We have a an old solid fuel heating system (which works well and cheaply too), but the hot water cylinder has corroded and is now leaking.
The plumber who came to look at it said we needed a 'specially made' cylinder for solid fuel heating and was going to order one but he's been rushed into hospital.
I think I could do this job myself if all I had to do was disconnect it and reconnect the new cylinder....but I suspect the connections are old BSP fittings rather than metric which might complicate things a bit.
Suggestions for a supplier would be helpful, and am I likely to be able to get a cylinder with suitable threads on the connections ?
I don't know what he means by a special cylinder. It will be most likely gravity primaries, but that does not mean a special cylinder. he may have meant a primatic cylinder. Than mean no F&E tank.
Sometimes when a "professional" says that something needs to be "specially made" for your system it turns out that they wait a long time then sell you an off-the-shelf item at an inflated price. I would be tempted to get another plumber in to quote for replacing the cylinder - and ask nonchalantly if it is a standard part he will be using (he will probably say that it is a normal "direct" cylinder as this is what you almost certainly need).
If the cylinder is off-the shelf and not much needs changing to make it fit then you are probably looking at no more than about £100 for parts and a few hours labour. There is a good chance that a couple of the pipes might need moving a little to make the new cylinder fit, so if you are not into plumbing it may not be a DIY job - and probably not the best one to start a hobby with!
Britannica wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I went the other way and had a solid fuel back boiler replaced by gas.
The same cylinder was used, in fact the pipes to it were untouched at the cylinder end; so it's hard to see what's "special" - it's worked pretty well for about five years, and was elderly then.
Which led to the next problem, the original DHW gravity system has gradually been uprated to a fully pumped CH/DHW system, with the original pipes still in place, so an upgrade is needed that has to start with a new cylinder and move out to central area piping. (or should it be the other way round?)
(BTW, they are still 1" BSP, see the thread "confused about BSP threads" starting on the 22nd for lots more info and a bit of entertaining infighting)
The most accessible cylinders AFAICS are Albion, available in many sizes and from many online dealers - I can't reccommend as I haven't made my purchase yet, ther's also Range cylinders
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but they don't appear as easy to acquire.
Screwfix supply a limited range from the rcm group
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problem now is that I can get no help at all from plumbers' merchants, I'm convinced that the blokes are all cloned off the same combi enthusuast, and Albion seem to be the only firm with a good online selling network, so now you know just as much as I do
You certainly need some form of automatic heat dump on the primary of a solid fuel boiler so when (note: when not if) the tank starts to boil you can dump the heat and not have to suffer the banging and bumping from the cylinder (or a loft full of steam).
As for a special cylinder not heard that one before, always assuming that this is a correctly installed system with gravity primary, heat dump radiator etc.
It's a term that's used, just after the sharp intake of breath through the teeth, to prepare you for being ripped off.
A friend in London needed a "special cylinder" as his wasn't a standard size (more bullshit). When it had been fitted, I worked out what was special about it (in addition to the price of course); it has a strange property of being able to pump boiling hot water round the coil for ages without it giving up any heat to the water in the cylinder. So, special meant it had been ripped out of someone else's house, and has several inches of hard water scale encasing the coil, no doubt.
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