10/01/2009 by Mark.Whalley.

Saturday 10th January 2009

Up and about at 06:00, Max fed and watered and walked around the lake.  Back on the boat I have a couple of cups of tea from water heated on the Morsø and watch the early morning TV news, read through all new emails and start to catch up on writing the blog.

By 10:00 I’ve waited long enough for Bev to surface so make her a cup of tea so that I can start work on the water heater.

Last night the temperature dropped to -6C and from early morning a light dusting of snow now sat on the frozen canal and marina.  I’m sure glad that the work I have to do today is all indoors.

With the water already switched off, I turned the gas off and within just a few minutes the Paloma was off the wall.  

Following the printed instructions for the draft diverter, I attached the unit to the top of the heater.  Then, on reading the instructions for the heater I discover that the flange on the front on the diverter should be pointing to the back of the heater.  So undoing the two self tapping screws I removed the diverter, turned it round and re-applied the screws.

Attaching the unit to the wall was a doddle.  Offering the heater up to the existing chimney I marked the location of the upper bracket.  Using the largest of the three supplied screws, I then hung the heater on the wall.  Then, making sure the heater was sitting straight; I secured the unit to the wall with the remaining two screws through the lower bracket.

That was the easy bit.  As expected, with the heater being slightly shorter than Paloma, I now had to extend the 3/8” gas pipe, 15mm cold water feed and 15mm hot water supply.  I had to make a return trip to Uxbridge Boat Centre to pick up a couple of tap connectors and a gas leak detector spray.  Of course, when I returned to the boat I quickly realised that I had picked up the wrong connectors, as these were cone fitting and I needed the flat 1/2″ BSP type.  So it was back to UBC where I swapped them for the correct ones.  I also picked a 15mm isolation valve.  This would allow the heater to be isolated from the cold water supply in the event of future problems.

Cutting new sections of 15mm Hepworth pipe and fitting them with reinforcing inner tubes, I was quickly able to complete the cold water feed and hot water supply.  Switching on the water pump, I was then able to test for water leaks.  Perfect first time (that makes a change!).

I then started on the gas supply.  Again, cutting a short length of 3/8” copper pipe to fit between the existing gas test point and the new 3/8” adaptor now connected to the heater.  Using the gas leak detector fluid, I spayed each of the new and existing localised compression joints and turned on the gas.  A couple of minutes later, and without a single ‘bubble’ showing, I was happy that the gas supply was sound and I could now move on to testing the heater.

After inserting the ignition battery, and following the instructions, I pressed the ignition button.  Within just a couple of seconds, the pilot light lit and on turning on the galley hot water tap, the heater fired up and quickly provided steaming hot water.

Initial impression is that the heater is definitely more powerful than the Paloma.  Bearing in mind the water in tank is sitting in a canal which is currently frozen, the hot water pumping out of the heater was too hot to touch when the heater was turned up full (point 6).  The only way to get a comfortable water temperature was to reduce the temperature to point 4.  This also provided a greater pressure of warm water.

The final test was conducted by Bev – she had a shower!

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09/01/2009 by Mark.Whalley.

Friday 9th January 2009

With Bev looking after Nia in the morning (whilst Natalie was working), we couldn’t set off until after 12:00.  This wasn’t a problem, as I was able to do some of the chores around the house; sorting out the re-cycling bags, taking down the icicle lights from around the house (not a nice job on an aluminium ladder in temperatures just above freezing) and downloading the Rinnai installation manual from the internet so that I could have a read beforehand.  This prove to be useful, as I discovered that the heater has a 10mm gas pipe connector, whilst my existing copper pipe is 3/8” – a reducer would also need to be picked up from UBC.

I was also pleased to see that the gas inlet, hot water outlet (15mm) and cold water inlet (15mm) were in the same order left-to-right as the existing Paloma.  At least I wouldn’t have to re-route all the pipes.

With car packed, Bev and I (with Max the Labrador in the boot) set off at around 12:30, arriving at the Marina at around 15:30.  Coincidentally, as we were passing the exit for Heathrow (just a couple of miles from the Slough office), Wouter (Director of Premium Services - Ingres) telephoned from Slough to ask about some of the work we did in 2008 for a report he was preparing!

Whilst Bev took Max for a brief walk, I unloaded the car and lit the Morsø – it was again quite cold (just above freezing) and with the prospect of temperatures dropping to -8C, keeping the boat warm was clearly going to be a priority.

As I looked across the Marina, there were clearly a number of other boaters who were also preparing for another cold night as the plumes of smoke rose from their boats’ chimneys into the cold, still air.

With Bev and Max on board, I headed out to Uxbridge Boat Centre to collect the heater.  Whilst there, I also picked up some 3/8” copper pipe, some spare olives (as I would probably need to refit the existing gas test point below the heater) and the 3/8” connector for the heater (to replace the 10mm connector with integral gas test point).

Before leaving UBC, I mentioned that I had passed their details on to the Canal List mail group.  To which the two ladies behind the counter suddenly realised why they had received two telephone calls asking about high temperature sealant today!

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08/01/2009 by Mark.Whalley.

