wrote:
On Jun 14, 6:33?pm, Nate Nagel wrote:

Hi all,

I've posted before about this. I have an indirect solar water heater in
my basement, it appears to be basically a Rheem electric water heater
fitted with a coil of copper tubing around the tank which has an
antifreeze fluid circulated through it by means of an electric pump.
It's toast. It's 20 years old, rusty, and leaking. I've searched
online and it appears that the only product currently available is one
single model of tank (from various suppliers) which runs about $1000.

Question: Could I simply purchase a new electric tank of approximately
the same size, disassemble it, reuse the existing copper coil, and
reassemble? There appears to be no issues with the antifreeze/heat
exchange fluid piping, but the water tank itself is done for. I realize
that if I were to do this that there would be no warranty, but for the
$700 plus price difference, I could live with that.

Does this seem feasible, and has anyone done this before?

thanks,

nate

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how will you get the copper coil inside the tank?


As I understand it, it's not actually inside the tank, but wrapped
around the tank but inside the outer sheetmetal shell in a long spiral.
Of course, I can't state this with 100% certainty as I haven't removed
it and cut it apart yet.

As an aside, but a related one - how does one "charge" the heat transfer
fluid? It appears to be pressurized to about 20 PSI.

nate

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replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel