Morco F11 not working properly

[Goede]

We have a Morco F11 and it has never worked very well. We had one in our narrow boat and it was always wonderful, never any trouble always very hot water, so we wanted one in our next boat. This one however has always been a nightmare.

 

Firstly the water pump we had wasn't powerful enough for the boiler, apparently, so we were advised to change it. Which we did, to a Johnson SPX WPS 3.5, which is really noisy and always sounds to me like its struggling with something but I don't know what.

 

Secondly it didn't seem to like the Victron multiplus because (we suspect that) it was set to work on some kind of eco mode, which made the Morco, and the Belling cooker, switch off and on all the time, unless we had another 240 appliance switched on, in which case they happily stayed on. We think that these appliances also have some kind of eco mode in them and they weren't demanding a continuous supply from the Victron, so when we plugged in a 240 light bulb for example, both appliances would work fine. So we swapped the Victron to another one we had and everything seemed fine for a time.

 

But still the Morco wasn't giving us water that was as hot as the last one we had. Also the burners in the Morco didn't seem to flare up as much as the last one. So we tried changing the pressure in the pressure vessel to see if it would be happy with more or less pressure. The last test was to increase the pressure in the pressure vessel to 30 psi.

 

Now the Morco seems to be completely dead, even the start up light won't come on, and yes we've checked the plug fuse, socket, wiring, plugged it straight from the generator.

 

We can't think whats wrong. Any ideas?

 

 

[smileypete]

If totally dead, sounds like an internal fuse on a module or PCB. Have a look underneath the unit where the mains cable goes in. Looks like it's best not to use on an inverter with power save...

 

As far as inadequate heat goes, could be worth measuring temperature rise and flow and comparing with the F11 spec, bear in mind cold water tank temps can reduce expected performance at this time of year.

 

IF the water pressure is as it should be and the heater output IS below spec, it could well be something on the gas side; faulty regulator, regulator 30mb instead of 37mb, obstruction/goo in gas pipes, partially blocked heater gas inlet filter, inadequate gas pipe size.

 

Beyond trying a different regulator, best to get a registered gas bod in, try to get a personal recommendation then use the Gas Safe website to check they're registered with a 'boats' ticket. Morco may have a list of technicians familiar with their range.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited January 12, 2015 by smileypete

[Goede]

Thank you for that.

 

He looked at the fuse and it wasn't blown, put it all back and now it seems to work. Loose wire maybe?

Still luke warm. The regulator is new, right size, cooker and hob work fine. All pipework is new. New installation.

 

The tank in the other boat was plastic, this tank is stainless steal, maybe that makes a difference.

[smileypete]

Glad it's at least working, bit hard to say about the lack of output without some measurements. A 20kW heater should give a reasonable shower even with a cold water tank.

 

But it should use 1.8kg gas/hr on full chat, so maybe run it for half an hour on full, but weigh the cylinder before and after with digital luggage scales.

 

Bought these scales recently, cheap but read ~1% less than the local post office scales, so fairly accurate (or I got lucky) :

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40kg-Portable-Pocket-Electronic-Hanging-Luggage-Fishing-Weighing-Digital-Scale-/251494191340 (other sellers have them)

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited January 15, 2015 by smileypete