Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
If our community has helped you, please consider making a contribution to support this website. Thanks!
Best Of
Re: What are my chances removing a nipple from a 7 year old gas water heater tank?
Just replace the water heater - they're disposable.
Re: Importance of outdoor temp sensor for reset on Viessmann Vitodens B1KE-120 ?
I like to set the heating curve low and see if it keeps the house warm, but no mater how I explain the concept, many homeowners often think I didn't install the system properly, so I don't experiment anymore and set the heating curve to a higher number.
Crazy to not use the outdoor reset feature.
If anything, it's fun to play with.
Crazy to not use the outdoor reset feature.
If anything, it's fun to play with.
Re: Importance of outdoor temp sensor for reset on Viessmann Vitodens B1KE-120 ?
I would have recommended a tank to go with it personally, they hook up really easy to the equivalent non-combi version of that boiler, and you used to have a tank somewhere so there is room. you will probably be satisfied with the combi though.
In regards to outdoor reset, I would want it hooked up for a radiant floor especially. It is really easy to disconnect it and set a setpoint for the boiler, but whatever setpoint is correct for that boiler, is only needed during the coldest day of the entire year, every other day it could be lower allowing for more even floors and longer boiler runtime, as well as possibly increased efficiency. It is almost a guarantee that the setpoint that ends up being chosen will be too high for even the coldest day.
Your contractor probably had customers that don't fully understand how the system is designed to work, so they want to set a temp to avoid a callback. Personally I think educating the customer and getting a feel for what they want from their system is critical for a new boiler install. You will know if someone truly needs a setpoint or not.
You can also very easily adjust the heating curve if needed throughout the course of a heating season, generally within a heating season you can have it dialed in really well. If a contractor were to set up with the app it would be possible for them to monitor and adjust the heating curve remotely, however I do not know a single contractor that utilizes this very handy functionality (understandable as we aren't all tech savvy)
You as the owner can adjust this value very easily yourself, most contractors would not want you to touch it, personally I think owner training on a new boiler is very valuable so they have less chance of doing something bad to it if they have an understanding of the things they should not touch at all. it is 3 button presses to access the heating curve adjustment, and just adjust up or down 1-2 values at a time until you are happy, keep in mind any changes are not noticeable immediately and should be adjust in small increments with a few hours in between at least. use the viessmann recommended for your maximum so you don't turn it too high ( 0.8 is a good setting to not exceed for radiant floors)
In regards to outdoor reset, I would want it hooked up for a radiant floor especially. It is really easy to disconnect it and set a setpoint for the boiler, but whatever setpoint is correct for that boiler, is only needed during the coldest day of the entire year, every other day it could be lower allowing for more even floors and longer boiler runtime, as well as possibly increased efficiency. It is almost a guarantee that the setpoint that ends up being chosen will be too high for even the coldest day.
Your contractor probably had customers that don't fully understand how the system is designed to work, so they want to set a temp to avoid a callback. Personally I think educating the customer and getting a feel for what they want from their system is critical for a new boiler install. You will know if someone truly needs a setpoint or not.
You can also very easily adjust the heating curve if needed throughout the course of a heating season, generally within a heating season you can have it dialed in really well. If a contractor were to set up with the app it would be possible for them to monitor and adjust the heating curve remotely, however I do not know a single contractor that utilizes this very handy functionality (understandable as we aren't all tech savvy)
You as the owner can adjust this value very easily yourself, most contractors would not want you to touch it, personally I think owner training on a new boiler is very valuable so they have less chance of doing something bad to it if they have an understanding of the things they should not touch at all. it is 3 button presses to access the heating curve adjustment, and just adjust up or down 1-2 values at a time until you are happy, keep in mind any changes are not noticeable immediately and should be adjust in small increments with a few hours in between at least. use the viessmann recommended for your maximum so you don't turn it too high ( 0.8 is a good setting to not exceed for radiant floors)
GGross
2
Re: Recip / Sawzalls
I've had my Supersawzall 20 yrs. Diablo blades. That's all I'll buy now. Mad Dog 🐕For what it's worth the 15A SuperSawzall I bought yesterday says right on it "Professionally made in China by Milwaukee"
I guess that's supposed to sound better than "China" or "Made in China".
My dad still has a "Heavy Duty Sawzall" he got back in the late 80's that apparently is 4 amps and all the power he's ever needed. It has a metal case.
ChrisJ
2
Re: Importance of outdoor temp sensor for reset on Viessmann Vitodens B1KE-120 ?
Without it, you might as well stayed with an atmospheric boiler. If they are installing State of the Art products, it's time they jump in with both feet. Mad Dog 🐕edit: I removed a response of mine that I realized made no sense after I did more research ... carry on and thanks for your input
Re: Circulator test
Two quick tests.
