heater exhaust

Slinky Spring

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I am about to fit a Propex gas heater in my Jaguar 25. The flexible exhaust hose it came with is not long enough. My question is why can I not use copper pipe of the same diameter to connect from the heater to the skin fitting. To my mind this would provide a better quality job for a fraction of the price of the flexible hose. It seems rather flimsy to me as well. Another option might be to use stainless pipe with compression fittings.
Any comments welcome
 

ShipsWoofy

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I would be very careful with the flue, any leaks from it might cause you to sleep a little longer than intended.

I have used stainless flexi on my eber, as do most. The one thing about the flexi is it does what it says on the tin, if you have vibration which you might between the heater and skin fitting you may end up after time with stress fractures.

Remember, copper work hardens.

I am no expert, but I would definitely ask a calor installer for an opinion before pressing ahead. I have never seen a boat with a copper exhaust on anything, even my old fridge had an ally flue, there must be a reason for this as you have assumed, copper is really easy to work with.

Interested to hear what you find out on this....
 
A

Anonymous

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Do you know what the regulations or standards say, if anything? It would be worth checking as you are no longer allowed to work on gas installations unless you are a CORGI registered fitter with the appropriate quals to work on boats and bottled gas.
 

TigaWave

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Check with a calr dealer/fitter and get the relevant BS details.
But as of 1999 (I looked into this as I fitted the gas installation on an MCA coded yacht, legally)
Calor web site
http://www.calormarineshop.co.uk/rules-regs-answer.htm
If your boat is used by you, for your own private and personal pleasure then your gas installation should be in line with BS5482:3 for vessels with older gas systems or ISO 10239 for new installations. There is no legal requirement for you to use a properly trained & qualified and CORGI person, however your gas installation it must done in accordance with these codes. A CORGI registered person should be used to gain a gas safety certificate to show your insurance company that your gas installation meets these requirements. As a note of interest, on your insurance proposal form you will be asked about your gas installation. If your installation does not meet these standards then at best sections of your policy may be suspended, at worst you will be uninsured.

You just need the gas guy to pressure test and check the installation for insurance.

I would have thought the problem with using a copper flue would be that the pipe may get hot enough to burn GRP, where as the foil pipes/isulated may not. The concertina ( is that how you spell it?) aluminium pipes have a larger surface area to disipate heat from the pipe.
 

boatmike

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I have seen copper used before but it conducts heat rather too well and is not ideal. Stainless steel is fine and you could even use your flexible for any bends but make sure the joint is good and does not leak fumes into the boat, Either way you need to lag the pipe with fibreglass tape or some form of heat insulation for safety.
Be particularly careful not to let bare pipe touch wood or fiberglass and that the wle thing is adequately supported. All clampsshould fit OVER the lagging so they don't transmit heat to the structure of the boat.
 

KREW2

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Hello
As I've stated before getting hold of a corgi registered gas fitter with the certificate to work on boats is not easy.
If there is one working on the dorset coast who reads this please contact me via this forum
 

Talbot

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Dont know about the propex, but installation experts are firm about not exceeding the designed exhaust length for an eberspacher. If you use a solid pipe, it is more difficult to insulate the heater and fan noise from the boat structure. I have my 4 kw eberspacher mounted on the bulkhead the otherside of my head when I sleep. My installation is such that the highest noise into the sleeping cabin is from the air outlet.
 

pvb

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Maximum length...

Good point. Propex specify that the combined length of the intake and exhaust pipes shouldn't exceed 2 metres. The unit has some sort of airflow sensor to detect a partially-blocked flue, so exceeding the recommended length may just result in the unit repeatedly shutting down.
 

steve6367

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Propex in Southampton are very helpful and I am sure would be only too happy to help you. They have helped me with a few problems when my heater was installed - excellent service including sending spare parts to Torquay and driving down to Poole with a new heater when problems persisted. I think in this case though the exhaust must be the same as the air intake and not more than 2 meters. I believe this is as all air flow is sensed and so if you increase the length you will create more resistance and decrees to airflow too far- causing the heater to shutdown.
 
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