Best Of
Re: Sealing a System - Pre System
Nobody used 1-1/4" PEX for a radiant floor heat emitter. Those are almost certainly an underground transfer route to/from a heat source outside the home such as a wood boiler. It's possible that the other end has been looped, but the chances of it being a radiant heating loop are one in a million. Find the other ends before sticking another penny into this.
GroundUp
Re: Ancient Boiler System
just an update, the system needed filled and bled. It sat unused for 2 years and just needed some care.
LDS1616
Re: Is there an ideal cycling time for oil boiler run time cycle? What is short cycle?
A good steam boiler cycle rate is one cycle per hour. That is what the thermostat sees.
What the burner sees may be quite different. During a call for heat, if your boiler is oversized, the burner may run for 10 minutes to make steam and pruge the air out of the vents. but if the thermostat is not satisfied by then, then the steam pressure increases and may trip the limit on the pressure control, 4 minutes later the pressure will drop and the burner will come back on. The pressure will build for some short time and pressure control will trip off again is a minute of two. And this cycle will go on until the call for heat is satisfied. So you need a proper size boiler to get your best oil burner or gas burner efficiency.
If you have got it just right, then the pressure limit control will never trip and the burner will stay on for 40 minutes and shut off for 20 minutes at 30°F
At 40°F the burner may run for 30 on 30 off.
AT 10°F the burner may run for 50 on 10 off.
Hope this helps
Re: TIL: Plumbing supply stores have very fair prices.
As a homeowner, the local suppliers, although numerous and close by here in NJ, are just not set up for me. They have very limited hours, which makes sense if you are serving professionals—I can only shop after hours or on weekends.
So I buy almost everything from supplyhouse_dot_com which has great customer service and super fast shipping from several warehouses, and is also a sponsor of this fine web site. In fact I'm sure it helps this fine web site if you click on their ad when you go there. The ad is usually at the bottom of every forum page.
Re: Switching main vent from Gorton no.1 to no.2 (edited, updated new info) (edit with plan)
Lazyness be damned! Dawn and a bucket it is!
Tuggy
Re: How can you drill and tap a radiator vent hole and still use the original 1/8" vent size?
So what were you afraid of …. :)
Big Ed_4
Re: Have you noticed?
When I first started to use Flat Rate pricing (some call it up front pricing) in the 1980s, it was a new concept for HVAC, however it kept me in business. The nice thing was that you could go in and diagnose the problem, stop and write down everything you want to do, put a price to it, get the customer to agree to the price. the send him/her/them/they to write the check, while you went to work on the repairs. Gets the hovering customer out of the basement for 15 minutes while they look for the checkbook, write the check, enter it in the check ledger, and perhaps leave you alone for the rest of the call.
When I was done, I didn't need to sit and chat while the check book was looked for, then they write the check, then they enter it in the ledger, then they subtract it from the balance on the ledger, then finally hand me the check and talk for another 15 minutes as I try to leave. It was a real time saver!
Obviously this was before we all use tablets and e-money transactions. I know… I'm old!
Re: Steam Boiler Recommendation
The cast iron is made at the same foundry, so there will be no difference in the performance. There may be higher standards with WM and those castings that don't make the mark may be acceptable for Williamson and the other names you mentioned, but I don't see that as an issue. They all have the same warranty.
What is more important is the installing contractor. You want to get real specific here in the contract. you need to get the wording "Installed per the manufacturers installation manual" in the contract. That is because the manufacturer has very specific piping diagrams that some contractors may ignore. the other important thing si that all the piping above the water line will be iron pipe size fittings and piping. No copper tubing above the water line.
If the contractor can't put that in the contract, that would be a deal breaker for me. Watch this video to understand why you don't want copper and why you want to have the boiler manufacturer's piping specifications followed exactly.
There are some really good steam heads in NEW JERSEY. But there are a lot more knuckleheads that will mess it up. try the Find a contractor link above to see who is near you.
Re: Off Grid hydronic with clay battery
People have been trying these sort of heat-storing schemes for at least 50 years, the landscape is littered with failed attempts. Almost all of them would never had been built if they had been properly engineered, because the engineering would have shown that they were never going to work.
There exists no technology for feasibly storing heat on a residential scale. If it did exist, it would be widespread.
I recommend this article, which revisits an attempt build a house heated passively by solar energy, ten years later:
Re: Debris inside cleanout ports
Agree with @SlamDunk. it is only hunch. That is why @dietwawa should get a second opinion. Don't just rush into the new furnace on one say so. Based on the evidence presented, the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a failed heat exchanger. I would vote Not Guilty Slammy then do my testing.