Ballast suggestion

[Humphrey]

Haven't got a boat anymore but still like to check out the forum. While taking an old storage heater off the wall in the house I have just moved into.it occurred to me that the bricks in these Dimplex storage heaters would make ideal ballast weights - they are extremely heavy, about 10ins square and 2ins thick. Knowing what people charge for these 50kg steel weights I would say these bricks would be ideal, bearing in mind that these early heaters from about the 70s are quite expensive to run and a lot of councils/housing associations if there is gas nearby, they are converting to gas heating/other means of heating (eco friendly). Sorry I can't give the weight of these bricks as didn't have the means to weigh one. If you ask around you should be able to find someone who is scrapping these heaters.

Regarding our boat, which we really enjoyed and lived on for 3 years until ill health forced us to sell, but given the chance we will, sorry to say this dreaded word, knowing some on the forum don't like this word mentioned, but I'm afraid the wife and I will 'HIRE' a boat. There I've said it.

[b0atman]

I hope you have many happy years hiring may the sun always shine on your time boating

[magnetman]

They do seem very heavy, I have often wondered what they are actually made of.

[dave moore]

I suspect that they could absorb water in the event of a leak into the bilge and then be difficult to dry out in situ as ballast. We have engineering blue brick seconds as part of ours, they are impervious to water. Sorry to be a soggy blanket! I learnt the hard way about a flooded bilge....getting most of the water out is the easy bit, drying the damp bilge a stiffer order.

 

Dave

[churchward]

Haven't got a boat anymore but still like to check out the forum. While taking an old storage heater off the wall in the house I have just moved into.it occurred to me that the bricks in these Dimplex storage heaters would make ideal ballast weights - they are extremely heavy, about 10ins square and 2ins thick. Knowing what people charge for these 50kg steel weights I would say these bricks would be ideal, bearing in mind that these early heaters from about the 70s are quite expensive to run and a lot of councils/housing associations if there is gas nearby, they are converting to gas heating/other means of heating (eco friendly). Sorry I can't give the weight of these bricks as didn't have the means to weigh one. If you ask around you should be able to find someone who is scrapping these heaters.

Regarding our boat, which we really enjoyed and lived on for 3 years until ill health forced us to sell, but given the chance we will, sorry to say this dreaded word, knowing some on the forum don't like this word mentioned, but I'm afraid the wife and I will 'HIRE' a boat. There I've said it.

They do indeed I have used them on our boat when I needed to adjust the ballast after fitting a new shower base and enclosure. I replaced some irregular concrete slab type ballast.

 

They are dense so heavy compared to concrete and do not crumble in a damp environment. Due to there density they do not really absorb much water and thus are even unaffected by freezing temperatures.

Edited November 21, 2014 by churchward

[Roger Crown]

A safety warning

 

Early storage heaters contained Asbestos insulation and need to be encapsulated and removed from premises in tact and dismantled and disposed of by specialist contractors.

 

Roger

[magnetman]

good point!

[churchward]

A safety warning

 

Early storage heaters contained Asbestos insulation and need to be encapsulated and removed from premises in tact and dismantled and disposed of by specialist contractors.

 

Roger

Only Storage heaters in the UK built before 1973 may have asbestos in them.100% all storage heaters made from 1974 are asbestos free.

[alan_fincher]

Sorry I can't give the weight of these bricks as didn't have the means to weigh one. If you ask around you should be able to find someone who is scrapping these heaters.

 

According to this eBay posting, these storage heater bricks have the following specifications...

 

SPEC: Size: 230mm X 190mm X 50mm Weight: 7.5Kg PER BRICK

 

making each one have a volume of 2,185 cc and a weight of 7,500 grams.

 

If correct that gives density of over 3.4 grams per cc, which means that in terms of volume for a given weight they are considerably better even than the best quality engineering bricks.

 

I believe this would make them excellent ballast in many cases.

 

However they would still take up well over twice the space of iron or steel for the same weight. For compactness you really cannot bea suitably shaped iron or steel, (by a very large margin!).

[churchward]

 

According to this eBay posting, these storage heater bricks have the following specifications...

 

 

making each one have a volume of 2,185 cc and a weight of 7,500 grams.

 

If correct that gives density of over 3.4 grams per cc, which means that in terms of volume for a given weight they are considerably better even than the best quality engineering bricks.

 

I believe this would make them excellent ballast in many cases.

 

However they would still take up well over twice the space of iron or steel for the same weight. For compactness you really cannot bea suitably shaped iron or steel, (by a very large margin!).

lead would be better or if you want the most dense then Osmium but would be a tad pricey!

 

Joking aside The heating bricks are a good size mainly the thickness slips nicely under the floor void. Some of the ones I had were closer to 10Kg each but a bit bigger I don't think they were any denser.

Edited November 21, 2014 by churchward

[Southern Star]

 

Regarding our boat, which we really enjoyed and lived on for 3 years until ill health forced us to sell, but given the chance we will, sorry to say this dreaded word, knowing some on the forum don't like this word mentioned, but I'm afraid the wife and I will 'HIRE' a boat. There I've said it.

We chat with hire boaters all the time, share locks with them, lend them equipment, help them out as and when we can, we don't view them as any different to anybody else who wants to spend time on a boat.

[Theo]

We chat with hire boaters all the time, share locks with them, lend them equipment, help them out as and when we can, we don't view them as any different to anybody else who wants to spend time on a boat.

Did the Rochdale 9 with a hire boat a bit ago. Top quality company and very competent boaters.

 

N

[bigray]

We had some bricks from one we dismantled. I doubt they absorb water as we use two of them together (as they are a slight U shape) as a waterfall for the pond and they haven't cracked over the winter when frozen which i'd imagine they would do if they absorb water.

[Cheshire cat]

I bought 40 and used most of them to good effect on our boat

[ditchcrawler]

Only Storage heaters in the UK built before 1973 may have asbestos in them.100% all storage heaters made from 1974 are asbestos free.

That is about when I was fitting them

[J R]

Some years ago when we needed ballast for the boat build, found a local granite kitchen top suppliers who were only too grateful for us to take away the off cuts for free. They had previously had to pay for the unusable bits to go to land fill. Granite is dense, heavy and does not absorb water.

[Neil2]

I was considering upgrading some storage heaters recently (who says direct marketing doesn't work..?) and it appears that the modern unit uses bricks made from Magnesite which is indeed around the 3000kg/sq.m. mark. Pretty heavy but still less than half the weight of steel/iron.