Best Of

Re: Mod con vs cast iron for my specific home

Hybrid boiler arrangements is not a bad idea. We see it in commercial applications.
One mod con, one cast boiler. A staging control, or a basic electronic aquastat can switch between them.
So you get redundancy, assumed relatability of the cast, efficiency and turn down of the mod con.

I suspect 85% of the season you will run on the mod con based on you radiator assumptions.

hot_rod

2

Re: Another poor roughing in a Public Restroom

Its getting worse. What caliber of Plumbing Inspector would pass this?? Mad 🐕 Dog
Why do you feel this is Mad?
And what do you think was the reason that toilet ended up so far from the wall?

You know how we get a lot of people on here who complain how hard it is to find a good plumber/hvac company? Well a good inspector needs to be good at their trade, among other things so that immediately shortens up the list. In addition to that in my region an inspector might make up to 3/4 what they could make out in the field, I've been told 1/2 but I have a hard time with that being true across the board.

I am in a region that has a low population and quite a bit of money (vacation destination lots of rich seasonal folks) Our building department actually follows the code, and you wouldn't believe how angry people get about that (on occasion myself included, though I am embarrassed to admit it) It is a difficult job to do correctly, and almost always comes with anger from the people you are meant to work with, and almost never a "Thank you"

In the more populated city areas south of me I have seen that they may hire people with no credentials whatsoever to do inspections , those ones almost always pass. My uncle (from that area) built "the last house I'll ever build" a few years ago and spent a few months studying what code changes happened since he was last in the field. He would labor to make a small change to make sure he was code compliant if he noticed he messed something up. He told me every time he called for inspection the guy would pull up to the house, sit in the car a few minutes and then leave, never asked to see anything.

GGross

2

Re: Very Cool 😎 Urinals at a Brewery

Hello @hot_rod,
I'm not saying the product complies with any of the needed codes or listings for that application. Just saying what they stated and they are out there for sale. So the ones that @Mad Dog_2 found may not be Home Brew...

109A_5

1

Re: Low Water in Boiler - Wet Steam Likely

You are still way under vented with those G1's. If you have 75' of main and return you need at least I Big Mouth or 2 G2's plus 1 or 2 of your G1's to properly vent your system.

gfrbrookline

1

Re: Burnham Independent Near-Boiler Piping - Seeking Advice

Going back to your first couple of pictures, what is going on at the ceiling? Near the sheetrock?

Is it possible the new main from the new boiler splits into two mains? Is there anywhere above that sheetrock where water could sit in the piping?

Shane_2

1

Re: Banging steam radiator

That is a notoriously fast vent. A slower one may help the radiator heat and produce condensate more slowly.

bburd

2

Re: Burnham Independent Near-Boiler Piping - Seeking Advice

@ethicalpaul

The radiator/convector pitch is important, but even more important is the pitch of the pipes supplying them. Can you localize where the banging is coming from? It can be difficult. Unless condensate can drain back to the boiler, it will remain in the pipes and cause banging and/or "killing" of steam to that area.

It sounds like it's coming from the radiator, as if the vent is spinning around. But I also know that the source of water hammer is not always where you hear it. Need to do more investigating.

What the Burnham engineer said to you is weird. Water/steam zig-zagging to the header or equalizer is not a concern I have. In fact, that additional travel serves to let water droplets separate from the steam better. Also, if your water quality is decent, basically no water will be coming up the supply anyway. If the water is good, the header is basically unused in its purpose to separate water from steam because there is no water getting in there.

Thanks for the callout. Re: water quality, I'm north of Boston in a town known for its hard water.

Do you know what pressure your system gets to? Can you supply a photo of your Pressuretrol so we can see the settings? You want it set to basically the minimum pressure.

Edit: Photos attached. ~~I'll add a photo when I'm back home but~~ it's 0.5 psi with a 1 psi differential. I adjusted the cut-in earlier a few days ago after noticing it was between 0.5 and 1.

Related to above, how was the boiler sized? Did the installer calculate the total sq ft of radiation in your house? That is necessary to ensure a properly-sized boiler. Too big a boiler will result in it building pressure too fast and cycling on pressure, which makes some people want to increase the Pressuretrol setting. DON'T DO IT

Unfortunately I don't know how it was sized. We had it installed before I knew anything about steam... regrettably I didn't ask all the great questions Dan calls out in We Got Steam Heat!.

milesgem

2

Re: The case of the non heating steam system, this Friday's case

My best guess is that there was a steam radiator in the attic that had been disabled for years. When the boys moved up there, they reactivated the radiator (with the valve, or by re-installing a plugged vent, whichever).

But the supply pipe for that radiator was in the wall behind the thermostat, heating it prematurely.

ethicalpaul

8

Re: 2 Pressuretrol Cut-Ins and 1 Cut Out?

@holograham

You could probably convert that burner to LO-High fire. It's still going to cost a few bucks. You replace one of the gas valves with a two position Honeywell gas valve and hook the gas valve linkage to the air dampers.

There is a little more to it and the installer has to be competent with that burner. This would be cheaper that full modulation which in my opinion is a little overkill for a burner that size.

I was a Power Flame rep for 10 years now retired.

EBEBRATT-Ed

1

Re: Looking for help in south central kansas

Mkflyy said:

Grundfos UPS26-99FC Is the second added pump between the return manifold and water heater the other pump after expansion tank is a a grundfos up 15-42. Today I completely took the system apart to make sure there wasn’t an obstruction or something. I am using a 1/2 hp cast iron inline pump to fill and purge the system. I went through and did every loop individually after to starting with just the system loop then doing each individual loop. At this point I’m not opposed to adding a boiler but they are very expensive. I obviously don’t know what I am doing to install it either. Sounds like I would want a primary and secondary loop and I have looked at several diagrams and I can’t make sense of it and how I would add one to my system. So the last thing I want to do is buy a $2500 boiler and still not be able to get it to work. I also don’t have natural gas or LP only electric. That’s why I opted for this system.

Regardless of what's wrong, it must be corrected. First is, it needs to be an electric boiler, not an on demand water heater.

Then simply follow the boiler manufacturer piping instructions, and you'll be good to go.

HVACNUT

1