Aga - Remove water from water jacket safely ?

[nick smith]

My father has an old Aga which also heats the water - Also has an old oil boiler due for renewal, but quotes are sky high for a two-calorifier DHW cylinder plus pipes and controls to accommodate both. As he only uses the Aga for cooking and then only in the winter months, the boiler is on year round doing water heating in summer and could do both in winter using a conventional DHW cylinder.

Question is...

Is it permissible to drain the water out of the Aga and isolate or would it result in the Aga cracking or otherwise self destructing ?

Thanks

Nick

[Andy Hall]

Talk to Aga Rayburn's technical department in Telford. They are very helpful.

If I remember correctly, it is possible to do this by filling the water jacket with sand, but it would be as well to check.

It may depend on model number and that should be on the plate. Otherwise there is a section of older models on their web site.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[nick smith]

Thanks for the info - will do !

Nick

[Tim Hardisty]

Yes!

I did this a few years ago and ran it for 18 months until we had the Aga refurbished and the tank removed. The Aga people I spoke to said it was no problem unless you ever wanted to reuse the water heater as the neoprene seals would have melted.

They advised, in the interests of economy, to fill the tank with sand (to act, I guess, as a heat store?) but there was no problem in not doing this - as I found.

If you think about it the water heater is nothing more than a cast iron box filled with air which is, more or less, exactly what an Aga is ;-)

HTH

Tim Hardisty. Remove HAT before replying