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Draining Calorifier


umpire111

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You will need to put a hose on from the bottom water cold inlet to a suitable container/overboard and then open a hot tap to let air in to drain it.

As calorfiers have the hot feed to the taps at the top, simply opening a tap does nothing apart from empty your usual fresh water tank

Edited by Robbo
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No, you need to drain it from its lowest point, there should be a tap. Drain it into the bilge or connect a drill pump and pump it overboard. You will need to open a tap whilst doing it.(or turn the prv) 

Edited by rusty69
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2 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

Getting to that time of the year, how do I totally drain the calorifier? If I simply turned all the raps on would that do it?

or even turning the Taps on - no it won't. Not a lot of point turning the cold tap on - unless you want to drain the main water tank as well - and that you probably would want to do anyway.

Good luck with draining the calorifier as I suspect you may not have a drain cock - lots of boats don't....

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8 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

or even turning the Taps on - no it won't. Not a lot of point turning the cold tap on - unless you want to drain the main water tank as well - and that you probably would want to do anyway.

Good luck with draining the calorifier as I suspect you may not have a drain cock - lots of boats don't....

So how do u drain if not bottom outlet?

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Or, if you have shore power, empty as much as you can via the hot taps  (with the main tank isolated) and put an couple of electric oil filled radiators on board over winter, supplied from a thermostatically controlled plug top set to 5°C.

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2 hours ago, umpire111 said:

Getting to that time of the year, how do I totally drain the calorifier? If I simply turned all the raps on would that do it?

What time of year is that? I never drain mine how would I get hot water if I drained my cauliflower? seems a weird idea to me.

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I use an air pump plumbed into the hot water piping. A number of strokes of the pump later (with the cold tap open) pushes the water out. It leaves a small amount left in the bottom of the calorifier but not enough to be concerned about.

 

Air pump

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26 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

I guess it depends where the immersion is located. If at the bottom, like mine, no need for pump:)

Our first one was like that. As it had sprung a leak so was scrap anyway I used a holesaw then the pump. 

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Getting complicated for me, if I simply turn on all the taps and drain. Then close the tap between the main tank and the pump. I want to take the pump away for the winter. Is there any danger of the water still in the calorifier siphoning out of the pipe which would go into the pump?

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33 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

Getting complicated for me, if I simply turn on all the taps and drain. Then close the tap between the main tank and the pump. I want to take the pump away for the winter. Is there any danger of the water still in the calorifier siphoning out of the pipe which would go into the pump?

You should drain the calorifier as much as you can if you suspect freezing will occur.

Because the take off is usually taken from the top of the calorifier, simply opening say a kitchen tap, will not empty it, hence the need to empty from further down the tank. 

The other option is to prevent it from freezing. 

If you remove the main water pump without draining the calorifier and have a non return valve fitted in the cold feed, then only the amount in the pipe should drain out (but i wouldn't want to rely on that myself). 

Edited by rusty69
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24 minutes ago, umpire111 said:

Getting complicated for me, if I simply turn on all the taps and drain. Then close the tap between the main tank and the pump. I want to take the pump away for the winter. Is there any danger of the water still in the calorifier siphoning out of the pipe which would go into the pump?

Without knowing what sort of calorifier (vertical or horizontal) and the layout of your system, it's impossible rather difficult to advise.

If you have a valve either side of the pump, then it's  easy to isolate it (water wise) and take it away, also if valved, you could attach a hose to the calorifier end and drain it. If you haven't any valves then everything may get wet..... So, more info is needed.

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