Frank Stacey wrote:

An octogenarian lady who lives near me has recently had full oil-fired
central heating installed in her house for free by the local authority.
Sounds like a really generous scheme and indeed it is - but...

Before the central heating she had electric heaters and a solid fuel Raeburn
stove in the kitchen. This stove had a back boiler to give hot water. The
back boiler has been "disconnected" and she was told not to use the stove
any more. She recently experienced a 3 day power cut - we are in deepest
rural East Lothian - but these things happen often enough. During those 2
or 3 days she had NO HEATING AT ALL. Fortunately the weather was reasonable
and she is a very determined lady.

Apologies for the longish introduction. Is it not quite safe to run the
stove with a totally empty back boiler system? The metal will get hot but
will that matter? There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where,
presumably, there is an empty hot water tank. It would be a job of only a
few moments to disconnect these - there are very accessible joints just
above the stove level. Would such a system be safe to run?


You are supposed to backfill the boiler with sand IIRC but apart from
that its OK to use. I think the danger is the boiler side will overheat
and melt, and the sand cools it and transfers the heat away.


I simply left my Highlander stove water pipes unconnected, and have used
it a few times since.

No probs to date.

Frank