Best Of
Re: Munchkin 140m troubleshooting FO9
Ya! you have a condensate drain issue. I would replace the front and rear refractory, do a complete HX cleaning. Remove the refractories before hand. I use CLR cleaner in a squirt bottle and soak it well. Use a stainless steel scouring pad that I get at the Dollar Store to scrub the HX. Use a garden hose to flush the the HX several times until the condesate hose runs freely. I use a feeler gauge to clean between the coils. I also use a stainless wire wheel on a dremel tool and go over the whole HX coils. I bought these wheels at Harbor Freight. Don't use anything but stainless steel to clean the HX. Flush and spray often. It takes me about 3 hours to clean a Munchkin. The longest it took me to clean a Lochinvar was almost 5 hours. Take your time and do it right.
Munchkins need a combustion analysis which is part of my cleaning process.
On low fire the fan rpm is about 1400 and at high fire 3200 as I recall. You have to access the service mode to adjust the rpm up or down. The manual tells you how to access the programing and the code which is 925.
This is what a Munchkin that I cleaned looks like.
Re: Restoring One Pipe -- finally
Pretty much the air is pushed out of the radiator as it enters — the vent won't close until the steam makes it all the way through the radiator to the vent, so by that time… pretty much full of steam.
You do mention control… and yes, two pipe is a lot easier to control as you can close, or partly close, the inlet to better match steam flow (and thus condensing) to required power. One pipe, as you note or imply, you can't. In most cases one works on a rather intricate interplay of venting rate and cycle time and one can get the balance pretty well. Thermostatically controlled VENTS can also be used — but it's important to remember that the boiler must cycle off and pressure drop to zero from time to time for them to gain control.
Re: Need a tool for lifting a radiator
cabinet jacks Irwin/Dewalt has inexpensive ones for up to 300lbs. Good for working on doors as well.
Waher
How long should a 275 gallon oil storage tank last?
I have an older 275 gallon oil tank in basement that could be 50 years old and no signs of any leaks. It has a bottom spout on tank that connects to line to burner and the tank is slightly pitched towards the spout when I put a level on it
The metal plate on top says: "Underwriters Laboratories, Inc" "Inside Oil Tank" "Metal No Gage no F?" I think
Regards,
RTW
RTW
Re: Multiple temperatures on single zone with single circulator pump?
Thank you all for your help!
First off, apologies for the long delay. I have been fighting some personal problems that prevented me from getting back to read/reply.
I did decide to stick with traditional design approach using separate circ pump for the radiator loop. And of course the main loop is not interrupted by the mixing valve — closely spaced Ts off loop. Lots of good information here, and seems not worth experimenting on something that seems unlikely to work well. I really appreciate all of the thoughtful comments!
Comment to a couple of the posts — the mixing valve does properly regulate floor temperature to the set temp, while the furnace itself decides what the loop water temp should be. It's actually not an outdoor reset (though that can be easily added with an optional temperature sensor). Without the reset, the boiler uses some sort of "intelligent" algorithm based on overall system demand. I honestly don't think it does anything from energy saving perspective for the underfloor zones since their temperature is controlled by mixing valves so always at steady set temp. But I can see it being beneficial for the radiator zones.
Sadly, it is all cast iron. And yes, I fight the sludge problem (flushing every year and keeping chemicals in helps). One of the zones was totally plugged when I moved in, and initial flushing to get everything going was a PITA. Didn't really know why I keep getting dirty water until I discovered the PB issue and fact that it is not oxygen barrier. I met the plumber who did the whole thing to begin with, and he admitted it was his "first system" and he made "some mistakes". I've learned since then that basically the whole thing was done wrong. Had I known what I know now, I would have just pulled it all out a long time ago. After replacing the PB, I will have essentially replaced everything except one of the circulator pumps.
The system works properly in some parts of the house, but not in others. Two main is days. The loops were not done correctly, and I've learned that the worst of the rooms has no insulation under the floor (explaining why the basement room below stays sufficiently warm without it's radiator ever running). The tubes do not have heat spreaders, so as you can imagine I don't get nearly enough coming up through the floor. Fixing this would require tearing out ceiling under both rooms, so I'm inclined to abandon the underfloor for those two rooms and use radiators instead.
Second issue, as has been discussed, is I have PB and cast iron everywhere. Installed new boiler a couple years ago because the original was breaking down, and didn't know about the non-oxy-PB issue at the time. I'm starting to replace all the PB with poly to deal with this (as well as the inspection issues I will run into when I sell if I leave PB in place). Fortunately, I have fairly easy access to everything except those two rooms.
I'm now looking more closely at those radiators, and will probably start a new post on it if I can't find my error. I'm having a lot of difficulty believing what I'm coming up with on required length based on BTU calculations…because I've never seen a small room with as much baseboard as the calculators are telling me I need! BTU is calculating around 13,000 for a 138 Sq Foot room. That's 20+ feet per room for a 11 1/2 x 12 ft room! Way more than my original 8' that came from a generic estimator. My neighbor has all baseboard in a similarly built house, with nowhere near that much baseboard in his rooms. And I've never seen baseboard around here that covers two walls of any bedroom. But, maybe I just haven't been sufficiently observent.
inaun
Re: Blueray Recall?
If it is the original "Blu-ray" from the early 80s that burned with a blue flame blue they originally had Carlin burners with a gizmo on the end to recirculate the combustion gasses so the flame would turn blue.
They did work but were more trouble than they were worth to keep running. Very touchy.
They then came out with a yellow flame kit to convert them back into a normal burner.
I never saw one with a Beckett burner but I suppose there is no reason it couldn't work.
I would have thought all of those would have been long gone by now.
Re: Attached EDR vs Boiler SF of steam
In second day of Peerless 63, last nite 9degrees, today 25, tonite 6. I can't believe how well it's working…so quiet, radiators all doing what their supposed to. I've been a member for yrs. My prior house had a Richardson Vapor system, I actually got it working in vacuum. Actually had one of main steam guys here who came to house in Pittston, Pa. He was from Jersey and he was only one who'd work on pipe that needed to be addressed. It was wrapped with asbestos and no heat guys locally would touch it. After it was piped correctly, I was able to put a vacuum vent on which worked wonderfully. I chose the Peerless because it was closest to EDR. The company I dealt with installed only WM, PB and Nivien.
Fizz
Re: DHW Recirculation Is Great!
Bob,
It is on a timer and I only need it to run for less than 1 minute.
