Best Of

In the late 80's, early 90's I installed 7 WAHP with pump and dump.

Sad to report that the oldest one has failed. It was a 3 ton Command-Aire installed in 1989. So a 35 year run surprised everyone…..including me.

The owner said that the water coil started leaking. The only other failed part was the blower motor, just recently. All of these had the Cupronickel water coils. All also had the desuperheater for DHW heating. And of course good ol' R-22.

Most dumped into a small stream or pond. One dumped into old well.

Out of the 7 there are still 3 running. I credit this longevity to our Sandhills water supply.

Also to the quality of components of the era.

T-stats were such that you could select HP only or HP with aux heaters. Most would heat enough with HP only. I probably oversized most of them because of that fact.

But they were all loud, you knew when they were running.

The anual cleaning is for the fireside of the boiler not the water side. Even that depends on how the boiler looks st the first service. In some cases you may go 2 or 3 years between cleaning.

The boiler manual may tell you what type of cleaner to use. I would not use a strong acid type.

Hydronic cleaners from Fernox, Rhomar and Adey are my suggestion

The have screw on aerosol cans now to inject the cleaner. Otherwise you need a fill/ purge pump

You need several flush valves in the correct location to flush and purge.

When it is all said and done add a conditioner and the fluid should be fine for years

Here is an example of a one piece fill/ purge valve, Webstone is one brand.

Also an example of a boiler water spec for stainless boilers. Check your water.

No, it shouldn’t be flushed unless there’s an issue that necessitates it.

Flushing introduces fresh water with more air and minerals. Not a good idea.

To protest the boiler from debris and such, a DIrt Mag should be installed in the return line

first of all, can someone help me identify this valve and tell me how to torn it. Do I have to buy a handle or do I use a wrench?

Not a 100- this is that pump's predecessor. My 1940 Bell & Gossett Handbook says it's the model H2, since the pipe connections are 2-inch.

Given the size of that boiler, I'm thinking that circ might be oversized for that system. This can cause the water to short-circuit through the radiators, reducing efficiency. Here's an extreme case I found years ago:

https://www.heatinghelp.com/systems-help-center/adjusting-the-flow-rate-for-an-old-gravity-hot-water-system/

Do you know how many square feet of radiation is on your system?

Also, an old round boiler like that one is inherently inefficient. A combustion test would probably reveal an extremely high stack temperature.