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Wednesday 3 July 2013

Little Ouse Moorings 2 July 2013

We have had a couple of days on the boat attending to two plumbing leaks.

The first was from the drain cock on the radiator in the lounge, it was just a slow drip but needed sorting. Last time we were onboard I drained the system and removed the internals of the drain cock, the washer had given up the ghost. So while we were at home I bought a new drain cock and took the washer out of it which I fitted to the radiator yesterday. Job 1 sorted.

Job two, treating the rust patches on the roof, as the weather was looking brighter after lunch I went round these with the Kurust. I was going to make that the first job but it was raining when we arrived.

Job three, this was going to be the tough one. Let me set the scene. We have a diesel cooker with a water heating coil, I had tried one or two ways to tie this into the hot water system and in the end I cut two 1 1/2” holes in the calorifier (hot water tank) one at the top and one at the bottom and connected the heating coil of the stove, which is stainless steel to them so that I get thermosiphoning from the stove into the calorifier. The only problem was that the washers supplied with the fitting are rated at 60° C and with the engine running the water reaches 80° and so perished. I changed the washers in the top one some time back, but I have been putting off doing the bottom one. But today was the day.

The fitting in question is an “Essex Flange” and these can be fitted without having access to the inside of the cylinder. The fitting had been in place for about 10 years  and no way was the nut going to come all the way off, so a new fitting was require. The old one soon gave in when I set to with the mini grinder but I was unable to locate a new one anywhere in the area, so 5 pm we headed back to Lowestoft.

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