housing back into the housing which I presume was meant for calorifier purposes. Is that the take-off and return or only the take-off? Any advice welcome.

 

Philip

 

Hi Philip, welcome to CWDF! You would get a better response by starting a new thread.

 

You have identified the appropriate connections. The pipe currently connecting them is the 'by-pass hose' which allows the engine coolant to circulate without cooling the engine or loading the water pump when the engine thermostat is closed.

 

Mine was plumbed in 1987 by Brummagem Boats using Acorn plastic pipe and fittings. Did I mention that when the calorifier is hot it heats the engine? i.e. There is no hot water in the morning. As the Calorifier is lower than the engine an anti-syphon loop is needed. OTOH, you may think that engine pre-heating is an advantage.

 

I would have replied sooner but I have been busy working on the engine. Maybe, in the next few days I will have a look and supply more detail; maybe even a 'photo.

 

Alan

[philipdee]

Hi Philip, welcome to CWDF! You would get a better response by starting a new thread.

 

 

Alan

 

Thanks - yes, I should have, but was keen to contact you and pm wouldn't work for me. Interesting about heating the engine - didn't think of that. Pictures would be great.

 

Philip