Hi Bill,

From my dealings with steam boats i can tell you that the boiler should really be tested annually, this is a hydraulic test on the boiler taken to 1.5 times its working pressure to check for structural integrity.

there should be no visible leaks and distortion of the boiler and it has to hold a constant pressure for a set amount of time, if the pressure drops then the boiler will fail the test.

You can contact any local model engineering club who will i’m sure test your boiler and issue you with a new certificate.

Hope this hasn’t scared you but it is important for your own safety, as these things can go wrong if not looked after correctly.

Regards

Ian

Bill, Bar-Litres. This is the total volume of the boiler (in litres) multiplied by working pressure (in bars. 1bar = 14.5lbpsi) This should be on the test certificate. Boilers below 1.5 bar-litres only have to be tested once. So if you have the original Chedder cert; the boiler is more than likely to be under 1.5 B-L.  But I would say always test a second hand boiler as you dont know how it has been used.  Geoff