Not quite a Ron Jr. feat, but..... (ME)

[Deleted User]

You would have to be there at design condition, and then the adjustments would only be right for THAT condition.

Our solution was the best fit based on all the variables.

When I broached the subject of CO with the assistant producer, he stated that they'd already done shows on combustion analysis...

Time is money to these people, and they have a very tight fixed budget, hence the "donations" of material and labor.

ME

[Deleted User]

Of velcro and boilers....

Changed out my Lilly Munchkin to my new boiler, Chuck the Contender.

Possibly a new record boiler swap out.

6 hours, from switch off to switch on.

Pictures tomorrow...

ME

J.C.A._3

AHHH shoot.

Milne and I changed out a Teledyne Laars pv200 with a grey one in about 2 hours one day, AND made the piping up according to the manual.. Ron Jr. be damned!

C'mon Mark... you gotta have a better story than that!

Just joshin' but the change out story IS true, Chris

Matt Undy

Hey..I saw you in the credits of ask this old house last week:-)

Maybe I should ask for an autograph.

Matt

[Deleted User]

They couldn't show me ON camera...

Because they haven't built a lens yet that can screen extreme ugly.

I have to give credit to Tim Reini, our lead service man who did most of the work. I just told him what to do and handed him the tools :-)

It was great fun seeing what goes on behind the scenes. Pretty interesting stuff.

Thanks to Rich Trethewey for the individual acknowledgement... I wasn't expecting that little suprise.

And a speciial thanks to all the folks who donated material to the project, including but not limited to Carol Fey and Honeywell, Water Systems Inc and their parent company Rampart Supply, as well as Matt Carr with Dahl Denver, whom I forgot to put into the credits. Matt bailed my butt out of the fire (as usual) due to a factory defective receiver for the wireless thermostat. One of the out takes had Richard finishing the wiring on the control panel, when suddenly, the control panel let out a puff of smoke as the transformer releived itself. Edit: It wasn't Richards fault, defective panel. Seriously...

Enjoy and thanks for the acknowledgement. It's not been shown in Colorado yet.

For those who have access, it's the Ask This Old HOuse # 514.

ME

jim P._2

No heat fix question

Mark I saw the episode where the homeowner was not getting heat in his addition and I'm not sure that was the best fix. The only way the addition would get heat would be if the rest of the house was satisfied. On a very cold day that might be a problem. Wouldn't it been better to put in circulators so that the addition would get heat when called for? BTW I'm just a homeowner. Jim

Unknown

Are we talking

boiler block changes ? We swapped out a V74 3 zone in 45 minutes once , but that was one of those days where EVERYTHING was in our favor ( boiler drained , located right in a boiler room 5 feet from the truck , unions on supply and return , 2 helpers and me ) .

Thanks alot Mark for the compliment . Truth be told , 95 percent of all replacement jobs on Long Island are done in one 8 hour day . I'm sure it's the same in most other areas like here ?

Looking foward to the pics , buddy .

Uni R_3

Next time...

Next time why not take a few more minutes and take some photos of the swapout and post them here? Unless this time does include taking photos?

[Deleted User]

Not really...

The first thing I did when ATOH asked me to go look at this home was to measure the home and check the output againtst load and source. All those components were properly sized. The HO and his plumber (MASTER!!) brother in law plumbed the addition themselves. In fact they BUILT the whole addition themselves. It was well built, except that they scimped on the hydronics, and used 1/2" copper for the new addition circuit.

I ran a Siegenthaler on it and determined the Blood and Guts series 100 circulator that was there was MORE than adequate to serve the whole systems needs. You probably didn't notice it because you're a homeowner and didn't notice the difference, but the front of the house was piped using the Lawn Guy Land heat loss method. The homeowner said he considered using 3/4" Onyx tubing and putting it (finned tube baseboard) on the front door too.. (Hydronic Hinges?) ;-) I advised against it. I checked with the HO the other day, and he said his WHOLE house has never been as comfortable as it is now, and his gas bills actually went down.

We "donated" the time to do a combustion analysis on the boiler (ATOH Productions didn't WANT to pay for it, I refused to touch it without doing so, and found his boiler to be WAY out of whack on the fire side), performed a clean and tune on it and probably saved some lives. His daughter (what a sweet heart) had her bedroom directly over the boiler room... I couldn't have lived with myself knowing that that child was sleeping directly above an appliance that I had inherited had I NOT tested it...

