LEAK CAST IRON BOILER /TAKE ELEMENTS DOWN AND RESEAL ?

[1pierre1]

Hi
I have a Potterton King fisher boiler (CF100)
The boiler itself is made of 5 cast iron elements held together by long bolts
As always on such a system leaks develop between the cast iron elements
At the same time ,the boiler is often noisy ,particularly from cold ,so I suspect there may be a bit of lime and'or rust deposits
So,is it possible to have the boiler taken down,the elements cleaned ,polished and resealed ?
What equipment , gaskets ,seals ...sealing paste are required ?
Alternatively ,would something simple like Fernox work?
I would like to form my own opinion before talking to a specialist,
and yes ,I know ,the simple solution would be to change the boiler ,but I would like to contemplate other options for now
Many thanks in advance for your comments
Peter

 

[ChrisR]

The cast iron parts are obsolete, so I doubt you'd find anyone to take it on. Just one unavailable part beng not serviceable, means a lot of wasted work. If any part is leaking because it has rusted, for example.

 

[1pierre1]

thanks for your response
Do you know if a special sealing paste has to ne applied between the cast iron elements ?
(nb :there does not seem to be a gasket)
Peter

 

[doitall]

The job is too labour intensive, it would cost more to strip down and renew a section than fit another boiler.

And you could easily damage another section.

 

[Agile]

This kind of repair can sometimes be done but it would not be commercially viable and as Chris says its usually accompanied by rusting of the sections at the site of the leak.

When people spend about £2k each person on a holiday and over £10k on new cars then I wonder why there is such a resistance to paying less than £2k to have a new boiler which will save 30% on the gas bill and help to save the planet !

Tony

 

[Softus]

When people spend about £2k each person on a holiday and over £10k on new cars then I wonder why there is such a resistance to paying less than £2k to have a new boiler...

There's nothing wrong with enquiring about repairing something when the alternative is to buy an appliance whose environmental price of design and unit manufacture utterly dwarfs the carbon footprint of an individual using an old Kingfisher.

 

[Agile]

There's nothing wrong with enquiring about repairing something when the alternative is to buy an appliance whose environmental price of design and unit manufacture utterly dwarfs the carbon footprint of an individual using an old Kingfisher.

Quite apart from your totally abusive posting Softus, your views on condensing boilers are totally at variance with the Government and those organisations who research and advise on combating global warming.

Tony

 

[Softus]

Blunt? Yes.

Abusive? No.

Your socially judgmental views on other people's finances are not welcome. If you continue to post them then I'll continue to make the observation that you're abusing your position as a technical advisor.

And if you continue to treat the forum as a free advertising site for your services, then I'll continue to post out what a charade your purported decency is.

You're at liberty to believe that I'm wrong about environmental costs. You're also at liberty to believe the word of politicians (and their agents) who have little more motivation than than re-election so that they can earn (and steal) the obscene amounts of money that we're only now discovering.

If you have information about the environmental cost of shipping a new boiler, several times, manufacturing it, shipping the components to manufacture it, refining the raw materials to produce those components, shipping those raw materials, designing the appliance, training staff to design the appliance, setting up a production line, buying the tooling, training the production staff, heating the factory, chopping down trees to make paper to do all the administration, then please publish all of those figures so that everyone as well as you can understand just how much cheaper on the planet it is to throw away a Kingfisher and buy an Isar. In fact, please include the cost of buying about one Isar per year until the user gets so frustrated with Ideal that he stabs someone in the Post Office queue. So please also include the cost of the murder investigation, the trial, building and maintaining a prison cell, employing the warders, etc..

May I just take this opportunity to point out how intelligent you are, how valuable your insight is, and incisive your wit is. You have me in stitches most of the time.

Oh, and your personal hygiene is beyond reproach.

 

[GasMan1965]

Get a new boiler pierre

 

[Softus]

Since the mid-19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to build in the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn't increased significantly for nearly nine years. Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.

Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

The official thermometers at the U.S. National Climate Data Center show a slight global cooling trend over the last seven years, from 1998 to 2005.

Actually, global warming is likely to continue—but the interruption of the recent strong warming trend sharply undercuts the argument that our global warming is an urgent, man-made emergency. The seven-year decline makes our warming look much more like the moderate, erratic warming to be expected when the planet naturally shifts from a Little Ice Age (1300–1850 AD) to a centuries-long warm phase like the Medieval Warming (950–1300 AD) or the Roman Warming (200 BC– 600 AD).

The stutter in the temperature rise should rein in some of the more apoplectic cries of panic over man-made greenhouse emissions. The strong 28-year upward trend of 1970–1998 has apparently ended.

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming.

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration?

 

[ChrisR]

Do you know if a special sealing paste has to ne applied between the cast iron elements ?
(nb :there does not seem to be a gasket)
Peter

Well on the parts diagram & list it shows O rings - surely you've looked?
So a little rust on one of the 16 and you're stuffed. Forget it.

 

[Agile]

I dont expect its actually leaking from a section joint seal.

Much more likely to be cracked as a result of the internal scaling.

As far as Softus's comments on my view of people's finances are concerned, I have no idea of their finances but do see that they spend vast amounts on holidays and cars but not on their boilers.

One fellow in a £5M house would not replace his very old boiler for £2k but was telling me how he was going to replace his 2 y.o. Rangerover with the lastest Jaguar at £26k....

Tony

 

[doitall]

Very good Softus

You forgot the thousands of RGI's etc running around in gas guzzlers keeping the cans working

 

[Softus]

As far as Softus's comments on my view of people's finances are concerned, I have no idea of their finances...

That's right - you have NO IDEA.

...but do see that they spend vast amounts on holidays and cars but not on their boilers.

So what? They've got their priorities right then - spending their money on enjoying their lives.

One fellow in a £5M house would not replace his very old boiler for £2k but was telling me how he was going to replace his 2 y.o. Rangerover with the lastest Jaguar at £26k.

One fellow.

ONE FELLOW.

ONE. FELLOW.

 

[wilhelm]

Softus, I think youre one step away from taking this all too seriously....

...