Primatic cylinder replacement

[Plumb Tidy]

Hi all, i have a primatic cylinder that needs replacing, are we allowed to install new primatic cylinders in this day and age or do i have to install a new vented indirect cylinder. Only asking as i found this quote on a website.

If you have one of these tanks, you should seriously consider upgrading to an indirect system. Would you like to risk washing up in dirty radiator water? If your primatic tank leaks, you can no longer fit these. You have to fit an indirect replacement, which means an additional tank in the loft.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

correct tbh they should be removed too easy to have a cross contamination of both systems

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

Personally i'd be selling them a combi. More work in converting the system to vented.

 

[Plumb Tidy]

correct tbh they should be removed too easy to have a cross contamination of both systems

Cheers Shaun, i phoned a company which sold me one as the customer did not want to upgrade he didn't want a tank in his loft. Fair enough i asked the company and they said they sell a thousand odd a year so people must be replacing them i guess the rule is you cannot install one as a new system but you can replace.

 

[Chuck]

IIRC, one problem with Primatics is you can't put any corrosion inhibitor in the system, which means if the boiler has to be replaced it'll need to be isolated with a plate HX. Make sure your quote includes power flushing as you can expect to find a lot of sludge.

 

[Ric2013]

Hi Chuck. That is correct as only the air bubble separates the primary and secondary waters. In practice they work well and accept gravity circulation such as solid-fuel but have a limited primary expansion capacity which means you can't really fit a huge number of radiators.

I grew up with a Primatic, and have a customer still happily using one. Neither of us have suffered contaminated DHW, but both systems used gravity circulation for cylinder heating. Perhaps they work more reliably without a pump?

Pretty sure there's a section in the WRAS so-called 'blue book' regarding single feed indirect cylinders. I don't think they are banned, but the cost of them makes me think I would investigate the cost of an indirect cylinder.