Abergas HTM boiler

[Hugh Jaleak]

Does anyone remember this boiler? It was the conventional type (not a combi). We had one in our house where I grew up, I would guess it was installed circa 1968. I remember it being a noisy thing when running, and had a peculiar flue terminal outside, a rectangular affair which exhausted at the top front, and drew air in at the base. It was becoming a mission to keep alive during the winter of 1982/83 before we moved. The engineer left Dad a couple of what I now presume were some kind of circuit boards, (with an ignition lead attached?), to fit if it started playing up. (Which by that stage was quite frequently....)

I'm curious if anyone knows anything about them please? It seemed to be totally different to anything else we worked on during the late 80's when I was an apprentice. Never seen or heard of another, pretty sure they were obselete by 1982. Any info appreciated.

 

[45yearsagasman]

I can remember them and they are completely obsolete as far as I know.They had a heat exchanger the inside of which looked like 100's of ball bearings welded together.That's the only way I can explain it.They used to fall apart easily and I don't think the company ever recovered from that.That took me back to my apprentice days in the late 60's.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Cheers! It was obselete in '82 AFAIK, dad was hoping it lasted until we moved out so he didnt have to fork out to replace it on top of moving costs.... (Always been a tight git unless it involved a new car or computer for himself....)

Used to have major problems with the wind blowing the burner out, a steel bucket with the bottom rotted out was wedged over the flue as a rudimentary draught diverter.....

 

[Flameangel1]

I installed the boiler in August 1973. It has been working with 2 repairs up until 12th Dec. when the ignition board has stopped sending a spark to the plug. I am now trying to find out if it can be repaired.I change the heater exchanger about 20 years ago the then latest. Discs instead of ball bearings. The other hicup, gas not flowing through the pressure regulator.
Even if I cannot get the board repaired I've had my moneys worth.

 

[Agile]

I cannot imagine its very efficient and replacement should be a good solution.

For the chalenge I love getting old boilers going and an ignition fault should be a very easy one to resolve.

Pity you dont live in my primary area and employ engineers.

Tony

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

I would be interested to know more about them if anyone could give any information or pictures!

 

[namsag]

We had about 4 on contract and you could always tell by the expletives being used that some one had got one to do. You had to order a service kit up each time it was taken apart other than the ball bearing heat ex thats all i remember about them

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

There were a few expletives from the old man when it wouldnt run properly..... Were they just a PITA or quite advanced for their time? Never heard of a boiler with a spark plug before now.

 

[Flameangel1]

I installed the boiler in August 1973. It has been working with 2 repairs up until 12th Dec. when the ignition board has stopped sending a spark to the plug. I am now trying to find out if it can be repaired.I change the heater exchanger about 20 years ago the then latest. Discs instead of ball bearings. The other hicup, gas not flowing through the pressure regulator.
Even if I cannot get the board repaired I've had my moneys worth.

I've been able to get the ignition board repaired. (Capacitor brocken down with age). Boiler now running fine, hopefully for a few more years

 

[geoffjones]

I installed one of these boilers in around 1973. When I was studying fuel technology!

These boilers were the most efficient ones ever made, probably even better than most today! This was their downfall. They could rapidly overheat due to the small HE and required large water flow rates.

Methane when burning at its most efficient (stoichiometric-combustion ) cannot sustain combustion hence Abergas used a continuously running spark plug to keep the gas alight.

The HE was copper with steel ball bearings brazed to it (to prevent the copper melting) However, if the boiler overheated slightly (mainly due to insufficient pump flow) then the brazing would melt and the bearings fell off ) It's interesting that an earlier poster commented that later boilers had discs which probably alleviated this problem.

A real pity IMHO they are no longer made (my guess is that the introduction of microbore heating probably killed them off) plus the inability of the average plumber of the time to make a circuit that could sustain the flow rates (the external circuit was an integral part of the boiler design.[/url]

 

[Flameangel1]

Flameangel1
I agree with you! proberbly better than most boilers of today. Mine is still running after I installed it in 1973. The cental heating I installed with microbore. The manufacturer did recommend a 3/4" by-pass between the flow and return as the pipe work shown in their installation manual. I take it this helped the flow rate. The boiler has run almost every day since 1973 (except holidays). Summer time heating hot water. Winter hot water and central heating. The system has 12 radiators

 

[namsag]

Wait till i tell the lads there is an abergas out there still working they will have kittens hoping that there is not more of them

 

[expertgasman]

There were a couple on my patch, but I was an apprentice, so never had much hands on with them. I do remember the claim that they were a by product of space technology! Something to with the ball bearings and the nose cone of a rocket on re-entry!

Abergas?

No thanks, I've given 'em up.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Dont recall any issues with the HE in it, main problem seemed to be the circuit board, so I presume the gas not being kept alight. It was powering (from memory) 8-9 rads and the HW. (3 bed semi).

IIRC it made a buzzing noise when running, this then became intermittent when it refused to work properly. I recall Dad swapped one circuit board to try and get it to run, the other he'd been left was slightly different so he wasn't sure whether he dared fit it....

 

[simond]

This boiler sounds fascinating, would love to see one.

Maybe we will rip one out one day and I can take a look. Shame there's no manuals available, how efficient was it?