NB.BELLE

Whilst approaching Fradley Junction and doing this , try not to bash into this: Cheers, Chris.

Thanks for the complementary remarks Allan. We are genuinely pleased that you found our site interesting. It certainly is a time consuming job keeping up with developments and updating our site as well as holding the job down and rummaging around the Internet to see what else is going on, etc. You have probably already gathered that, now and again we do struggle, so we insert something broadly related to narrowboat life (well, as we perceive it to be that is). This is because we feel that you can only say so much about a project such as ours before things get a bit repetitive. Another aspect is that we would like to add some more pictures to the gallery, but we have refrained from doing so until our project is nearing completion. This is because we feel that photographs of part finished items on the boat do not do justice to the work involved. They will be uploaded soon, be sure. Latest is that BELLE will probably be finished and ready for us to take control around mid-November 2006. This will not come fast enough for us. Cheers for now, Chris. PS. you should have already received an answer from me to your PM.

So, OK then, picking up on one of the suggestions made earlier, how about this as a deterrent to potential intruders?

Have you thought about installing one of these?

I have not had a reply from Shell or BP yet, but I have from Texaco. It may interest you to know that Texaco's comments re. red diesel add up to pretty much the same as those given to Roger Gunkel by Shell. On the Eber front - I am still waiting for a reply to the questions I emailed to them on 27 June 2006. Next email will be going to their lords and masters in Germany. Cheers, Chris.

Try contacting BWML at Sawley. I understand that the the new 'Platinum Boaters' area is more or less finished. Boat cleaning/polishing is one of the services offered as part of this illustrious package deal for the 'well-heeled' boater. You never know, BWML might want to sub-con some work. Cheers, Chris.

Hi y'all. Interesting to note that the NBC reason offered to Steve for switching from the Eber' (I am fed up with opening symbol and then inserting an a with an Umlaut on it) was down to the limitation on the number of ignition failures before automatic lock-up. I have to agree, I am none too impressed with this approach on the part of Eber either. I would like to think that my car engine managment system would not lock up if, say, I flooded the engine and could not get it started, etc. Such a feature certainly limits your options for overcoming the problem. However, I have already seen a potential 'work-around' for this, albeit I would much prefer that Eber did away with it. The underlying reason being poor reliability though, I am not too sure about. I am aware that the Aqualine comes from Poland and that (well at the moment I believe this is the case) most of the other NBC narrowboats come from LBC. Not sure who does the wide beam for them. Who knows what will happen eventually, but that is 'off topic', so I will not go there on this thread. Steve; you must of course follow your own judgement based on the information currently available. I wish you all the best with your Hurricane. I am minded to send another email to Eber with a link to this thread along with a request that they offer some feedback to this wider forum. I would be interested to see their response and any evidence they could offer to make matters clearer regarding the ability of their Hydronic 5/10 to function satisfactorily with a reasonable service interval/cost, whilst running on the 'red diesel' sold on the cut. Cheers, Chris.

Hi Steve, I agree, if there is a problem with the Eberspächer Hydronic 5/10, be it the fuel used and/or the installation designs employed by the boat builder, then it would be in Eberspächer's interests to get to the bottom of it one way or another. If this means collaborating with other manufacturers of this kind of kit in order to square up the fuel suppliers if they are at fault, then they should adopt a pro-active approach and get on with it. If it means developing their unit some more, then they should get on with that too. The Eberspächer bloke I talked to would not say if they were waiting for the dust to settle on the red diesel derogation issue, before committing to some more development. I feel I should point out that our original thoughts behind the 'two tanks' idea was in response to the threat to the tax derogation on red diesel. So we were heading this way anyway - an added benefit is the option to use different fuels to help with this boiler sooting or gumming problem with Eberspächer (and possibly other units). I agree with you, there is no such thing as 100% reliability, but I propose that, these days, you can get quite close to it. We have decided that we will not change from the Eberspächer Hydronic 5 just yet, because with us requiring a diesel fired system, we have not yet seen any objective evidence to prove this is not an endemic problem. It would be very interesting to structure a poll or on-line questionnaire on CWDF in such a way that this would drive out data that could then be used to indicate the reliability of all diesel fired boilers in use on inland waterway boats. This information could then be used alongside the first cost and service frequency/cost data from the manufacturers to calculate the approximate LCC (Life Cycle Cost) for each unit. Then we would see who has the best package around at the moment. It would be interesting to learn if NBC descision was purely based on in-service reliability, or whether there were other influential factors (e.g. availability in Poland, or warranty coverage, avalability of field personnel, etc.). Not looking forward to beating up Eberspächer during the warrantly period, but if needs must, then I will be! Cheers, Chris.

I, like MAFFI and some others, have tried to get some meaningful feedback from Eberspächer regarding this red diesel issue by putting some questions to them directly. I did not ask them anything about the means for establishing the hours run though - my main concern was ensuring compatibility with the fuel available on the cut. I must stress that, having been around this loop back in February 2006, I still feel that there is some merit in using a Hydronic 5 rather than opting for the 10 and I also feel that incorporating TRV's at the radiators would be a good idea. I spent a few hours on the theory and calculating the size of boiler required - not a route that everybody would like to take, but it did help me consolidate my thoughts. We have taken the precaution of incorporating two diesel tanks into our new build whilst we could do so with ease. You can read about our experiences here if you so wish (in the February entry). BELLE - BLOG These issues have been around for while now, so if it really is a matter for Eberspächer to sort out, then they better get a grip on it, otherwise they will get some more serious grief from their customers and potential customers will go elsewhere. Cheers, Chris.

Pav. We paid £300 deposit, which sat with our builder for about a year. First payment was made upon laying of the base plate and further payments at sensible/logical stages thereafter. We are about half way through the build now. PM me if you want to know more. Cheers, Chris.

You might also wish to check the fridge. I have often encountered some nasty niffs from fridges that appear spotless from the inside. However, if you pull the fridge out and check around the back there is usually a small plastic drip tray on top of the compressor unit. The general idea is that any condensation that forms inside the fridge will drain into this drip tray via a small hole near the bottom of the fridge cabinet somewhere and thereafter evaporate. In doing so, it can carry all sorts of bacteria that will breed (yuk) and form a horrible looking smelly mess in this tray (and possibly the drain hole) that needs clearing from time to time. Just a thought. Cheers, Chris.