water heater for boiler buffer?

Royboy

that the water heater would be plenty well insulated at their current foam insulation standards.

buffer tank in parallel with indirect water heater off of mod/con. buffer tank will only be heated during heating season via outdoor reset thus heat loss not a big concern as it's in the house.

my concern is more about tank itself. is there a downside to a glass lined tank in a heating system?

Royboy

looking for a buffer tank

for a mod/con install with many small home-run loads. am aware of a 30 gallon insulated steel tank made for this purpose but it is quite pricey ($800 or so).

my supplier said that many guys use electric water heaters for this. seems reasonable and the price would certainly be preferable. the tappings wouldn't be ideal but between the inlet & outlet, the relief and drain tappings, I think that should do it.

anyone have any thoughts as to why it would, or wouldn't be a good idea to go the water heater route?

thanks

Mad Dog_2

An indirect water storage tank is usually

insulated much better. The comparison might be an average coffee travel mug versus a not-so-cheap stainless steel thermos. The extra cost now, will be an investment is fuel and energy savings. Mad Dog

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Royboy

bump and ...

so what do you guys use? water heaters or tanks made for the purpose or ...

hr

Depends on the capacity

HTP makes a nice 20 gallon insulated, stainless with four 1-1/2" connections and some misc small ports for gauges sensors and T&P.

For 50 and up I use either blank insulated DHW storage tanks of electric water heater tanks.

When I use electric tanks I'll use the two 1" element ports for the boiler connection points. I feel fine operating them to 160F if needed. Glass lined tanks should last a long time in a closed loop below 180F application. Many indirect tanks are glass lined steel these days.

If you use glycols it might be wise to remove the anode rod.

Ergomax and Thermomax have reverse indirects that work well also. A`bit more money as you are buying a tank full of copper tube.

hot rod

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Royboy

with a water heater

I was thinking about using the ports, but I always think of them as relying on a gasket on the element for sealing rather than a thread-seal. so how do you adapt to those ports for piping?

and are you suggesting that the glass lining gets to be a problem up in the 180 range? I'll be using an outdoor reset but I'm sizing for that temp at design conditions.

thanks, Bob, always appreciate your advice.

Roy