Best Of
Re: She canna take any more, Cap'n! She's gonna blow!
One thing I forgot to mention is that if you keep the tank, you can NOT have any means of air elimination on your system, because it WILL get rid of the cushion in the tank. I don't remember if anyone else mentioned that, and if they did, ignore me. Whereas if you switch to a diaphragmatic type of tank, you MUST have an automatic air eliminator. We haven't even talked about proper, ideal system configuration as it pertains to your pumps location in relation to the expansion tank. That in and of itself will create "air problems" in your radiators. Look up "Pumping Away" for more information.
Re: She canna take any more, Cap'n! She's gonna blow!
Dammit Jim, I'm a plumber, NOT a Doctor…… Eric, you are way OVER thinking this. It's your brain and you can use it how ever you want, but your time is better spent on real problems and solutions.
Isolate the tank. Put a hose on the drain cock and open it. Once pressure drops to zero, which will happen in short order, on the bottom of the red Airtrol fitting is a brass fitting, It's an air vent. Grab a straight screw driver. Open it, and it will let air into the tank and will allow the water logged tank to drain. Don't just let a little water out. Drain it COMPLETELY. This will take maybe 10 minutes… Once completely drained, close the drain cock, un-isolate the tank and allow the auto make up valve to stabilize pressure at around 12 PSI. You're done. The tank WILL be half full of water and half full of compressible air (cushion). Clean up the mess and go back to living life without having to worry about your system.
BTW, the ONLY thing I've added to what everyone else has already said numerous times, is to use the Airtrol vent to expedite draining the tank. You could stand there for hours waiting for the tank to "glug" itself to empty, but your time is better spent doing other things… Like watching old Star Trek shows :-)
Enjoy.
ME
Re: She canna take any more, Cap'n! She's gonna blow!
If that dielectric coupling and black pipe and nipples have been there awhile, they could very well be clogged. Dielectric couplings are not needed and are famous for debris buildup. If that pipe is occluded, it will very well prevent the x-tank from being part of the system.
Re: Water to Water Geothermal heat pump replacement with lp boiler
It sounds like you have two major issues. Clogged field and lack of buffer tank. Sounds like the field is now fixed so all you need is to add a small buffer. Even the bigger pump if needed, won't change the operation much and not really the cause of most of your issues.
Neither one of those means replacing the a heat pump that is still working. Adding a simple in-line two port buffer can be done by any boiler tech.
As for replacement when it does actually die, I think your best bet is to find a better geo tech that can install a new unit.
Propane replacement doesn't make sense as it costs almost the same as resistance heat. About the only non-geo replacement is to replace the air handlers with ducted cold climate heat pumps and keep the resistance backup boiler for any floor heat. You can run the heat pumps for bulk heat and the floor heat only enough to take the edge off any cold slab.
Kaos
Re: TT Excellence DHW Tank Replacement
Not sure I could have talked myself into that one. It's really nice when the mfgs plan so well for replacement of components LOL.
Good job. I am sure most would have said "replace the boiler". The worst thing about those jobs is the thought process.
Once you look at it it gets in your head thinking about it
Re: Water to Water Geothermal heat pump replacement with lp boiler
geo should be much cheaper operating then straight electric.
pecmsg
Re: Water to Water Geothermal heat pump replacement with lp boiler
what’s the cost of Electric
What’s the cost of Propane
https://coalpail.com/fuel-comparison-calculator-home-heating
pecmsg
Re: Steam kettle trap
You will not get the perfect answer to your question, here. What you need is to have a commercial boiler service tech come to your job to look at the overall system, how the whole steam system is piped and controlled. There a lot of very knowledgeable steam people here but none have seen your system, the boilers, or the delivery system. What you need to correct your problem is anybody's guess and it just a guess. Call for a service tech and get the right answers
Re: F&T oddity
Collum of water 28" tall is 1 psi. So, if you had to lift the condensate 1 foot you would need the steam pressure to be .42psi" higher than the return pressure (if any).
In reality you need a little more to open the check valve and overcome any trap resistance which is minor.