A ‘I hate our Rayburn’ plumbing question

We have an oil-burning Rayburn for heating and hot water. I hate it, it’s massive, noisy and crap.

Anyway, there is a switch on it that allows it to do just hot water, or both. We’ve had it set on just hot water since May-ish, but discovered last night that it’s still heating the radiator in the hall. Does it have to do this, or is it a set up foible?

Might be set up as bypass radiator. Usually if possible you would do bathroom one sothr heat can be used for towels.

Well, yes, if it was the bathroom radiator it would be useful. Heating the hallway, not so much…

Does the hot water circuit need a bypass radiator?

Not that familiar with oil rayburns, but, if the thing is “always on” then yes, it needs a bypass, or it will eventually boil the primary circuit, which is exciting if unexpected.

Running on electric immersion is far more useful over the summer, do you have one fitted to the tank?

In our previous house we had a solid fuel Rayburn for hot water, heating and the sole means of cooking. The previous owner had installed this system.

The whole set up was a complete PITA.

Anyhow, there was an “always on” radiator in the hall way. So, when trying to cook a chicken mid summer with the kitchen approaching the temperature of the sun the radiator would come on to remove some of the excess heat from the water tank and stop the whole system boiling over.

I am so glad we moved.

Edit – Here it is, the evil red monster:

Not that familiar with oil rayburns, but, if the thing is “always on” then yes, it needs a bypass, or it will eventually boil the primary circuit, which is exciting if unexpected.

Running on electric immersion is far more useful over the summer, do you have one fitted to the tank?

It’s not ‘always on’, and it’s never used for cooking. In winter it’s on a timer for an hour or so in the morning and a few hours in the evening, doing both heating and hot water. Since May it’s been flicked to hot water only, timer is off, and is only occasionally run on the ‘extra hour’ button to give us a tank of water each day when it’s not been sunny (see below).

It does have an electric immersion, and that is set up to run off the solar panels we have when it’s sunny. The last week or so the weather has been absolutely crap though, so the solar’s not been doing anything, so we’ve been using the boiler. We’ve never used the electric immersion ‘manually’, would we be better doing that when the sun’s not out rather than running the boiler?

Mother-in-law had one like yours that was piped with a bypass/heat leak radiator. I discovered it had been a replacement for an older ‘pot burner’ oil rayburn that was always on so needed the heat leak.

could be the same in your case.

would we be better doing that when the sun’s not out rather than running the boiler?

I can’t see how it wouldn’t. When I ran my Rayburn, you could actually see the oil gauge ticking down in real time. I would never get one again, nice to look at, massively expensive and fairly impractical to own and run.

Outdated inefficient things

Weigh it in

I would never get one again, nice to look at, massively expensive and fairly impractical to own and run.

Agreed. It came with the place, we’d love to get rid.

Outdated inefficient things

Agreed

Weigh it in

It’s not quite that simple though, cos it has to be replaced with something, and that’s going to be a PITA. If only as I’m not convinced, given the building work that has happened since it was installed, it can be taken out without being taken apart.

last time I was involved in that side of things, there was a thriving second hand market for them.

Yup, pass the problem to someone else and spend the proceeds on a decent oil boiler and separate electric cooker

Well, I hope so, as we’ve just arranged for someone to come round and tell us what our options are for getting shot of it and replacing it with a standalone boiler, or maybe a hybrid boiler/ASHP. I can’t imagine it’s going to be cheap, so if we can get some cash for the thing, that’d be good.

Yup, pass the problem to someone else and spend the proceeds on a decent oil boiler and separate electric cooker

Don’t confuse new prices with s/h.

Paid £99 for our s/h oil-fired AGA a few years ago – and on ebay there’s a BIN for £50.

£650-2500 on eBay according to a 2 second Google

Have you thought of solar thermal? Living where you do the sunshine record is excellent and it might work for you. I’ve plumbed ours so the solar tank isn’t hot enough it feeds the conventional immersion heater tank as a pre-heater. Ours produces pretty much all of our domestic hot water from just after the Spring equinox to just after the Autumn equinox, and preheats the rest of the time. You’d then only need the Rayburn for hot water when the house needed heating.

We’ve got solar thermal for the hot water in the summer, but it doesn’t work when the weather’s been as crap as it has been for the last couple of weeks, so we’ve had to fire up the Rayburn for it for an hour each day.

If only as I’m not convinced, given the building work that has happened since it was installed, it can be taken out without being taken apart.

We sold one (well, a Nordpies wood “burning” equivalent, I think). We tried using it for the first winter of living here – hateful experience. Useless at cooking. Next to useless for getting the water hot. Ate a phenomenal amount of wood and provided bugger all heat.

Found a taker within a day.

They provided two men with a van who turned up and removed it for us.

Put the (sizeable) proceeds towards a TRG coal pellet unit (no oil tank at our place) and some replumbing of the system and a chimney liner refresh. The TRG is a country mile better (semi auto) although still not as good as an actual modern boiler (it’s “always on”, although at “idle”, and we still have a heat leak rad, albeit in a bathroom).

If we had the money at the time, we’d have gone straight to a regular proper oil fired boiler. You already have the oil tank. No brainer for me. Get shot of the fashion victim antique. You’ll save in the long run and remove an object of hate from your life.

If we had the money at the time, we’d have gone straight to a regular proper oil fired boiler. You already have the oil tank. No brainer for me. Get shot of the fashion victim antique. You’ll save in the long run and remove an object of hate from your life.

This is the plan (or maybe, as above, an oil burning, ASHP hybrid, depending on cost).

Out of interest, did you sell your old one privately, or to a dealer (and if so, who?)

Privately, got the thick end of £1k for it.

Didn’t even get to the point of advertising it. Mentioned it at work and ‘mate of a mate’ was looking for one to put in their country cottage B&B place.