If you don't test, you don't know, and if you don't know, peoples lives are at stake...

Test EVERY gas fired appliance...


But thanks for asking Jim. Good question from a homeowner:-)


ME

[Deleted User]

Yeah butt...

and theres ALWAYS a butt in every crowd.

You guys are Hydronic Gawds... I knew you were a wizard, and I'm not really sure WHAT Milne is, but you're both keepers.

You guys were probably cheating and using ProPress and power tools. I did this BY MYSELF, with HAND tools (soldered joint, 2 leaks....on the friggin bottom...)

I probably could have cut my time in half with decent help and power tools.. The Copper Prep Star woman called me yesterday. Want's to consider the possible endorsement of her copper prep tool ($1,500.00 tool). Shoulda taken he up on the offer.

Got pictures?

ME

I was just trying to milk it :-)

ME

D107

on same subject

I saw the show and recall that Mr. Tretheway said that using balancing valves to control flow (instead of the zone valves he opted for) was generally hit and miss. Is that a commonly held opinion or one that is often debated?

Also, it's very interesting to me that what might be considered the biggest story was that the very well educated homeowner --maybe more knowledgeable in plumbing than hydronics--had a potentially lethal situation, that, if I remember correctly wasn't mentioned. I understand time constraints for the show, but that's worth a follow-up to remind the rest of us how easy it is for tragedies to happen.

Thanks,

David

[Deleted User]

You ARE the man....

and very deserving of any accolades Ron. It takes us a minimum of 3 days for a boiler swap out, but thats probably because we are also addressing other "issues" left for us by previous service contractors, and we also don't clean and jerk our own boilers.

ME

[Deleted User]

A** holes and Elbows

Uni, I had no heat and no hot water for my lovely bride to be able to do the laundry... If I had taken the time to fully document the process, all you would have seen would have been a** holes and elbows anyway. Not a pretty sight.

Did I mention that the high yesterday was 20 degrees F?

Cornfucious say "Best time to replace a boiler is when it is WARM outside..." Really???

ME

Unknown

That is

what sets you apart from the rest . Adressing all the ills of the heating system along with the replacement .

The main reason we have to get the job done in one day is our customers wouldn't want to be without heat and hot water . How do you handle that pontentially sticky situation ?

[Deleted User]

YMCA...

We just tell them to expect to be without heat and hot water. On large apartment complexes, we have some water heaters we set up outside the mechnical room for temporary DHW, but tell them they will be without for heating.

We're getting ready to gut and rehab an apartment complex whereby we will be preinstalling the new system in a room next to the mechanicalroom, then the transition from ol dto new will be done in one day of down time with all hands on deck. Should be interesting on the last day... 6 large boiler men in a small mechanical room.

ME

[Deleted User]

Pictures...

And yes, it is a plastic boiler. Actually, its not a boiler, but a water heater. ASME doesn't recognize European Carbon Composites as boiler type materials. Not yet any way...

The core heat exchanger is the same SS helical design exchanger in all the other Munchers. The water headers external to the HXer are carbon composite.

The wiring vestibule is substantially cleaner and easier to work on than previous models.

The condensate trap has a float switch on it in case of back up.

All tappings exit the bottom of the cabinet.

The blower motor is below the combustion chamber.

This is truly an air tight sealed combustion unit.

Pardon the appearance of the electrical ROUGH and the flex TEMP gas connector. I have to get some more fittings before I can put the gas meter back on it and electrical junctions/boxes.

It is SNOWING outside right now, and I've got to go get ready for a family gathering here this afternoon (triple birthday party...) hence, my reasons for wanting to get it done quickly.

Now begins the data logging.

Thanks HTP, this is quite the product.

ME

Ross_7

apples for apples?

Mark,
Is this new Contender the same btu range as your T50? Couldn't see why it would be different.Just curious.Thanks!
Ross

[Deleted User]

Yes, same fire capacity...

50K max on CH call, and 80 K max for DHW production.

ME

[Deleted User]

Episode #514 just aired here.

Mark, in addition to all the things that went wrong and what was evidently a fairly warm day, Richard's voice seemed to betray some difficulty with mile high elevation. Yet another reason he was lucky to have acclimatized you there doing the real work.