Best Of
Re: repairing a neglected chimney, flue, thimble, liner, and leaks
So you have a CMU block chimney that was improperly built on day one, improperly modified, had two combustion appliances improperly connected, improperly maintained, improperly repaired and you want to stick a Band-Aid on it? Sorry to break the news but this is waaaay beyond resuscitation. An interior chimney must be built to NFPA 211, which requires a 2" clearance to combustibles, firestopped, constructed of 4" solid masonry units and not hollow block, use a medium duty non-water soluble calcium aluminate refractory cement mixture btw flue tiles that are not eroded, deteriorated or otherwise damaged or not properly stacked one upon the other. A chimney liner is listed ONLY if there is an intact 4" wythe wall. Half this chimney is gone from the inside. The effective flue area of that 8"x8" flue is basically a 6" round or about 28 square inches. a 9" circle has an area of 63.62" square. That exterior chimney portion was so rotten they had to glue it together with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)-based mortar as stucco. FYI, OPC mortar and stucco tend to trap water exacerbating the erosion of the masonry as well as rotting wood-based products in contact. The water causes the soluble salts deposited over the years of acidic flue gases to migrate towards the outer wall of the chimney. Here, the efflorescence attracts water like a magnet which breaks down the masonry. The alkaline OPC mortar is converted into sand and salt, which is why most of the mortar is visibly missing from the chimney linterior. Even if you reline this chimney, there is insufficient mass to contain it (4" solid masonry units. The thimble is way too close to the combustible mudsill. The chimney connector pipe is corroded and, even new is too thin gauge for that diameter.
On top of all that, you're nursing a dinosaur boiler that is grossly inefficient. Replace the chimney with either a Class A "all-fuel" stainless steel chimney with a 316ss inner liner preferably, or type L vent. You'll have to replace all the rot, reframe/ repair the house, install listed firestops, maintain stated clearances to combustibles, use only components listed for use with that venting system, use 24ga. 316ss rigid chimney liner for your chimney connector with a barometric damper and a spill switch then install a low level CO monitor and you should be good to go.
Re: H/W Coil replacement
but back on topic. The gasket material is soft and creeps over time, especially when it is new and when it gets hotter. It should be re-torqued after the first and second and maybe 3rd year. If you made a gasket out of epdm it probably would require less attention but that it also a bit pricey.
mattmia2
Re: Short cycling hydronic boiler
Great Video Ray
There is one that I discovered early in my career that I wish to share. The illusive Taco 570 series zone valves and the older heat anticipators that were a resistance heater like the T87F and the T822D models. The amperage draw on those heat motors are between 0.9 and 1.0 amps. This will over heat that anticipator and satisfy the thermostat in very short order, like within a minute. Then cool off just as fast. You can get a thermostat to cycle 50 to 90 times per hour on a long call for heat. It was a real eye opener for me when I went on a service where someone just replaced the thermostat and the house would not get up to temperature. The oil burner actually was turning off after operating for less than one minute.
This was a real stumper for me, but I was a rookie back in the day. After using all I learned in technical school on how to use a meter to determine what circuit was opening to cause the burner to stop, I narrowed it down to the new thermostat. So I replaced it with another T87F and got the same result. (read my signature tag line below). I called the service manager and he told me to check the heat anticipator the way I was taught using my amp meter with the 10 wraps of wire around the probe clamp. It said the heat anticipator should be set at 9.6, or actually .96 since I needed to divide by 10. The T87F was factory set at about 0.32 amp. I slid the anticipator arrow to the 0.9ish area which is close to the end on the dial and all was good. Those Taco zone valves are real power users. and there are still some in use, connected to T87F thermostats. I looked at the copper winding of the heat anticipator and saw that is was really discoloured from overheating. Go figure.
Now a replacement thermostat probably will not have that antique heat anticipator for the most part, but there may be some out there and reading this post may bring a rookie to the head of the class if they solve it with a slight adjustment.
Thanks for the video Ray.
Re: Its hot in here 84deg but I am a lot hotter
Enjoyed the story, I suppose many of us in the northeast can certainly relate.
I just fired up my twenty five year old window unit at my shop/office. The unit is actually supposed to be mounted in a window, but I customized it to be mounted in a wall as I have not windows in my office. I was trying to hold off spending that extra dollar a day on electricity for as long as possible. Then I looked at the temperature on the wall mounted thermostat (for heating) read 83 degrees at 7am this morning. Luckily the Hampton Bay (Home Depot) unit came to life when I hit the "on" button. The unit is loud, vibrates a lot, and probably not that environmentally friendly but it works (for now).
Stay cool!
Re: Installing new bathroom zone on a pretty screwed up system
Technically that is a HDPE tube, typically used in geo work. The ASTM standard number identifies it.
hot_rod
Re: Honeywell V8043 hard to activating when connected to Nest
OK. I see a problem. you have the C from the thermostat going to the same place as one of the R or W on the thermostat, That is where you have the Red X.
Just changing the C to the other side of the zone valve may or may not solve the problem. Here is an example of how it will not work.
In this picture, the R from the transformer goes to one of the yellow wires or to the TR on the zone valve. The Other yellow wire from the zone valve or the TH goes to the R on the NEST. The C from the NEST goes to the R on the transformer and the W from the NEST goes to the C on the transformer.
This is an example of how it will work:
In this picture you can clearly see that the R from the transformer goes to the R on the NEST. The W from the NEST goes to the Yellow wire or the TH on the zone valve. The other Yellow wire or the TR on the zone valve goes to the C on the transformer. And the C from the NEST also goes to the C on the transformer.
BUT….
Don't just change the wires on the one zone valve if you need to. All the Zone valves MUST be wired the same. To be clear, If you need to swap a wire from W to R on one zone to make it work, then you must change W to R on every other zone the same way. Otherwise you may let the factory installed smoke out of the transformer. That can get expensive and it doesn't smell very nice either.
You can always get one of these smoke keepers from the auto parts store. You want the 3 amp variety.
PS… I don't really sell these. They are cheaper at the auto parts store
Short cycling hydronic boiler
Why is my hydronic boiler short cycling? This week's video.
It talks about how to recognize and solve short cycling on a hydronic boiler.
Re: Large Shower Riser
Those escutcheons and faucet handles look exactly like the ones in the house where I grew up, built in 1952 in eastern Massachusetts. American Standard I think.
bburd
Re: Large Shower Riser
Hi, I'll agree with @delcrossv . Long ago, I built a small chamber to go on the end of the shower arm, ahead of the showerhead. It did a good job of slowing the rate of change in water temperature when an imbalance was created by someone flushing a toilet, or washing machine coming on. Not having to jump out of the way was good. 😽
Yours, Larry
