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Refleks stove heaters


Fly Navy

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1 hour ago, Fly Navy said:

Does anyone have one installed?

Can they be used to heat 2 or 3 radiators?

 

Many thanks

Hi and welcome, answer -- YES, YES, useful facebook site - Refleks Diesel Heaters...............best of luck, you are looking for the best way of keeping nice and warm and no DUST!!, have fun.

 

L

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They come in different sizes.  For example the 61MS model will heat an area of 50m3.  This is ample to heat 3 radiators (depending on the size of the radiators)and a calorifier.

You can arrange the plumbing so that all the heat goes to the radiators or to a calorifier or both.

Excellent bits of kit IMO.

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Thank you very much guys - appreciated.

 

I notice, when I look at NB's (and I have looked at a lot!), NONE have the Reflex stove fitted. Are they not popular?

 

For those who do have them, from the moment I pour the alcohol into it to start it up, to when it starts to pump out heat - roughly how long?

 

On the subject of heat and heating - given all the options out there, if you all had the chance to start from scratch again, what stove would you put in and what system would you use to heat the water for taps/shower?

 

Edited by Fly Navy
more info needed
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3 hours ago, Fly Navy said:

Thank you very much guys - appreciated.

 

I notice, when I look at NB's (and I have looked at a lot!), NONE have the Reflex stove fitted. Are they not popular?

 

For those who do have them, from the moment I pour the alcohol into it to start it up, to when it starts to pump out heat - roughly how long?

 

On the subject of heat and heating - given all the options out there, if you all had the chance to start from scratch again, what stove would you put in and what system would you use to heat the water for taps/shower?

 

Hundreds of thousands of these stoves have been produced by Refleks and have been used in North Sea ships for years.  They are also ideal for narrow boats.  Because they have a double skin, the outer case doesn't get really hot, so they can be set much closer to the sides of a boat in comparison with, say, a Squirrel.

Lighting a Refleks is a doddle - ignore all the faffing around with meths etc.  All I do is turn on the diesel, wait about ten seconds for the diesel to pool in the bottom of the stove then chuck in a piece of burning firelighter.  Twenty minutes later the radiator is hot.  It takes about half an hour to heat up my calorifier

Most of the problems people have with Refleks stoves are because they are not cleaned periodically.  For example, there is a nylon filter that needs attention.

 

Having said that, there is no substitute for a toasty traditional fire in the back cabin.

Edited by koukouvagia
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We had one which ran three rads and a calorifier on our last boat - excellent.

With hindsight I would have fitted valves to lock out the calorifier. When the system is cold it soaks up a lot of available circulating heat to warm the water there and the rads take a lot longer to get warm. 

On a previous smaller boat we just had a simple Refleks which kept the boat toasty without any need for a circulating pump. 

They are great things. 

 

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It'a all been covered in previous postings, I don't have a Refleks but have a Kabola OD$ which runs on the same basis (oil/drip feed). These oil burning stoves are excellent and run for long periods with minimum attention. It's worth considering where the oil supply will be stored on the boat - ie. dedicated tank, shared from the main tank and pumped to a day tank. Using them to supply hot water for domestic use is a good idea and an ideal solution would be a Calorifier with 2 circuits, one for the Refleks and another for an engine connection.

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, starman said:

We had one which ran three rads and a calorifier on our last boat - excellent.

With hindsight I would have fitted valves to lock out the calorifier. When the system is cold it soaks up a lot of available circulating heat to warm the water there and the rads take a lot longer to get warm. 

On a previous smaller boat we just had a simple Refleks which kept the boat toasty without any need for a circulating pump. 

They are great things. 

 

So, thinking about our next boat which will be 50’, a Refleks, a couple of rads and the calorifier would remove the need for a Webasplutter? Only downside I can see would be loss of redundancy – if the Refleks died, there would be no way to heat the boat if not on a landline at the time.

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46 minutes ago, BruceinSanity said:

So, thinking about our next boat which will be 50’, a Refleks, a couple of rads and the calorifier would remove the need for a Webasplutter? Only downside I can see would be loss of redundancy – if the Refleks died, there would be no way to heat the boat if not on a landline at the time.

 

I have a Kabola Old Dutch (without the facility to heat water or radiators) and a Webasto. They complement each other nicely.

