radiator installation

[Smelly]

Maybe I should separate this into two headers but maybe I won't as time is short.

 

Backboiler is now installed, gravity feed and works quite well against a cold tank however if calorifier is hot from the engine then it boils, as does the coolant, resulting in vulcanicity in the bathroom where the header tank is sited. I'll happily accept an allegation of bad planning.

 

I reckon I need to offload some heat and have a couple of dual finrads with which to do so. I'll put one in at first and see how it goes. Calorifiers has got a PRV which is definitely working as it hasn't exploded.

 

The questions are principally has anyone installed the aquafax dual finrads which are on 22mm tube, to 28mm tube, and if so what fixings you used. The two pipes are quite close together and I can't see how I'd get 2 22mm right angle fittings onto a 22x28x22mm tee adaptor pipe in the kind of gap that's available.

 

I've not done much shopping around yet but I'm familiar with copper, John Guest and Hepworth type fittings.

 

The second question is whether just one will be enough assuming a 500w output on the rad and 1BTU (which seems to equate to 1KW but I'm not sure what a BTU consists of) going into it. I can't remember how many joules it takes to heat up one ml of water so can't do the sums; my A level chemistry has disappeared in the mists of time and Social Security legislation. There'll be a good loss on 8m of copper pipe as well. I've currently got a 12 gallon tank but will be installing another 16 gallon in the not too distant future which will act as a further heatsink.

 

I reckon I've got about 15-20 degrees of heat to make up in the tank between engine hot and boiling.

 

Ta as ever

[bottle]

Hi

 

Just a thought, how about a heated towel rail in the bathroom. (they come in all sizes)

 

Nice warm towels and a warm bathroom as well.

 

Sorry cannot help on the technical stuff.

[Smelly]

Hi

 

Just a thought, how about a heated towel rail in the bathroom. (they come in all sizes)

 

Nice warm towels and a warm bathroom as well.

 

Sorry cannot help on the technical stuff.

 

that's next but let's not spend too much more than we have already.

 

plus I'll need to finish teh bathroom before the twel rail can go in, bit of a sore spot ith the missus that!

[ChrisPy]

I fitted a 28x22x28 tee in the main line, followed by a 22mm elbow on the tee leg and a 28x22 reducer on the straight leg, using soldered copper fittings. That gave me two parallel 22mm pipes with room to spare.

 

Hope that helps.

[Smelly]

I never did say thank you Chris...

 

Problems arise though... having assembled it all there's one joint at the very bottom corner that was leaking when it went in and simply won't solder now it's on the system. It'd be a right pain to dissemble and I'm trying to sort it in situ.

 

Thoughts on the soldering are that there's a rad immediately above the joint and lots of copper to carry the heat of the soldering torch away, so the solder won't melt properly.

 

Have tried self amalgamting tape but it started dripping again when I filled it, does it need to be bone dry to work

 

Someone's suggested epoxy bandage but I can't find any of my usual suppliers (plumb centre/srewfix/PTS)that still stock it.

 

Any handy hints would be appreciated.

 

[stuart]

I'd expect that the joint has water in it, had lots of problems in the past with house plumbing even with a small amount of water.

 

Also make sure that when your soldering the joint, theres room for the heated air to escape from inside the pipes, just open a rad valve.

[Smelly]

I'd expect that the joint has water in it, had lots of problems in the past with house plumbing even with a small amount of water.

 

Also make sure that when your soldering the joint, theres room for the heated air to escape from inside the pipes, just open a rad valve.

 

Done that and can hear water boiling in it.

[smileypete]

Done that and can hear water boiling in it.

 

Hi,

 

If it's an elbow right at THE bottom maybe a tee with a drain plug on the spare 'leg' would be worth adding.

 

Sometimes the last bit of water can be sucked out with a wet/dry vac but some care is needed otherwise the calorifier may implode

 

cheers,

Pete.