Another steamer with some copper on the header

Unknown

The Taco 006 bronze circ and the aquabooster were existing , but fairly new . They had the circ piped on top of the tank , pumping toward the coil . Man did these pipes get hot with steam temps hitting the coil . I bet this setup would give any indirect heater a run for the money .

Yeah I think I remember a Utica tag on the boiler . For its size these boilers are as heavy as they come . Thanks alot Frank for the compliment .

Unknown

We are seeing this more and more often

I forget which brand this is , I do know it was a freakin' heavy 4 sections . I particularly like the slope of the near boiler piping , and the choice of material . The 1 inch copper went right to a 1st floor radiator .

Unknown

Peerless ECT3

We dropped the header to make sure nothing sloppy went into the main or the copper piped rad . We also increased the size of the pipe to that rad to make sure it stays silent and doesn't wet the floor upstairs . They had a brand new aquabooster so we repiped it into a new coil .

Funny thing hapened while the boiler was steaming and the bronze circ running . Every few minutes the circ would hum and the oil burner would just turn off . After the humming stopped the burner would come right back on . What I think was happening was the circ was overheating with the hot water going through it , or it was cavitating somehow , making it draw way too many amps , which in turn made the oil burner shut down . Does anyone think this makes any sense ? I know it was not off on any safeties and the t-stat was calling all the time . We have to go back to clean and skim , so I'll throw in a mixer on the coil just to make sure .

lchmb

Hey Ron

Nice job on the install. Much cleaner and easier to service. As to the cycling issue, I wouldn't think so but anything is possible. Let us know what you find on it and keep up the nice work.

Mark Hunt

Ron


in our neck of the woods, copper is ALL you see.

We re-piped two boilers last year that were piped in copper, both installed by the same company. Both had HUGE surging problems. No wonder. The skim taps were left plugged and when all the flux melted and came back to the boiler it turned into a nightmare.

Installing contractor didn't have a clue.

We used Hydro-Solve from Rhomar and cleaned the puppy a few times. Now it runs silent.

Nice looking install!

Mark H

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Unknown

I've heard nothing

but great things about Rhomar's steam cleaner and treatment . We use a mild liquid made by Sid Harveys and I think we should be trying a more agressive cleaner for these nasty steamers . I'm gonna run the Rhomar product past my supervisor and see if we can buy a small batch to test out .

Mark , did you ever actually see a copper steam header come apart ? The jobs we do see copper above the water line look like they held for decades , but we really don't see it often enough to know the long term effects . In any event , I would never use copper to connect to a steel main . But if there's existing copper going to a rad or 2 .......

Thanks alot Mark for your post .

Mark Hunt

Yes


I have seen copper headers leaking. Now that doesn't mean they were leaking because they were copper. More than likely the guy that soldered the joint couldn't solder.

Rhomar Hydro-solve is AWSOME! On the boiler I will post pics of, we re-piped the boiler, got the FACTORY INSTALLED skim tap out. (Why does W-M INSIST on not only plugging that tap, but PAINTING the GD plug in so you need a 4' pipe wrench andn breaker bar to get it out???!!???!!!??)

I did an initial skimming. Fire the boiler and get the water hot, NO STEAM. Skim off two 5 gallon buckets. Fire boiler again and make steam. Let it run for a few minutes, skim two five gallon buckets again. Fire the boiler and steam again, this time longer. Skim two 5 gallon buckets. I would normally repeat this a few times, but in this case i would have been skimming for a month due to all of the flux that had attached itself to the boiler sections and piping.

We added the Hydro-solve and told the Homeowner to cycle the boiler on a few times(before heating season) and I would come back the next day to drain, re-skim, re-fill and add more Hydro-solve. Did this a couple times.

Ron, when I tell you that this boiler surged like no other I have ever seen, believe it. It almost jumped from surging. Washing machines make less noise!

When we were done, silence other than the burner. No spitting vents and no surging.

Warning!! Hydro-solve is NOT cheap. But it works like a champion!!!

We also used the steam treatment afterwards. HO called this year and said he'll not let anyone else touch his boiler.

As Dan says, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!!"

Mark H

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Unknown

It was funky

I was right next to the circ when we were skimming and cleaning . Every 5 or 10 minutes it would buzz and hum and make sound like it was having trouble pumping . When this happened the buner just shut down . I knew it wasn't another control shutting the burner down because both lights were still on in the Taco relay . After 10 seconds or so the circ would start pumping normally and the oil burner would kick back on . Weird stuff . Thanks alot Lchmb .

Ray M

Great job ron. I like the drop header. Nice and neat.
Ray M

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kevin coppinger_4

bad capacitor?

maybe? I twould explain the slow start.....kpc

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Unknown

On the circulator

or on the oil burner ? This was happening while both were running . All the power was tied into the junction box on the boiler . It might be like using a power drill and your wood bit gets caught . The drop light you got the power drill plugged into will dim . I was thinking something like that was happening with the circ and burner .

Unknown

Thanks Ray

I aim to please I should say Phil , George and myself aim to please .

kevin coppinger_4

on the pump...

if is has a problem starting it might have the tedency to pull enough voltage from the circut thereby stopping the burner....kpc

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Bob W._3

Ron, great job as always. I mean to try out some of the Rhomar conditioner on my new system.

Quick question: what brand is that nice large pressure gauge? Easy to see (my eyes are getting older).

Steamhead (in transit)

Ron, the old one was

either a Utica OU-400 or Columbia COU-400 which is just a rebadged Utica. These appear to be a knockoff of the old American-Standard A-3 Series- flue passage design is almost identical and they are built like tanks. With modern burners fired to the load, they will show decent efficiency, but not as good as the Peerless.

The Peerless is a work of art as usual. What model circulator did you use on the HW loop and have so much trouble with?

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Unknown

Bob W.

I forget which brand gauge , but it is the standard one that is shipped with the Peerless . I know what you mean about the smaller gauges . My eyes are shot after getting into the habit of reading e-books . Thanks for the comments and make sure to let us know how the Rhomar products work .

Unknown

You sold me on it

We were talking about callbacks on new steam installs and this heating season we've had quite a few already . All of them needed a 3rd skim and cleaning . A product that can cut our callbacks are well worth it . Thanks Mark .