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Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>

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Everything posted by Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>

  1. We need to imperviously seal a block bund wall to prevent an unpleasant fluid from leaking out. Having some difficulty, despite good French, ensuring that we buy and use the absolutely correct product. Or, indeed, an alternative means.... Any ideas/guidance most welcome.
  2. Filled the autostable with well water (almost potable - just fails on nitrate) and the water has a slight green tint. Not sure if it is algae or not. Have shock treated with combined Algicide/Floc and no difference. Have the tablet chlorine blocks in the floaty thing. Any ideas - I would prefer a "you need to buy this and do this" type answer!!! 
  3. In our local CT depot (Centre Veritas), there is a notice stating from Nov 2004, 2mm is the minimum, although they REALLY pull their faces if less than 3mm...... http://www.dekra-veritas.fr/CT/verification.asp?ID=141&point=pneu    
  4. Try www.accessfrenchproperties.com Site is in French and English Effective.
  5. The Scenic and Picasso are nothing like the same car. Totally different in terms of componentry, the Picasso is made in Spain, too. The Modus is hardly an MPV - it is tiny. 7 seater MPVs wouyld be better, like the Espace or VAG equivalents (i.e.Galaxy/Alhambra/Sharan)  
  6. Have used shedloads of cheap pot from Bricos without any issues. Most of it is similar or identical to that sold in the UK for more from the likes of Screwfix. We have had some extremely good results...in many applications. In fact, the 60 EUR bogs have a better float valve arrangement than the dearer ones.      You pays yer money...
  7. In the eyes of Insurance, Airport/Ferry/Train station pickups are Taxis. According to Groupama, who stopped us dead. Be very, very careful....
  8. Installed plenty of oil-fired central heating with experience. As far as sizing rads is concerned, there are various ways. You can use a heatloss calculator such as here: http://www.barlo.co.uk/downloads_heatloss.php You can also make an informed estimate of your needs, although you need to be aware of the limitations:..... If you want to estimate, and assuming you have reasonable insulation, you could try using the basis of 1kw output per 20m3. I would suggest that you add 20-30% to the rad sizes once this has been calculated. The position and shape and style of the rads also affects the comfort and heat distribution. Old school says fit rads under windows....not necessarily the right thing to do. It is generally better to have long rads where possible - the heat distribution is more even. Always use double convectors (K2) where possible. It is generally better to use larger rads with TRVs on, since the TRV will reduce the heat output to suit the actual demand, and the rooms will warm quicker with an oversized rad. Since most oil boilers are high output (and cheap) here, you have plenty of capacity to play with.
  9. B and Q equivalents are also owned by Kingfisher: Castorama and Brico Depot. Castorama (www.castorama.fr) has similar products to B and Q, and is about as poorly organised. Brico Depot sells cheaper stuff - and is disorganised. Better French suppliers include Mr Bricolage, Bricomarche and in particular Leroy-Merlin (www.leroymerlin.fr). You can buy Hygena kitchens from their outlets around and about - they seem to be in the malls near Carrefour!!! Like most things, you need to do the legwork and get a feel for who has what, and for how much. Bathroom kit (as discussed in depth elsewhere) is very cheap here. The Bricos have the deals.  
  10. More like a wine-swigging girl, really. (Still can't believe how gullible some of the respondants have been to this pillock on all the threads he wasted his sad time on.)
  11. Flux is there to ensure the metals don't oxidise while they are being "handled". Older aggressive fluxes (for soft soldering) also have an etching effect on the base metals which causes pitting if left on too long. It is vitally important that both the pipe and fittings are thoroughly cleaned before use, and flux is applied immediately to prevent surface deterioration.
  12. Just change the dish to a parabolic one - they come with universal LNBs. You can buy the minidish type off eBay too.
  13. Oil boilers are cheap here - there are plenty of threads on this, methinks. You can buy a Lamborghini CK32 (17-32kw) boiler and a DeVille C09 burner for less than EUR 750 from Leroy Merlin, and even less from merchants. That's £500 - and remember, French heating oil is 32 sec red diesel, not 28 sec Paraffin as in the UK.
  14. Opel, not Opal. It's a brand of vehicle. Fruit? You got something against cocoa-shunters?
  15. We are in 53, same latitude as 72 and have some problems in bad weather with a 43cm minidish, a few occasional problems with a 60cm minidish and no problems with an 85cm dish bought from Leroy Merlin for about 30 EUR c/w LNB. All have been set up using a meter to peak the signal quality. All 3 are in regular use.
  16. Brown goods in France, good value. White goods in France - awfully expensive. You can get cheapo "Xuang Xin" type stuff at Supermarkets, with names like Tokiwa and Proline. But they are utter crap. We are now on our 3rd Vac of the Tokiwa brand - it actually melts. Our neighbour bought a Proline Dishwasher from BUT, and it has yet to work. I noted that the Proline stuff was made in Hungary.....  
  17. Nah. Airbus Industrie are looking for Avionics Technicians. Similar thing... Take your hide off to Toulouse?
  18. There are some similarities between the 2 plumbing standards. (I would point out though that sanitary products like loos, sinks, showers, baths and fittings (such as taps) are far cheaper in France than the UK.) The French use 32mm and 40mm drain pipe, which ARE different than the UK. And there are no compression or slip-fit fittings - it is all solvent weld. This point seems to have been overlooked by many. The only compression fittings are on the traps. The tap fittings etc are the same, 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4 known here as 12/17, 15/21 and 20/27 respectively. Pipe is available in 10/12/14/16/18/20mm and is NOT compatible with any UK fittings. Some fools claim you can mix 15mm UK pipe with 14mm French pipe  - not so. 22mm and 28mm are identical to the UK. All French copper pipe is soldered using 97% Tin/3% Silver solder. This is predominantly due to the water pressure, which has a target minimum pressure of 5 bar here - French regs prohibit the use of cold, unpressurised water storage tanks.  You could argue that central heating pressure is limited to 3 bar, so soft solder could be used.
  19. Just send an email reminding them to pay or payment is overdue, and asking if they wish to continue with the booking - never fails. And people do read emails - they just say they don't.
  20. You can move the boiler and oil supply pipes on your own - there are no particular legalities. You must ensure you do everything correctly for your own sake and that of your Insurers! In terms of using a coil in the tank for hot water - they come with a thermocouple stat generally. I would do it like this (as I have several times). Buy a 22mm 2 port Zone valve such as a Honeywell V4043H. Pipe off to the tank coil from the rad circuit and fit the valve to the flow pipe. You should fit a means of reducing the flow in this circuit - use a gate valve or similar - you don't want the hot water circuit to nick all the rad flow. Wire the zone valve in series with the tank stat so that if the tank needs heat, the zone valve will open. The zone valve has a switch inside that closes once the valve is fully open. Wire this across your room stat so that the hot water circuit will kick the boiler and pump in. You could use another 22mm zone valve to control the heating circuit too - depends what you need. Alternatively, you could use a 3 port valve for both circuits. Depends what you need.....!  A couple of things you may find useful: French and UK 22mm and 28mm pipe and fittings are identical. If you have to mess with the mains water, only use Silver/Tin solder. It is able to withstand a higher pressure than Tin/Lead. If you need more info, diagrams, photos, let me know. And go for a 300L tank!
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