Apart from their vastly overpriced "custom" Duracells in a copper tube ripoff scam I can't say that the Watchman has been any bother at all. touches wood
Certainly towards the end of our old tanks life the sight gauge was completely unreliable especially during tank filling!
New one has an autostop and full capacity bunding.
Seems very odd logic by the original fitter to provide a water trap/filter without any means of emptying it.
Is it possible that there *is* a valve of some sort present but missing its handle thus making it less obvious? A small ball valve of some sort perhaps?
Tim
Ah, just seen your photo. It does indeed look like you have a ball valve there.
Tim
Tim+ posted
JB Good thinks so too, but are we sure? It would be great if it were, then I could shut it off, empty the trap and put in a new gasket. Assuming they're still available :)
Yeah I thought the same as well but it doesn't look quite right, there doesn't appear to be any sort of gland around the shaft but I can't think what else it could be.
The glass bowl will function as a water trap and may well have coarse filter in it as well. If the oil line goes up/down a bit outside not having a water trap is *not* a Good Idea. One cold winters morning our boiler locked out and wouldn't restart. No fuel... Long story short shallow dip in pipe full of water frozen into a 2' long bit of firm slush. Got that out pulled cloth on bit of wire through the 10 m of pipe, loads of dirt and muck. Connected all back up still wouldn't run, faffing about with the pipework had dislodged enough gunk to block the fire valve.
Now have glass bowl filter unit fitted at the tank and it has caught a bit of water. I also siphoned something like 5 to 10 gallons of water from the bottom of the tank as well.
Well you could turn the screw and see if the boiler stops.
John Williamson posted
Any idea where I can get a new one? For once Google isn't much help. Perhaps I'm searching on the wrong term.
If there's a maker's mark on it, that's a start. Otherwise, I found quite a few using "sight gauge gasket" or "sight glass gasket"
You might find it's just a fat O-ring made of a hydrocarbon resistant material.
None I can see.
The ones I turned up were mostly for ageing motorbikes or industrial water pumps or something.
Without doing a chemical analysis I wouldn't know ...
Looks like a bit of a bodge but the bit with a screw definitely looks like (part of) a service valve.
Yes, I have turned it and it did shut the boiler off. I haven't yet summoned up the courage to undo the water trap though ... not much point anyway until I source a new seal.
Thanks for all replies.
/10:17Big Les Wade newshound posted
- show quoted text - Yes, I have turned it and it did shut the boiler off. I haven't yet summoned up the courage to undo the water trap though ... not much point anyway until I source a new seal. /q
Until you dare to disassemble it how TF are you going to know what you need?!
Seems you need to forget the "DIY" & pay someone to sort this out for you?
Jim K
And I bet a bit of cerial packet carefully cut to shape would work. It also strkes me that the O ring kits from lidl/aldi could be useful, they go quite large.
Has the glass bowl to mount been confirmed as the leak source?
By looking at what's available on the Internet in terms of replacement parts (especially O rings).
Not yet. I'm waiting for my O-ring kit to arrive, then I'll replace it and find out.
By looking at what's available on the Internet in terms of replacement parts (especially O rings). /q
Ah yes the needle in the haystack approach :-)
Jim K
JimK posted
It has taken some time, but TBH I don't see how else I could have done it. In the end I found some web sites that sell sight gauges and glass filter bowls that look exactly like mine, so that I could identify the maker (Atkinson, it seems). Then I used that brand name to search for and order a compatible O-ring replacement kit. Have you got a better idea?
It's one strategy. I have a box of assorted O rings which may have come from SF, TS, or Aldi. They are nitrile rings so will be compatible with fuel oil. Personally, I would have whipped the bowl off and looked for a suitable match. Someone else mentioned washers made from cornflake packets, and I have certainly done that before on things like sumps and rocker box covers when I drove bikes and cars that were near the end of their life.
But, I know a fair bit about seals and materials compatibility so I know what is safe. There's nothing wrong with your approach.
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