Best Of
Re: Main air vent location
There's no hammer but the boiler needs to run for about 3 hours to get heat to these 2 rads which are at the end of a 270' main. I've rebuild the traps with Tunstall capsules which needed to be done but slows venting even more since they don't vent as quickly as the original trap elements. This system started out burning coal and nobody thought to add mains vents when it was converted.
Gateacre
Re: So fresh water carrying O2 causes corrosion. How about a HOT WATER TANK feeder into the boiler?
Probably much better than your tap water. If it is an open vessel it will still pick up CO2. Dust, mold spores, spiders, whatever is in your air or basement. I doubt the boiler will know or mind.
hot_rod
Re: Makeup water causing boiler failure due to thermal shock
this happened wile i was typing. I'm not sure if people have narrowed down if it is the overheating or the trying to fix the overheating by adding water(or trying to continue to drive it with a leaking cooling system after you've added water). I think it can be both but your best bet is to be patient and let it cool down before adding water.
mattmia2
Re: Main air vent location
This is the end of a 270ft main that starts as 2.5". I like your layout, it's. even easier, thanks
Gateacre
Re: Commissioning new Peerless 63-06
Agreed and you can get them in appropriate scales such as 7-14 pH for better accuracy
https://www.amazon.com/7-0-14-0-indicator-strips-100-box/dp/B001TQOOR4
Re: Boiler Protection with 3-way valve?
I'm a bit biased working for Caleffi, but the 280 is an excellent valve for boiler protection. High Cv, union connections, temperature gauge wells, multiple temperature sensors available.
We sell many of these around the world. They are standard equipment on most wood fired and pellet fired equipment to prevent cold operation which leads to creosote formation. So the manual talks about that type of equipment.
Regardless if you use a valve or electronic solution, the boiler needs to operate to maintain that temperature.
But with a protection valve, shut the boiler off, after the heat call cold start will lengthen cycles and boost boiler efficiency compared to short, under 10 minute cycles.
The type of heat emitters matters, copper fin tube rarely need boiler protection.
Cast rads or large high water content, like gravity conversions, really need protection.
Combining zones helps eliminate shoulder season short cycling. But zoning is a selling feature of hydronics :) catch 22.
In mild conditions it will be hard to eliminate short cycles without maybe tricking the boiler with a anti cycle timer for example. Holding the boiler off when there is a call for heat has some consequences. Comfort might be higher on your list that absolute energy savings?
These are all the challenges with fixed output boilers facing a very wide, dynamic heat load throughout the season.
hot_rod
Re: What To Look For When Replacing a Natural Gas Boiler
One thing you can try is to drop by your local hvac supply company and ask them who buys a lot of modcons. This will at least get you the contact who does this type of work.
When looking at a new unit, make sure to check what size you actually need, simplest is fuel use calculation. Very few houses out there that need a 199k boiler.
Kaos
Re: What To Look For When Replacing a Natural Gas Boiler
Take a look at IBC boilers, specifically their SL model. It has left or right side connections which can make Munchkin replacements easier.
In my area, Viessmann boilers are competitively priced. It's the Lochinvar's that are $$$$$.
Re: Makeup water causing boiler failure due to thermal shock
If it causes a problem I think it is likely to be something that warps and leaks later and won't be something you can definitively tie to the thermal shock. Usually the feed is relatively slow compared to the volume of the boiler so the temp change isn't that fast unless the boiler was almost empty.
mattmia2
Re: Commissioning new Peerless 63-06
Well guys, it seems a frickin' miracle has occurred here overnight. I was awakened in the early hours today to some of the more reassuring sounds my system has made over the years and the sense (from under the covers) that a decent amount of heat was coming from my bedroom radiator. I came downstairs to comfortable warmth along the way. And after setting the (electric) tea kettle to boil I headed to the basement boiler room to find my recalcintrant wee beasty sitting quietly at completion of the call for heat with the sight glass level precisely at my Sharpie mark of NWL. Mind you an inch below where I left it but a clear sign from the boiler deities.
I climbed back upstairs to check my problematic living room baseboards. Strains of The Hallelujah Chorus echoing in my head as all five checked out toasty warm from end to end, including #4 (the long one) that had simply coughed a few times when I opened the steam trap at its end during a heat call the day before, and pulled out the trap element, fully expecting or maybe just hoping steam would come rushing to the opening? Maybe? Sorry, cough, gurgle, gurgle ... looking for something here?
After a cup of coffee and a little breakfast the tstat was calling for heat so I went downstairs to witness the miracle it action. The boiler temp came up nicely, with pressure building to about 8 inches WC at start of steaming. It climbed a bit above 16 inches in the early mid cycle, then fell back to 10 to 12-ish as cold condensate began to return to the boiler. Best of all, the sight glass level remained firmly in the +1 to +1.5 inch area the entire time, until the CycleGard threw in it's random "intermittent level test" sending us into vacuum for a brief minute. Once steaming again level came right back to +1. Like I said, a freakin' meer-kle.
Okay, so before we call the Vatican for insights on how my demon-possessed new boiler, regularly spewing it's charge from both ends days before, had suddenly become a docile and a well-behaved heating appliance, I should fess up to two changes I made last night, before settling into the couch with the Missus, for reruns of Uhtred, son of Uhtred, season 2. The first was to move the old Hoffmann 75 sitting atop my condensate system doing nothing but helping to tune the hiss of escaping air, over to steam tail #2, where it might actually do some good. Secondly, after contemplating Paul's admonishment to not worry about adding 8-way until all the oil was cleaned out, it occurred to me that I still had a partial quart of Hercules Boiler Cleaner, which i had used with the old Burham when it sounded a bit too rumbly. So I quickly perused the instructions: "Removes oil, scale, sludge" hmmm well not a lot of scale or sludge yet I assume, "emulsifies oil and grease", that sounds good, "helps stop priming, foaming, and surging", okay I am in. I grabbed my channel locks to open the pipe-bombed shaped chem add port my boiler guy had provided, added a precisely metered 2 1/2 to 3 glugs of the fluorescent green elixir straight into the port, and closed her up. Off to Uhtred.
The rest is, as they say, for the history books. Shout it from the rooftops, "This **** really works! All hail Hercules Boiler Cleaner!"
