Best Of
Re: Cost to clean a heat exchanger?
They don't make a more simple boiler. That's an open draft hood, so I hope the tech got the probe up over the top of the block. With those numbers, it seems the techs sampling was diluted. Atmospheric oxygen at sea level is about 21%, so getting 16.58% during a combustion test means the tech didn't stick the probe where it needs to be stuck.
@Evan0307 , did you see for yourself the dirty flue passages in the boiler? Dollars to donuts its clean as a whistle.
HVACNUT
Re: Cost to clean a heat exchanger?
Combustion is way off. I don't see a HX getting dirty with those #s but anything is possible.
CO needs to be below 100 below 50 is better and it should be a lot lower than that like 10
Co2 should be more like 9
O2 maybe 5-6
So your way off I am surprised it ran
But check the service manual for what the combustion #s should be mine are just a reasonable guess.
Something is way off and I suspect they never combustion tested it at start up.
Re: Cleaning HVAC Ductwork?
Your right but it wasn't always that way. With modern burners and boilers, I don't consider oil boilers dirty but they have to be set up properly.
I agree that a lot of boilers can go maybe 4-5 years without being cleaned. But they are still thing that need to be done during a proper tune up. Nozzle, filter, electrodes check combustion and oil pressure and test safety controls as a minimum. In fact the nozzle can go many years with clean oil.
Re: My SteamPunk boiler
Never seen that done before- it'll be interesting to see how it works out. That said, start saving for a new one. And make sure there aren't any leaks out in the system- fresh water shortens the life of a boiler.
Re: Flue pipe removal: bust up old furnace cement?
Pop the elbow out of the Tee. Leave the breach alone. I
HVACNUT
Re: Domestic hot water
These systems have a check valve between space heat and DHW. This is either an itegrated check inside the pump or a stand alone one. If this check is stuck or leaks, it creates the symptoms you see as cold water can bypass the tankless when the pump is off.
A quick check is to see if the inlet of the pump gets cold when you have a DHW draw. If it does, you need to clean/replace the check valve.
Kaos
Re: Any pointers when doing a homerun type system?
Sterling also ran the return over the top of the element with little U shaped wire hangers.
To avoid any issues I would pipe the return with 1 street elbow and 1 regular elbow (so it lines up correctly) and pipe it in copper to the other end where both supply and return connect to the pex. No drooping pex or hanger issues.
Re: Gorton #2 or Hoffman 75
Assuming a single riser is on the short main, if it was my system, I'd move the Hoffman 75 to the top of the riser. I'd then put a Barnes & Jones Big Mouth at the end of the 90 foot main. If you don't like the Barnes & Jones Big Mouth (some folks don't) I'd use 1 or 2 Gorton #2 at the end of the 90 foot main. I don't like to burn fuel just to push air out of the system through main vents that are more restrictive than they need to be.
Vent flow characteristics in this document.
https://heatinghelp.com/assets/documents/Balancing-Steam-Systems-Using-a-Vent-Capacity-Chart-1.pdf
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