No Direction

No Direction is our 70ft Narrowboat which is now home to my wife Jayne and myself, it was launched on 4th February 2008.

We spend the Winters in a Marina and cruise in the warmer weather.

Sunday 24 June 2012

Another Job Done.

Saturday/Sunday. 23/24th June 2012.
Kings Bromley Marina.

Continuing with a list of indoor jobs on the boat due to the poor weather, yesterday the central heating got some overdue attention.

We have two systems joined together, at one end we have a Bubble multifuel fire with back boiler and circulation pump which pushes the heated water around six radiators and a heated towel rail, this is used throughout the winter and works well.

At the other end of the boat is a Webasto diesel boiler, this uses the same radiators and also heats the hot water tank, we use this system during the warmer weather when we just want the radiators on for a short time in the evening.

The fluid in the system is a mix of water and anti freeze, although our radiators never get cold enough to freeze the mixture is also a corrosion inhibitor so its presence is important, it's recommended that it's replaced every three years, ours had been in four so was well overdue for replacement.

The old fluid was almost clear and well past it's best, however as there's
no rust it's been doing it's job.

It's almost impossible to guess the total capacity of the system unless you were the one who filled it originally and measured how much it took, which I wasn't, ideally the mix needs to be half and half so a bit of guess work is needed.

The header tank lives at the back of the boat, boxed in with a lid over it.

I added ten litres of Morris Lubricants anti freeze and topped up with water, then the fun of bleeding the rads began, this is not as simple as it sounds,  especially when you unscrew one of the bleed screws too much and it drops on the floor and rolls away, but it's all done now. 

The Webasto, lurking in a corner.

Webasto water heaters have gained a bit of a reputation for unreliability, in my experience completely unfounded.  Webastos are used on many large cars and 4x4s to aid quick warm up, and, on the most expensive vehicles to warm the interior and engine before the driver gets in on a cold morning. During my time at Land Rover a reported failure of a Webasto was investigated very quickly and always found to be caused by something other than the unit itself.

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