HWC heated via boiler through immersion fitting ??? !!

[gravytrain]

hi went to a customer this morning with leaking hot water cylinder. no probs there. however when i opened up airing cupboard the HWC was heated from two 15mm pipes entering the cylinder via a fitting where the immersion would normally go (see attached photo) i've never come across one of these before. the customer will need a new cylinder, can you get new fittings like the one allready in place or will i need to re plumb to fit a conventional one coil cylinder. thanks

 

[Blake]

Hmmm, I've never seen that before either, maybe one of the older, or shall we say more experienced guys will have come across it I assume it's doing the same thing as a conventional indirect cylinder, just at the top, but probably less effective I would imagine.

I would have thought you will need to re-pipe it for a standard indirect.

 

[kirkgas]

its called a "heating blade" salamander made/makes them, TBH as it is 15mm it isnt as good as 22mm coils on new cylinder, however depending on pipework layout it will be easier to repipe into 22mm new coil(the better option) but it will work fine if you have to reconnect to the blade, cut the pipes and unscrew the blade and simply refit into the top immersor boss, the trick will be getting the blade to the same position it was in to line the pipes up, so prob some alteration needed, there were plenty of them fitted "in the olden days" and they worked fine, it was a very easy was to convert cylinder from direct to indirect, although it done away with the immersor as back up, hands up who can remember fitting these or cutting coils into a direct cylinder with monodex cutters

 

[stevetheplumber]

its called a "heating blade" salamander made/makes them, TBH as it is 15mm it isnt as good as 22mm coils on new cylinder, however depending on pipework layout it will be easier to repipe into 22mm new coil(the better option) but it will work fine if you have to reconnect to the blade, cut the pipes and unscrew the blade and simply refit into the top immersor boss, the trick will be getting the blade to the same position it was in to line the pipes up, so prob some alteration needed, there were plenty of them fitted "in the olden days" and they worked fine, it was a very easy was to convert cylinder from direct to indirect, although it done away with the immersor as back up, hands up who can remember fitting these or cutting coils into a direct cylinder with monodex cutters

waves hand

 

[tamz]

Still have a set of monodex and a new spare blade. Even got a cone cutter too

 

[mark_mc]

mircoversion or hot tube that what i call them

still fit them the odd time, when installing stoves etc and gd single coil only in. use the single coil for stove and hot tube for oil. cheaper than a new cylinder.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

micro-versions were quite popular once for converting a direct cylinder

 

[Centralheatking]

Hands up here we remember them - usually on microbore (I think)

centralheatking

 

[Bartdude]

Yep I've seen a few of them too,never heard them called micro-versions before though,always called them a salamander coil down here!

 

[Gray0689]

Hot tubes here

 

[tamz]

There were 3 versions of them as far as i remember.
The salamander was like a 2" tube and came in fixed lengths.
The Micra/o-version was like about a dozen 10mm tubes, again came in fixed lengths.
The Hotrod was like a loop of 1/2" pipe about 3ft long with a steel wire exchanger about 14" long (like a flue brush) attached. These were adjustable length with compression fittings on the 2¼" nut. You pulled it to the correct length then tightened it.

They are still available and are useful as Mark said for converting an indirect cylinder to take another heat source (a cheap twin coil)

 

[Bernie2]

Yes sure they was plenty about years ago when central heating first came into mass use. They saved the expense of scrapping your old direct cylinder.

Funnily enough, I was reading an article by a plate heat exchanger maker, that you could make your own hot water heater using water straight from the mains, which I suppose would do away with a cylinder and storage cistern all together.

Simply connect a cold feed and hot out connection to one side of the plate and a hot flow and return to the other? Not that easy I suppose expansion, back flow and all that to be taken into account.

Anybody tried it yet?

 

[Gray0689]

Yes sure they was plenty about years ago when central heating first came into mass use. They saved the expense of scrapping your old direct cylinder.

Funnily enough, I was reading an article by a plate heat exchanger maker, that you could make your own hot water heater using water straight from the mains, which I suppose would do away with a cylinder and storage cistern all together.

Simply connect a cold feed and hot out connection to one side of the plate and a hot flow and return to the other? Not that easy I suppose expansion, back flow and all that to be taken into account.

Anybody tried it yet?

Yes done it but was off a 500 ltr buffer tank

 

[gravytrain]

hi thanks once again for everyones advice. would be useful to know, since cylinder needs replacing anyway, would you re-pipe to fit standard cylinder or try to re fit the heating blade. its an s plan.

 

[Centralheatking]

I think a 'normal' cylinder and coil would be more efficient

centralheatking

 

[markfxy]

Yes sure they was plenty about years ago when central heating first came into mass use. They saved the expense of scrapping your old direct cylinder.

Funnily enough, I was reading an article by a plate heat exchanger maker, that you could make your own hot water heater using water straight from the mains, which I suppose would do away with a cylinder and storage cistern all together.

Simply connect a cold feed and hot out connection to one side of the plate and a hot flow and return to the other? Not that easy I suppose expansion, back flow and all that to be taken into account.

Anybody tried it yet?

Plenty of people have tried it, I think you'll find it's called a combi boiler

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

in all due respect i think Bernie 2 was taking a whimsical view on this