 

The Webasto is ideal for heating the boat on occasional chilly Autumn and Spring mornings and evenings and hot water heating, and the Kabola for long stints of colder weather. Personally I wouldnt lose the redundancy, just in case one fails for whatever reason.

Edited by cuthound
To remove a letter masquerading as a space.
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Quote

a Refleks, a couple of rads and the calorifier would remove the need for a Webasplutter? Only downside I can see would be loss of redundancy – if the Refleks died, there would be no way to heat the boat if not on a landline at the time.

I like this. Good solution:

So a Refleks supplying 2 x rads and the Calorifier. For redundancy, link the Calorifier to the engine too.

A small feeder tank between the main diesel tank and the Reflex which gravity feeds the stove. Either manually top up the feeder tank from the main diesel tank or use an electric pump.

I noticed on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWihfNoIzA&pbjreload=10

 

at minute: 1:20 he uses an overflow tank. This is to capture overflow from the refleks regulator, he tells us.  How does this get catered for when installing a Refleks in a NB?

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23 minutes ago, Fly Navy said:

I like this. Good solution:

So a Refleks supplying 2 x rads and the Calorifier. For redundancy, link the Calorifier to the engine too.

A small feeder tank between the main diesel tank and the Reflex which gravity feeds the stove. Either manually top up the feeder tank from the main diesel tank or use an electric pump.

I noticed on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWihfNoIzA&pbjreload=10

 

at minute: 1:20 he uses an overflow tank. This is to capture overflow from the refleks regulator, he tells us.  How does this get catered for when installing a Refleks in a NB?

 

How will you provide redundancy for the heating if the Refleks fails?

 

My Kabola Old Dutch uses the same Toby regulator as the Refleks, and has a thermocouple operated flame failure device, so if the flame goes out the oil no longer enters the stove, hence no need for an overflow tank.

 

Doesn't the Refleks have a flame failure device to turn off the oil supply in the event of flame failure?

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1 hour ago, Fly Navy said:

at minute: 1:20 he uses an overflow tank. This is to capture overflow from the refleks regulator, he tells us.  How does this get catered for when installing a Refleks in a NB?

I don't think an overflow tank is necessary on a narrow boat.  It may, however, be desirable to have one on a sea-going boat which heals  over.  I have a small receptacle - a tin lid - under the overflow, just in case, but in thirty-odd years of using my Refleks, it has never overflowed.  

I rely on the automatic safety float mechanism in the regulator to cut off the diesel supply in case of flame failure (not that it's ever been needed in my case).

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3 hours ago, BruceinSanity said:

So, thinking about our next boat which will be 50’, a Refleks, a couple of rads and the calorifier would remove the need for a Webasplutter? Only downside I can see would be loss of redundancy – if the Refleks died, there would be no way to heat the boat if not on a landline at the time.

The only time my Refleks stoves died was when I ran out of diesel! They are utterly simple and can be cleaned with a proprietary tablet you lob into the burning fire. 

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I fitted a Glembring in our Broads cruiser, best thing I ever did, turned down to tick over at night or when leaving for work and the boat stayed warm, just turn it up and toasty in no time.  Used the same Toby valve as Refleks, I sat it in a stainless tray in case of drips but never happened .

Phil

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On 02/02/2019 at 16:34, starman said:

The only time my Refleks stoves died was when I ran out of diesel! They are utterly simple and can be cleaned with a proprietary tablet you lob into the burning fire. 

So, classic situation here, one vote for redundancy of heating and one against! Oh well, the build slot’s not until 2021, plenty of time to ponder...  (Braidbar are a bit busy these days.)

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1 hour ago, Fly Navy said:

Is there somewhere in the North West where they sell Refleks stoves?

Would the North East do, if so try Hartlepool Marine, (Sorry have not got contact details at the moment), I got some cleaning tablets off the recently and they sent these and a good brochure covering the full Refleks range

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30 minutes ago, BruceinSanity said:

So, classic situation here, one vote for redundancy of heating and one against! Oh well, the build slot’s not until 2021, plenty of time to ponder...  (Braidbar are a bit busy these days.)

Your blog is good!, I'd go for oil everytime, These fires burn for ages with little attention, get the one with the hot water facility and you will have lots of HW. Also in your plans allow for a 50 gallon dedicated storage tank. 

 

L.

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