Best Of
Re: Why are some 2 pipe rads supplied from the top, and others from the bottom?
Excellent point.
jumper
Re: Why are some 2 pipe rads supplied from the top, and others from the bottom?
Anything I can do to further. the cause… I'm a giver!
Re: 2-pipe Radiator Experiments, parts 1, 2, and now 3 with insane reverse pitch!!
If you potentially want to get some hammer going you may have to feed the radiator at the bottom port, but your CSST may fill up and cut off the steam flow.
You should have the scanner on in case the Boiler Police or Steam Police decide to do a raid.
109A_5
Re: Circulation Pump Too Small?
My thermostat is in the dining room, not near the front entry. However, when I first moved here the boiler was short cycling, and it took me a long time to figure out the several factors involved. The sneakiest one was that the thermostat was mounted in front of a pipe chase hidden inside the wall…the same chase containing the radiator riser pipes to the second floor. So when the heat came on, the wall behind the thermostat would heat up and cause the thermostat to end the heat call prematurely.
Once I found that, I moved the thermostat to an adjacent wall and re-routed the wires up from the basement. I also found a cold updraft in the wall from the basement, and had to foam the wire hole to stop the draft.
The other thing I highly recommend is the ecobee smart thermostat. I got two last January, and they have been instrumental in troubleshooting our heating system. You can see when and for how long the thermostat is calling for heat, download the data, etc. And when you make changes to your system, the ecobee data will tell you what the effect was on your fuel consumption, etc.
jesmed1
Re: Traveling Boiler Techs
I got sick of the start-ups.
Things were rarely ready the first time. You figure the time it will take and then time is wasted because things were installed wrong, and you make multiple trips, and they don't want to pay.
I started a Smith 19 once with a Carlin and when I got to the job the fitter didn't have water in the boiler. He put water in the boiler but the valves to the system were shut. "Don't open the valves" he said the system isn't ready.
I said why did you call? He said we have to have the heat on tomorrow
So, I started the burner, and the fire looked great, but the smoke tester showed smoke, and I had no Co2.
I shut it off cause the boiler was hot and told him don't run it I have to come back when the system is done so I can run it longer something is out of wack with this burner.
Next day he started it anyhow. He shut it off when the paint burned off the jacket. He had sent the cleanout covers back to the shop because he didn't know what they were for.
Re: 2-pipe Radiator Experiments, parts 1, 2, and now 3 with insane reverse pitch!!
I have just posted part 2 of this series.
In this video, I set up my test radiator as a two-pipe radiator fed from my 1-pipe system with the condensate draining from the radiator trap into a bucket. Since the radiator is pitched normally in this video to set a baseline, the video ends up being more of a demo of how traps work, which I found to be pretty interesting if I do say so myself!
If you enjoy watching water run at various speeds out of a Hoffman 17c trap, this video is for you! 😅
Here is the video: YouTube link for if you want to comment on the video's vertical format or to correct anything dumb I said!
Re: Boiler working - feed lines hot to floor but floor not heating
Plugged mixing valves is another possibility. Depending on the brand and model, some have fine mesh strainers at the H&C port.
Look for any other y strainers, and sometimes plugged air purgers.
It sounds like flow has gradually dropped off?
hot_rod
Re: American standard 6b j5 boiler bad bleeder valve symptoms?
Or the pressure relief valve?
hot_rod
Re: Help with infloor heat
Fixing this unfortunately won't change how much propane you use. If you get a modcon dialed in, you might get 5%-10% lower depending on how it is running now. Easy one is to get the outdoor sensor installed and configure a reset curve. The rest is getting the return water temp as low as possible to the unit. This means adjusting flow rates and supply temps.
If you want real fuel savings, don't run the snow melt and figure out where you are loosing heat in the house. Most places, a bit of air sealing goes a long way and will save you more than a perfectly dialed in boiler.
Kaos
Re: Help with infloor heat
I'm pretty sure the mix valve can't work like that. I think what was happening before is the loads before the floor heat drooped the primary loop temperature enough that the mix valve was near fully open. In that case, the location doesn't matter as the water flows straight through.
My guess is something changed on the loads or the flow in the primary loop increased which is now causing the mixing valve try to do its mixing thing, but in that plumbing orientation it simply restricts the output of the pump.
Re-plumb the mix valve where it needs to go and it should fix your issue.
Kaos