Upside down calorifier

[chasroberts]

Further from my earlier post re the calorifier, I have another question to pose to the assembly please.

For one reason and another the best available location for the calorifier seems to be upside down (ie all the outlets facing down) in a side locker. Other than the obvious problem with gravity in the event of a leak are there any disadvantages to installing it this way. Could do it the right way up but this means a more complicated pipe run and more space needed for the piping turns.

My apologies if this is obvious, but I seem to be suffering 'a bit of a blank'. Again, and as always, thanks for taking the time to read and possibly blast out a quick reply.

Chas

 

[bendyone]

The hot water outlet needs to be at the top.

 

[Retired in Crete]

The hot water outlet needs to be at the top.

This is because hot water rises to the top of the tank. Try this: Go to your airing cupboard at home and feel the hot water tank. It will be hotter at the top than at the bottom.

If, on your boat, you put the tank upside down the hot outlet will be at the bottom and it will be extracting the cooler water from the bottom of the tank rather than the hot water at the top.

Hope this helps

John

 

[No Regrets]

If you make an internal extension to the hot water outlet, no problem...

 

[alisdair4]

Calorifier orientation

Not intending to hijack the post, but this is answering a question which I was slightly embarrassed to ask! In my Calorifier, which I had mounted in the way you describe, the immersion heater is at the bottom. This led to a leak around where the heater joined the cylinder, and led the engineer who tested the calorifier to suggest inverting it. Presumably, if I was to do this, the calorifer would still work, but the water may be slightly colder to start with? (It is only a 10l cylinder).

The hot water outlet needs to be at the top.

 

[Retired in Crete]

No problem if the immersion heater is at the top, bottom or in the middle. Many domestic installations have one at the top and one near the bottom to give you the choice of either a part tank or a full tank of hot water.

To get the hottest water the hot outlet must take water from the highest point in the tank. The cold fill to the tank is usually, but not always, at the bottom so if you take your water from the bottom you will be extracting unheated water as the tank refills.

John

 

[pete]

Fitting it upside down may also cause a large air bubble inside the calorifier reducing it's capacity.

 

[RobbieW]

Check the installation instructions - I have an Isotemp that is designed to be fitted horizontally or vertically with connections down.

 

[chasroberts]

My thanks to all, as always for your thoughts.

Any more ideas. All the calorifier inlets and outlets are at one end (top?) of the tank.

Chas

 

[pvb]

Any more ideas. All the calorifier inlets and outlets are at one end (top?) of the tank.

I think we need more information - specifically, what make/type of calorifier are you talking about?

If it has all the connections on one end, it's almost certainly designed to be used horizontally, in which case it won't work properly if mounted vertically.

 

[RobbieW]

One problem with having all connections at the top is that, unless there is a separate drain at the other end, draining the tank becomes a challenge

 

[alisdair4]

Inverting calorifier

Prompted by this thread, I have now dug into the matter with the Company who provided my calorifier (Surejust). http://www.surejust.co.uk/PDF/horical.pdf

It turns out that I had mounted a calorifier which was designed for horizontal use, vertically, with the fittings at the top. This was done for reasons of space - the cylinder would not fit into the galley area in a horizontal orientation.

As had been mentioned elsewhere, this gives the problem of how to drain the thing for winter. I suggested inverting the calorifier to the rep from Surejust, and he said that this would work -with one proviso. This is, that I switched the hot and cold feeds around. This way, the cold water will go into the bottom of the cylinder, and the off-take for the hot is at the top.

I will try it this weekend and report back!