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Stadler Zone Valves

I have an older radiant manifold that uses Stadler zone valves. The control are a custom field-built setup that is 32 years old. I'd like to replace this with a Zone control like the Taco ZVC405. The Stadler valves are 2 wire 24 volt. Does anyone know if these will work with the Taco or similar controller? Thanks

theowwm

1

Re: 2” HDPE

I don't know about HDPE. But we used 2" Pex on an underground. The "coil" was like 6' in diameter. One guy threw out his back.

EBEBRATT-Ed

2

Re: Old church, stained glass windows, weird steam heating loop.

I found this conversation telling me more about the commentors than what I see as normal in my training. I saw the pipe and the windows and asked myself what the problem or symptoms were that caused the placement of the piping. So, I thought, what happens on the glass when it's cold outside and its warm and moist inside? Then I thought who would complain or see the symptoms and what would they want to do about it? So, if I was sitting there what would I feel? A cold draft. Clue 1. Next, I thought what would the glass be doing? It would be frosting on the inside if cold and humid enough. And that would cause water damage when in thawed. So how to fix it? That solution is plainly evident by the pipes. And why just pipes and not a radiator? it's simple; it did the job and was less visible than anything larger. And as they say if it is painted the same color as the wall it disappears after a while. Usually, it is the unexpected results that create the unusual solutions to problems short of more expensive options. Dan said think like steam and air, we also need to think like people and buildings in how they react, feel, and perform when confronted with everyday changes.

Lance

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Re: Help! Attack of the pinhole leaks.

Dealing with this on Long Island for too many years. Check into all of the suggestion's electrolysis, water velocity, circulator friction, etc. The most common factor is chlorine. The water companies will bump up chlorine levels to acceptable for drinking BUT not copper pipe.

Actually, the problem is when chlorine gets replaced by chloramine. When we had pinholes breaking out throughout the house (here in southern California, not Long Island), I bit the bullet and had our entire house re-piped in Uponor pex. By the way, the water's pH here has always been alkaline.

Sal Santamaura

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Re: Help! Attack of the pinhole leaks.

Another cause of pinhole leaks not in pdf, maybe not this one, but where to check. I see sharkbites..

Used to work in water. Ended up being responsible for replacing water line near the exit of a building. After vacuum digging for a week in flowing sand, became motivated to consider why here, it led to more discovery.
Thanks to electrical code wanting a ground, occasionally, there is some stray current via many possible methods applied to a ground, which is also applied to the pipes. Current takes all paths.

The ground rod is required to have less than 50 ohms resistance, but that doesn't mean current won't travel out of the copper supply pipe into the ground around it, causing pin holes just outside of the foundation.

There is also the pushfit / sharkbite problem which creates an electrical separation, where two pipes are nearly butted together and electricity flows through the water from one to the next, pitting the inside.

There is also the bad neutral (not quite 0 ohms) connection down the street, so current flows from N to ground to water pipe to main water pipe to next house ground to to neutral then back to transformer.

There is also, the house on one transformer, connected to the water system on another transformer. Any difference in Neutral may cause current to flow.

Poor Neutral connection to transformer will cause current on the ground rod to seek the xfmr ground rod.

Least likely, power closely paralleling a pipe over a distance can induce current.

Anytime I see tells of green oxidation I get out the good sensitive meter with a best current clamp.
Place clamp right over suspect tube/wire.
Just bc you don't see potentials now doesn't mean it might not be part time with a switched circuit.
Check for current on ground wire at the electrical service entry panel. Should be none.
Check for voltage between Neutral and ground. Should be none.
Check for voltage difference on both sides of push fit. (even brass push fits sealed by O-ring and plastic retained ss teeth may completely electrically isolate each side of a connection)
Check for current on water line entry before ground connection.
Check for current on water line to remote building bad Neutral will cause current return on pipe.

If you connect a 15amp breaker, a 120v line-Neutral to a 40 ohm ground(s), the breaker will not likely open.
120/40 ohms = 3 amps. You have a 360 watt power distribution somewhere.

farmwi

1

Re: Help! Attack of the pinhole leaks.

I would suspect #3. Some people have said that a few decades ago the market was flooded with cheap imported pipe with impurities that soon developed pinholes. I remember once I bought a cheap imported stainless steel cook pot, and soon after using it, a rust pit developed. I'd never seen stainless steel rust, and evidently there was some impurity in the "stainless" that was, in fact, rusting.

I'm also reminded of the toxic Chinese drywall that flooded the market a while back. It offgassed sulfur, which, in an odd coincidence for this thread, attacked exposed copper (in home wiring and pipes) and turned it black.

jesmed1

1

Re: Mitsubishi phantom loads

I got the power meter today and got readings that make sense. The meter has current, voltage, real power, kWhr, Power Factor. The current was exactly as measured before (1.3A) and voltage was about 244V. What I didn't have before was the Power Factor and real Power. I stand informed ;-) The power factor was 0.06 or below, giving real power in the 20W to 23W range. That is one heck of a poor PF, but it is a small load. As I said, as long as it isn't costing me a lot I can live with this. Still, I wouldn't just leave a 20W bulb going for months at a time so I will probably leave the unit powered off for substantial parts of the season.

Thanks for your thoughts! This is good to know and I will sleep better.

I can recommend this meter (link in a previous post; $24 from Amazon) for cost and functionality; only time will tell how it will hold up.

(I hope this URL is actually a link to the picture I uploaded; should be the meter reading.)

Grits

1

Buderus GB162-25 heat exchanger clean up

Hello, own gas boiler Buderus Logamax plus GB162-25 for almost 10 years. Every year I called for service, a guy came, cleaned something, took the money, and left. I asked about the heat exchanger, he said that everything was fine, he cleaned everything. In recent years, the efficiency of the boiler has decreased noticeably. I thought about the bad caloric content of gas, until one person recommended checking the condition of the heat exchanger yourself. The view was shocking. I tried washing it with water, but there was no result. Soot is hard as stone. How to clean it? Is there some kind of chemistry? I don't think trying to burn it will lead to anything.

Dan22

1

Re: Old church, stained glass windows, weird steam heating loop.

@boilerman06 I know you're a heating guy and not a carpenter, but I would suggest telling the church members to have a carpenter build a plywood panel cover for the pipes, open at the top and bottom to allow airflow. Have the panels extend down to the plaques that describe each window, and mount the plaques on the panels, so the panels look like they have a reason for being there. Paint the panels the same color as the wall, and they'll blend right in.

jesmed1

5

Re: Old church, stained glass windows, weird steam heating loop.

I would say without that heat there the windows would sweat and eventually be destroyed.

A 1915 church I service has beautiful windows with CI rads under each.
Some members wanted to put rad covers on the "ugly" rads.

I stated that the rads are correct for the period design.

I asked then why not put curtains on the windows also.

They seemed to take the point and left things as they are.

JUGHNE

5