Farm2000 leak advice

[drsg]

Can anyone help please.

i picked up a second hand farm 2000 ht35 boiler. the farmhouse had an early model put in early 80’s which ultimately sprang a leak a few years ago. the house is plumbed for the system so seemed a good idea. fortunately it also has oil too. The new(er) boiler had already had a heat exchange tube blocked off but I was told they can run ok without all the tubes. We pressurised it after a lot of time installing and found another leak in the heat exchange tube.

farm 2000 sell tubes to do a repair where the old tubes are cut out which Is a big job. a friend who is an engineer who has made his own steam engines from scratch thinks we should just put a tube inside the existing tube and weld it up.

another option discussed as a short term fix is a radweld type product from fernox.

any thoughts and thanks in advance.

 

[200tdi]

How are the original tubes installed, welded or expanded into tube plate
If one has gone good chance rest wont be far behind
The blanked off one is plugged at both ends how do you access the tube plate at flue end to make repairs?

 

[Still Farming]

Depends if you can locate and see leak and then patch up possibly.
Is it ndrhi qualified too or just run for it's own.

 

[drsg]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Both ends of the tubes are easy to get to as the previous owner had to amend the back end when they blocked off a pipe.
to access the back it’s a few bolts and a housing to remove.

no rhi payments with the boiler. We have a timber business on the farm and with our old boiler in mind I was happy it would probably be a little less fussy for feedstock than some of the other more complex boilers I’ve seen. They’re pretty low tech and hopefully easy to work on.
the pipes are welded in so I think they shouldn’t be too hard to cut.

fortunately a spanner man dropped off a Christmas card today and had a quick look. He’s probably more farm practical than the precise engineer who made the steam engine above. He seemed pretty happy that it wouldn’t be as complex as we thought. I’m leaning towards the smaller tube through the existing and then weld both ends. See how it runs and the do the balance at a future date if it seems ok. Whether the heat will exhange properly with a tiny air gap I don’t know but worth a try? 53.5mm internal diameter of the existing and I’ve found some 50.8 external seamless we could pass through.

he thought the rad weld option would probably be a waste of time.

fingers crossed.

 

[rogeriko]

If you put a new tube inside the old tube it will of course fill with water around the new tube from the leak. When you light the boiler that water will instantly boil and turn to steam and the boiler will explode. Maybe not such a good idea after all. Huh.

 

[Still Farming]

Seal all tubes off and just use the water jacket instead.
Less heat output but stops leak.
Fit new pressure relief valve of course incase.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Seal all tubes off and just use the water jacket instead.
Less heat output but stops leak.
Fit new pressure relief valve of course incase.

Where will the exhaust gases go if you seal them all off!?

Where are you based OP?

 

[Still Farming]

Where will the exhaust gases go if you seal them all off!?

Where are you based OP?

Same place as they go now possibly?

 

[Abacus]

Drane it down and get a mag drill and drill out the old pipe and weld in a new new one, but get very thing in that you need first the anuler cutter is going to make a bigger hole than the original so the new pipe will need to mach

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Same place as they go now possibly?

All the exhaust gasses have to pass through the tubes to get to the flue.

I wonder if the effected tube could be capped at both ends.

I know the perfect team to advise depending on OP Location

 

[Exfarmer]

I would absolutely defimnitely not put a tube inside the old one. Heat transmission will be very poor, and you will get hot spots etc.. I personally would be very wary of spending time and money on it as I suspect if you sort one leak another will soon appear

 

[Still Farming]

I would absolutely defimnitely not put a tube inside the old one. Heat transmission will be very poor, and you will get hot spots etc.. I personally would be very wary of spending time and money on it as I suspect if you sort one leak another will soon appear

That's trouble with models with pipes or double pass types.
Straw or wood boiler with just water jacket around is much simpler.

 

[renewablejohn]

Why would anyone want to play with a potential bomb. Please just scrap it and dip your hand a bit deeper in your pocket to buy a new boiler with guaranteed piece of mind for x number of years.

 

[Fowler VF]

you would be amazed what a few tins of radweld or similar will do! But take care that you don't circulate to any heat exchangers in the system, they will block. Make sure you add plenty, to cover the volume of water, warm the boiler gently but dont circulate. We did this on a boiler crack 5 years ago, still working perfectly. if the alternative is scrapping it youve nothing to lose.