Very thorough!! Thanks for explaining. Plumbing has never been the same since these kinds of fittings became available. Have used similar in my home, and they are a life saver! thumbed
Calorifier, yes I know them well. The one installed on my Southerly cost me €1000 in wasted electricity because the one installed had virtually no insulation, and I didn’t realise for over a year it was holding the heat for just a couple of hours before it sucked in some more electricity. Boy was I PO’d when I discovered that. I was thrilled to turf horrid thing and replace it with a Vetus 45L water heating tank which boast a heat loss rate of 0.5 deg C per hour. I charge it from the Eberspacher system and haven’t connect the 240 Volt. I checked your new calorifier has a heat loss rate of 1 deg C per Hour, still way better than what you had before. The good news is that after talking about it for years i am in the process of getting under way prototypes of thermal heat collection units that fit under your solar panels and pass the heat through your water heating system. So if you have a 300 watt PV solar panel you will get an additional 600 watts of heat. I love my heating system because I love have a hot hot shower every day aboard, and I have a fan heater in each head (running of the Eberspacher Hydronic circulated hot water system) to dry out the head after each shower, it takes an hour and recharges the hot water at the same time. I have a log fire designed to be installed before next winter and that will also supply hot water to reduce diesel consumption to very little in the winter months. One thing I would suggest is, rather than install the mixer, I would install one of the new EU standard bathroom taps which regulate temperature on one end and flow on the other. That way you have safe showers but hot water at the sink for efficient dishwashing. Just saying. Before this winter I have to insulate the hull to kill the condensation and the mound problem. I will be using the Armageddon AF product unless you know of something better. Also looking for knowledge on de-humidifiers.
Sounds like you have a well-considered system, William. Living in colder climates means you have to think a lot more about these things. It's something I've avoided tackling, knowing that we may be sailing away from the tropics! I like the sound of the solar heating set-up you have too. I might be coming back to you for advice!
@@followtheboat Advice is two way street. I am interested in your experiences on condensation, insulation, mold control, mold removal, smells and causes, using radios, and especially boat documentation (what you need, are copies acceptable, is it ok to laminate docs, water damaged docs, and much more).
Hiya! I popped in replace hot water heater and up popped your video! Thanks, Jamie, for the simple explanation as either our accumulator tank is buggered or our hot water heater, as every time we turn on the water, the PRV starts spewing out water! Like you guys, the calorifier is as old as the boat, so it's not a bad time to replace it whilst here in the UK. Ours is a Sure Cal so fingers crossed I can do a swap and go. The accumulator tank was new in the Seychelles but has never held pressure. Wish me luck I told Pete I'll manage this job. Cheers Jen & Pete (Steel Sapphire)
A nice trick is wrap your hoses with duct or electrical tape where you put your stainless clamps. It helps save / protect the hose from the clamps bitting in over the years.
Ain’t it always Something to Fix? 😜 But not to worry, Jaime “To the Rescue”…Liz…Give yourself a Break…You’re the Best Fisherwoman I’ve seen👍 Stay Safe & Enjoy 😎
Good video and helpful enough for anyone doing a similar install. I do hope you actually checked the air charge pressure in the accumulator before turning on the fresh water supply pump and that you have easy access for checking it or ‘topping off ‘routinely? Not maintaining the air side of the accumulator means the accumulator stops functioning as an expansion vessel and then your precious fresh water will end up in the bilge via the PRV.😉
glad to see you fit the pressure relief valve, at 100C water vapour expansa by about 1600 times. so if you had an overheaing problem and the water in your tank boiled, even with your new little 10L tank you'd end up with 16m3 of boiling steam in the boat. I've got a 25L calorifier so if mine went id end up with 40m3 of boiling steam, that's not something I'd want to be stuck in the middle of that.
Some nerdy stats there, Darren. Like it! Yes, the lack of pressure relief valve was not ideal and I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that has been fixed
@@followtheboat bit more nerdy stuff for you whilst I remember, my old tank used to go cold really quickly when running anything more than a cup of hot water. so when I had the new tank made up I had them put a diffuser plate where the cold comes in, this has made a massive difference as it deflects the new cold water to the bottom of the tank and thus helps maintain the stratification of the tank (hot at the top cold at the bottom) whereas the old set up just mixed the cold in with everything hence why the tank cooled down really quickly. Not a problem with your 10L tank but for anyone buying a bigger tank I’d recommend the diffuser plate.
Wow 10 Litres.? I have an unvented cylinder in my house which is a 200 Litre capacity megaflo. Anything unvented in the UK now has to be installed by an accredited engineer. You were really lucky to get away without the pressure relief valve working properly, really quite dangerous, more in your case if you had that compartment open it ruptured and you got hit by scalding water. Check the pressure on your expansion vessel yearly. Great video Jamie your camera work is getting really good, what are you using the most Sony or the Panasonic. Greetings from London.
It's still the GH5, Russ. I've set the Sony up for Liz to use, along with an 18mm lens, but that footage won't appear for a while yet. Yep, we were lucky and I'm glad we've installed the new system.
Polly put the kettle on -thats the hot water in our boat, or a solar shower bag left in the sun. Your system is pretty neat though. Having hot water at the twist of a sink faucet is pretty posh. Doesn't the expansion tank need to be insulated?.. We are in economy class and have foot pumps at Our galley and head sinks. Manual pumping.saves a lot of water though. We recently wore out our foot pump at the galley and had to replace it. The rebuild kit wouldn't cut it as the plastic foot lever parts were just knackered. That's a lot of pumping to wear out a quality whale foot pump. The last owners said they wore one out too, so this is at least the third pump for our boat.
