I need a new calorifier...any recommended suppliers?

These guys have loads in stock just as you describe, granted a range which isn’t really made any more, but how frequently do you need to replace the unit in its entirety.

Thing is, they be going cheap /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Speak to Lee there, I should think he will be happy to move said calorifiers on now for not much gold..
 
Presumably you know that they come in different rated pressures and rated kW? As for the kW it used to be common for shore power supplies to be very low (esp in France) and 750W elements are popular for that reason. Most marinas now offer 15A as standard though Deauville YC were still on 3A a couple of years ago. 750W is a bit low when everyone wants a shower on a cold morning!
 
I changed my immersion from 1500W to 750 watt and reduced the size of the tank from 40 litres to 29 litres. With only two on board it heats up quicker from the engine and with only 750 watts its easier on the inverter and the batteries to heat the water at anchor. There is still plenty of hot water for showers.

I'm now quite glad the old tank developed 22 leaks!
 
You heat hot water from the batteries with an inverter and a 750W heater? To drive the inverter you are drawing over 60A from your batteries.

To heat your tank of 29 litres by a very modest 20C will take 2500kJ which will take a 750W element almost exactly one hour and will take at least 60Ah from your batteries. It's a bit worse than that since your batteries will be rated at a C/20 or, at best, a C/10 rate and anything over that discharge rate will effectively result in more being taken out than the ammeter shows. A 600Ah battery at a 10 hour rate is 60A and at a 20 hour rate is only 30 A. I don't know the size of your batteries but it sounds like a bad strategy to me - I would just use the engine to heat the water or get a generator - at least with the smaller element you can get away with a 1kW genny.
 
I can't understand anyone who would use a 56Hp engine just to heat water or charge a 12 volt battery. It doesn't make sense with all the extra wear and tear and reduced life of the engine - not to mention the noise!

My house battery bank is 1050 Ah - 5 x 210Ah batteries, so heating my hot water is a small load on the sytsem. I can also run my 3.5Kw AC Air/con heating from the batteries since it only draws about 1Kw - about 90 amps (Reverse cycle heat pump).

To keep the batteries charged I have a 4KVA 12 volt Diesel genny that pumps out 280 amps max which is so well sound insulated that we hardly hear it - its just like the water pump running.

12 volt genny + 2.5 KVA inverter gives a great combination - less maintenance and less noise 'cos the genny only runs at the speed it needs to deliver the load demanded. The inverter also gives AC anytime without running a genny for only a few minutes.
 
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I can't understand anyone who would use a 56Hp engine just to heat water or charge a 12 volt battery. It doesn't make sense with all the extra wear and tear and reduced life of the engine - not to mention the noise!

[/ QUOTE ]Ah, but many posters here would be able to think of about 10,000 reasons why they use the engine rather than have a genny and inverter! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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I can't understand anyone who would use a 56Hp engine just to heat water or charge a 12 volt battery. It doesn't make sense ...My house battery bank is 1050 Ah - 5 x 210Ah batteries, so heating my hot water is a small load on the system. ......

[/ QUOTE ]Like you, I don't run my main engine to heat things or charge batteries, I use a combination of solar and diesel generator but I would never use battery electricity to heat things unless the battery is on charge anyway - e.g. when the main engine is running.

The reason is cost.....

1. Batteries are lifed in cycles, not years. If you keep using battery power to heat your water (an everyday thing) then you are cycling them and using up their finite life.

2. The inefficiency is terrible. Diesel (Joules) to mains electricity (or high power dc if that's how you have arranged it) in Joules is around 30%. A battery charger might give a 5% loss if you are lucky. BUT, the electrochemical conversion efficiency of a lead acid battery is terrible - the conversion efficiency to turn electricity into chemical energy is about 75% and the efficiency to turn the chemical back to electrical can be as low as 60% depending on the battery, state of charge and the discharge rate (e.g. C/10, C/20, etc.). It would be crazy to take the output of a generator, convert it to chemical energy in a battery and then back to electrical energy to heat things up. OK, just occasionally for convenience, with a microwave, etc., there might be a case but as a system design it is so inefficient it should not be considered.
 
Just as an addendum, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the system you've got, only the way you use it - if you only allow the batteries to supply a large and long load once in a blue moon but use the generator whenever you need water heating, cooking, aircon, etc,. then you will have the best of both worlds.
 
Thanks for the comments, but it is about convieniece. When further south we use Solar Showers so only heat the water every now and then. We also have wind/towing genny and 2 solar panels.

I never cycle my batteries below 75% so a lot of the time I am charging the batteries from the 12volt diesel genny whilst supplying power to the inverter to heat the water.
 
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