If you have a ball valve in the hydronic circuit, with all zones running, quickly close the ball valve. If you hear a tapering HIISSssss, you have flow. If you hear nothing, you most probably have little to no flow.
Other check is performed with the burner off, and the pump on. Hold a lit torch against the pipe for 5 seconds. Wait 5 seconds, then carefully touch the pipe. If it's hot, there is no flow. If its cool, there is flow.
When using an amprobe to check motors, one has to be careful. A locked rotor on a 007 draws the same amperage as one that is running correctly...
ME
If you have a ball valve in the hydronic circuit, with all zones running, quickly close the ball valve. If you hear a tapering HIISSssss, you have flow. If you hear nothing, you most probably have little to no flow.
Other check is performed with the burner off, and the pump on. Hold a lit torch against the pipe for 5 seconds. Wait 5 seconds, then carefully touch the pipe. If it's hot, there is no flow. If its cool, there is flow.
When using an amprobe to check motors, one has to be careful. A locked rotor on a 007 draws the same amperage as one that is running correctly...
ME
Re: What are my chances removing a nipple from a 7 year old gas water heater tank?
EBEBRATT-Ed said:As Larry said put a bolt in the nipple or thread a fitting on the top thread if you have enough room for the wrench. A hammer on the wrench is a good idea the "shock " usually breaks it loose.
The problem with putting something inside is that there is already the dielectric liner, I could try to drill it out but that would mean the plastic would be dropping inside the tank. Don't know if this is the kind that dissolves and gets into every aerator and such, had a dip tube that dissolved causing me to have to put a screen filter on the tank output.
If the plastic was the kind that dissolves, wouldn't it be doing that right now submerged in hot water?
ChrisJ
1
How to get the best efficiency out of my new boiler.
I have a new boiler installed recently and just changed the thermostat and I would like to find the best settings in my Hydrostat 3250 Plus. I always keep the thermostat at 63 degrees regardless of the outside temperature. The settings configured by the installer are High 175, low 140 and economy set to 5. ( he told me there was a range of 1-10 and he set it to 5) I later downloaded the manual and see that the setting range is 1-5. I installed a microcontroller to log the data from 4 temperature sensors to both Google sheets and a cell phone app.
The data for the plots below was captured every minute using (4) DS18B20
temperature sensors and one current probe around the Black wire going to the burner. If current flowing, is greater than 0.5 amp, then a digital output = 1, otherwise it is 0. The blue trace is the temperature of the sensor about 6 inches above the circulator. The orange trace is from the sensor on the hot water pipe about 6 feet high.
The third sensor was placed next to the thermostat in the hallway. The forth sensor was located outside of the house near the oil burner.
This is a 3 core boiler with one zone and no separate water heater.
The burner on is represented by the gray trace. There are 2000 readings taken over a period of 1.4 days.
The blue trace is the circulator sensor and the orange sensor is the hot water temperature sensor.
This is the circulator water temperature vs the Burner on / off.
Here is a zoom in of the first 250 readings showing the circulator water temperature vs burner on / off.
In this plot, the inside temperature sensor (Blue) was placed right next to the thermostat. The non-programmable thermostat was set to 63 degrees. The orange trace is the outside temperature which uses the scale on the right side and ranged between 35 and 45 degrees.
Here we have the outside temperature vs the Burner on / off.
This plot is the inside temperature vs the burner on / off.
Here are the statistics based on the 1.4 day test.
The data for the plots below was captured every minute using (4) DS18B20
temperature sensors and one current probe around the Black wire going to the burner. If current flowing, is greater than 0.5 amp, then a digital output = 1, otherwise it is 0. The blue trace is the temperature of the sensor about 6 inches above the circulator. The orange trace is from the sensor on the hot water pipe about 6 feet high.
The third sensor was placed next to the thermostat in the hallway. The forth sensor was located outside of the house near the oil burner.
This is a 3 core boiler with one zone and no separate water heater.
The burner on is represented by the gray trace. There are 2000 readings taken over a period of 1.4 days.
The blue trace is the circulator sensor and the orange sensor is the hot water temperature sensor.
This is the circulator water temperature vs the Burner on / off.
Here is a zoom in of the first 250 readings showing the circulator water temperature vs burner on / off.
In this plot, the inside temperature sensor (Blue) was placed right next to the thermostat. The non-programmable thermostat was set to 63 degrees. The orange trace is the outside temperature which uses the scale on the right side and ranged between 35 and 45 degrees.
Here we have the outside temperature vs the Burner on / off.
This plot is the inside temperature vs the burner on / off.
Here are the statistics based on the 1.4 day test.
docbar99
1