Thursday 8th January 2009

With several days of annual leave being carried over from last year, and a number of TOIL days accumulated from my recent trips to Venice, I decided that I would take Friday off with the intention of heading back to the boat to fit a new water heater.

A phone call to Uxbridge Boat Centre confirmed that they also stocked the draft diverter (a separate unit which fits on top of the heater to prevent the pilot light from being extinguished by drafts!) and that both heater and diverter would be put to one side for me.

In the evening, whilst reading through some canal emails on Yahoo’s canal-list, I spotted one asking about high temperature silicon sealant to which someone else had responded that they thought UBC stocked it.  Having bought a tube of the sealant for the chimney of the Morsø last year from UBC, I responded that to the best of my knowledge they did stock it, and whilst I had their details on screen, I cut ‘n paste the telephone, fax and opening hours into my reply.

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07/01/2009 by Mark.Whalley.

Wednesday 7th January 2009

At 06:30 I left the boat and set off to pick my colleague Peter Gale up from his hotel near Slough station.  We had planned to spend a couple of hours in the office at Slough before catching a train to London for the meeting.  No sooner had I picked Peter up (at 07:00), his phone rang.  The call was from two of the other attendees for the meeting who were calling to cancel the meeting as the overhead power lines had prevented their trains from travelling from the North of England to London.

Ah well, might just as well drive home.

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06/01/2009 by Mark.Whalley.

Tuesday 6th January 2009

With a meeting planned in the City on Wednesday and wanting to check out the boat having not seen it during the prolonged cold snap, I decided to drive from Swansea to the boat on Tuesday afternoon so that I could stay on-board overnight.

This of course would also allow me to put my new BW licence disks (which came into effect on 1st January) on prominent display.

The M4 was extremely quiet.  Whether this was due to the sub-zero temperatures, people taking longer breaks over Xmas and New Year or just that I had planned my journey outside rush hour, I am not too sure.  Anyway, just over three hours and I was parked up at Packet Boat Marina.  As I was only staying on board for one night, unpacking the car was a relatively quick process.

With a few more hours left in the working day, my first priority was to unpack the laptop and get it started.  Whilst Windows was going through its laborious start up, I set about preparing the Morsø.  With the stove lit I checked the temperature on the Max-Min thermometer (in the bathroom).  Not surprisingly, the inside temperature matched that of the outside – a rather chilly -2C with frozen sheets of ice surrounding the boat.

Sitting at the table with my coat and Peter Storm hat on, breathing clouds of condensation I kept warm by replying to emails that had been sent whilst I had been driving from Swansea.  As usual, the Morsø delivered the goods, raising the temperature from -2C to 26C in no time at all, requiring me to open the front door to bring the temperature to a more comfortable level!  Shortly afterwards I decided it was time for a cup of tea.  Remembering that I had not yet switched the electrics on, I flicked the rockers for “water pump” and “shower pump” (which also feeds the smaller toilet water pump).  I didn’t bother with the “fridge” as I wouldn’t be on-board long enough, and I could always leave the milk and other perishable food in a bag in the engine room which was still quite cold.  Hearing the water pump kicking in and re-pressurising the system, I worked my way back to the galley from the engine room.  It was then that I noticed that the water pump had not stopped running (not a good sign).  Checking the bathroom and galley sink taps, I then spotted the spout of water squirting from the side of the Paloma water heater.  Quickly back to the engine room where I switched off the electrics and then back to the galley to mop up the water from the work surfaces and floor.

The cover of the Paloma is easily removed by unscrewing two grub screws and sliding off the two control knobs from the front of the unit.  Briefly turning the water pump back on, I was able to spot from where the water was now leaking – the inlet diaphragm.

With a picture in my mind of the part I needed, and believing Uxbridge Boat Centre was open until 18:00, I set off in the hope that they might stock parts (or at least point me in the direction of someone who did).  My hopes were quickly dashed when I was informed that they stopped making the Paloma 9 years ago, and UBC stopped stocking parts for it about 6 years ago!

Although I wasn’t going to do anything about it just yet, I enquired as to what units I could replace it with.  I was then shown a number of heaters of varying sizes (and prices), one of which had a balanced flue, the remainder, like the Paloma with a “normal” flue.  Asking which was the most popular, I was told that for those replacing the Paloma, the Rinnai 58E is the one typically chosen.  It is physically slightly smaller, delivers a higher heat output and the price (~£200) comparable with the other models.

I thanked UBC for their advice and assured them that I would return, probably when the whether was a bit warmer and I had more time to devote to fixing the problem.

Returning to the boat, I spent the evening without running water but was able to use bottled water to make that cup of tea and the communal shower facility in the morning to get ready for the meeting in London.

During the evening, I did a bit more research.  The tried and tested search on Google confirmed that Paloma is no more.  There were a few second hand ones on sale on E-bay and a company in America who seemed to be able to provide parts.  However, I believe I had already made my mind up.  The Paloma was approaching 20 years old.  Although I had identified the main leak, there were no guarantees that there were not other yet-unidentified leaks.  A replacement unit would have to be installed.

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