We used to have a hand pump in rhe head. How is ot possible to wash tour hands after going and wiping without handling the pump, especially lathering amd then needing to rinse. The pump handle is always contaminated or at least wet amd soapy. We replaced it with a foot pump. We moved the hand pump to the galley for sea water rinse. I don't want the pump for sea water below the water level. Pumps always leak eventually. I don't want to sink the boat because of a leaking foot pump.
I'm not letting my crew see this episode. We only have hand pumped cold water. All our raw and fresh water is connected with push fit fittings, we love them. This way if our Jabsco engine cooling pump fails we can plug in an electric bilge pump to supply raw water for cooling, 5 min job to swap the hoses.
Love your videos, everyday problems and what to do to solve them. How long did it take? Doesn't really matter, it needed to be done. Waiting for a fishing video.
The derivation of the awkward-sounding 'calorifier' is pretty straightforward and, thus, not worth mentioning. But -- out of curiosity -- I did look up braze believing it was related to, was a variant of braise. It ain't! This tiny morsal is for the FTB logophiles out there; hope to have saved you a trip to the dictionary... Jamie: as always, concise and precise, folksy and not geeky. You make technical information easy to swallow. Do you do your own graphics? (A parenthetical BTW: seeing HEP20, sounded out HEP two-oh, I thought it was a new strain of hepatitis out there made, naturally, by DELTA [an American faucet manufacturer].) Pardon my ramblings -- I am quite hungover and my mind has the acumen of a pitcher of warm spit. Thanks as always for the show!
I thought that too, Daniel. I thought 'braze' was an Americanisation of the word 'braise' but it seems not. I checked the dictionary so you don't have to 😃
It might be that you use expansion tanks differently in the UK or in Marine applications. In the US the purpose of an expansion tank is to allow for the thermal expansion of water. Because of that I believe they should be mounted vertical. Like I said UK standards are often very different from ours, so I might be totally off base. Besides, it it works it's right.
You are right, as this is planet earth and the purpose of an expansion tank is the same wherever you are. They are normally installed vertically, but this is a bodge job. A 4bar PVR is not the norm for a calorifier the size of a kettle. The DIY bodger will always opt for HEP. He made a very simple job, complicated - but top bodge:)
i am assuming this is not an instant on system coupled with the engine heat? If not, why did you opt against instant on (other than it not being common on boats yet)? educate us please. Myself, i am quite impressed with the instant on hot water heaters i've witnessed.
Been s*****g my self on the state of ours it works but i dont hold out much hope for its future, feel confident now i can replace mine after that, silly me a confident boat owner :)
Hi, did you have any issues with the system not pressurising when first started after fitting the clarifier? I've just installed a 20ltr Quick system to replace a leaking QL, everything connected in according to the book, no visible leaks, but the pump is running continuously and the system not pressurising and I don't think the tank is filling. Any ideas? Do these systems need to be bled? Thanks Tony
@@followtheboat Thanks, I've figured it out (with help). All my fault, when I installed the new tank it was configured differently and I connected a cold water pipe back into the main water tank, this resulted in a continuous cycle when the pump was running, hence the continuous running pump. That pipe had previously been connected to an over pressure release on the tank. Of course solving one problem often leads to another! and now I have too much pressure in the system and the T&P release valve is pushing out water when the system pressurises, the faucets also have much more pressure than they used to. Not sure what I've done, but I'm going down to check the accumulator pressure tomorrow. Thanks again, Tony
Did you say 10 Ltr capacity? That seems very small. The mixer valve makes a big difference you need less water at a low temp from the calorifer at a high temp. There is now room for a few bottles of Rum in the bilge. Sail Safe Guys, Ant, Cid & the pooch crew.
It's a lot smaller but we don't need much hot water in the tropics, just enough to shower off, and with that mixer the hot water goes further than our previous setup. Reckon I could fit at least six bottles of rum in the cavity now 😂
Hi! I have just installed a 30L surecal, just wondering approximately how long your 10L takes to heat up (mine is not in use yet) I'm working out the power requirements for a future solar setup!
Hi. It's heated by the engine only at the moment, and that takes around fifteen minutes. I think it's rated at around 1500w so we'd only heat it by mains of and when plugged in to shore power.
@@johnprance1888 But when the cold tap is turned on the pump doesn't run immediately. Instead, the pressure vessel supplies the water pressure until it drops a certain amount after which the pump will kick in.
@@millzee60 yep fair point but it will be a minor amount. You made me think about it more! I agree better to have the accumulator on the cold supply. Thats how mine is! It will still work on the hot side though as you say everytime you open a cold tap/faucet the hot will run back through the tank a bit to the cold side until the pump kicks in. However that same hot water will be pushed back into the accumulator as the pump is activated. Still I agree, makes more sense to have the accumulator on the cold supply.
Very dangerous without pressure relief valve, you basically had a bomb if the thing overheated or overpressured. That old brown hep pipe will have gone brittle by now and I'd have put in the insert and than used a brass compression fitting. The speedfit onto the brass spigot is a little iffy as the grabring will have difficulty grabbing hold of the brass which is harder than copper. These are just the observations of someone that worked in and run plumbers merchant's for 18.5 years.
You have a lot more experience than me, David. Always appreciate an expert's advice. After 15 years in the boat there is still so much to learn, and that happens as you take each new job. The brown hep pipe is still in good condition so no need to replace that yet.
Yep. I thought this instantly when I saw the coolant running into the bilge. That stuff is highly toxic and it would have been nice that there was some planning before it's release. No point visiting nice places and then poisoning their environment. As an ex Chief Engineer on Megayachts, a great deal of time and thought was given to shipboard oil and other pollutants being contained and responsibly disposed of.
Sweet of you to jump in, but it's our normal way of addressing each other, and it's affectionate in our own way. The moment we start being polite to each other is the time to start worrying. Cheers! Liz 👍
