Storage heaters with asbestos

Fruittea

Hi Experts
I've just been advised that my old style storage heaters will need to be specially disposed of as they have asbestos in them. As I took a couple out myself this came as a bit of a surprise. The cost for 3 large and 2 small will be £700ish. Anyone got any comments on this please.


Also I'm thinking of replacing them with timed panel heaters instead of renewing with new style storage - I'd appreciate any views on this.
Thanks in advance.

maninthestreet

How old are these storage heaters??

Nick_C

About 10 years ago, I got rid of an old storage heater that was meant to contain asbestos. I got a disposable paper suit, respirator, goggles, and gloves, and stripped the whole think down.

Most of the content of a storage heater is bricks. The only asbestos I found was four small squares of insulation, maybe about a square inch each, between the bricks and the legs!

Some Council tips will take asbestos in small quantities.

I would certainly tackle a job like this again. Asbestos fibre is dangerous if you breathe it in every day for a long period. Workmen need to be protected from it.

I wouldn't worry about infrequent contact of small quantities of asbestos board. When I was at school, we had asbestos mats in the Chemistry Lab to put the bunsen burners on. We were always throwing them around and bits had broken off. Didn't do me any harm.

Fruittea

Thanks for coming back to me maninthestreet. I've been in the house 20 years and they looked quite new when I moved in. The big ones are Creda Automatic model 79161. They all are very similar - so suspect they were fitted together.

Fruittea

Thanks Nick C. That's what these are like full of bricks. The only reason I asked the electrician to take them away was the weight and a bad back. But at that price I'll take my time and do the job myself a bit at a time - I just didn't want to feel I was putting myself or anybody else at risk. The last 2 I got rid of just went o a skip. Thanks for your thoughts on this.

phil24_7

Go on to your council website for guidance but in essence you will need disposable suit/gloves/shoe covers/masks that are all suitable for asbestos.

EssexExile

A little asbestos won't hurt you, I was brought up in a home that had asbestos walls instead of plaster & look at me! I also used to repair storage heaters (the 79161 is an old friend) & there was no mention of asbestos, I'd be surprised if it has been used since the 80s, but then I'm often surprised.
http://www.aic.org.uk/storage-heaters-asbestos/ says you're OK.

As for the timed panel heaters, storage heaters use cheap rate night time electricity, panel heaters use whatever's going when you need heat. Unless you're nocturnal they'll cost more to run.

Risteard

Nick_C wrote: »

Didn't do me any harm.

How can you possibly know that?

Risteard

EssexExile wrote: »

A little asbestos won't hurt you

Blatantly false.

Risteard

EssexExile wrote: »

I'd be surprised if it has been used since the 80s

Asbestos was in use until the year 2000 actually.

EssexExile

Risteard wrote: »

Asbestos was in use until the year 2000 actually.

In storage heaters?