Superstor piped backwards

Leo

At a company I was once with we had a leaking Indirect brand to remain nameless. We did not use this brand but for a quick fix ordered an exact replacement. New replacement now has supply and return opposite the old tanks. Had to do more work anyway. Speed up, I see a rep at a trade show and voice my displeasure. His answer, scrape off in and out stickers and pipe like the old one.

Leo

BTW we never use this particular brand at all now. It was not Super Stor.

1974bobcat

Superstor

I went out to a house today and noticed the supply and return to the super-stor were reversed. No complantes,the HO says it is fine--should I fix it or leave it???

hot_rod

the coil in that

tank is pretty "bunched up" at the bottom. Check out the cut away views of that style tank in their ads. I doubt you would see a huge difference in output.

If the customer is happy, let the sleeping dog lie

hot rod

Ted_9

SSU

It should be fine. There may be a slight loss, but I don't think it's noticeable.

kevin coppinger_4

actually...

depending or which part of the literatre you look at depends of which way you pipe it....kpc

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Josh M.

That's true.. Is it an SSU-80 or a commercial model? That would be the only reason I could see to switch direction of flow, the coils are much taller..

Paul Fredricks_3

A few months ago we did a cleaning on a customers oil fired boiler. The next day we were called back for a water leak. I went out to investigate. It seems the relief valve on the indirect, I think it was a Super Store, let go. On further investigation I found that the aquastat was out of calibration on the boiler and the tech had set the temps higher than they were. I also found the SS piped backwards. This caused the top of the tank to overheat and pop the relief valve. The homeowners had never had a capacity issue, I guess they didn't use much hot water. We swapped out the aquastat and they were going to have a plumber do the pipe swap.

Just because they say everything has been fine, doesn't mean it all is fine. But if they don't want to pay for the change, you can't force them to.

hot_rod

Paul ?

How does a boiler aquastat out of calibration cause an indirect to exceed 210F, the tank (T&P) relief setting?

What happened to the tank control aquastat? Most of those don't go above a 140F setting.

Better look for another cause. Perhaps a failed tank aquastat or one that has been jumpered. Had or should that relief on the tank fail you have a potential water bomb in that home!

hot rod

Paul Fredricks_3

As I recall, the aquastat is low in the storage tank. Super hot water from the boiler fed the top of the coil and over heated the top of the tank, which is where the T&P valve is. The aquastat didn't sense that the top of the tank was so hot. I suppose a stuck flow check could cause the hot water to gravity into the top of the coil increasing the problem, or possibly a weak circulator.

As I remember, when we got there the top of the tank was very hot, but the sensing location for the tank aquastat was cold. The boiler aquastat was set at 180 - 200, but I think the boiler was at 230 when we got there.

JohnNY

Same thing....

... I learned the hard way you can't reverse the piping in a SuperStor.

Know what happens?

Tell 'em, Paul.


The relief valve blows off.

That's not good for anyone.



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hot_rod

That's odd because Crown, Burnham

Triangle Tube, Lochinvar and a few others that I have installation manuals on show the top of the coil as the supply from the boiler? As does page 2 of my current SuperStor Ultra

I thought the reasoning was similar to an electric water heater where the top element runs first to warm the upper portion of the tank for quickest recovery.

How does the 210F water slip by the aquastat which is mounted mid way between the coil and the T&P opening in the SuperStor tank, to overheat and pop the T&P?

The Crown MegaStor actually has the aquastat well just adjacent to the top coil (supply) connection.

Maybe you are seeing a thermal expansion relief valve discharge. Often when a T&P pops on high temperature they won't reset and need to be replaced.

hot rod

Todd_27

Stacking?

Could the tank be stacking? This is more common than a lot of people think. A recirc line could help out.

Paul Fredricks_3

I don't know.

Its was quite a few homes ago. All I know is the top was hot and where the aquastat goes was cold. We replaced the aquastat on the boiler, the homeowner was going to deal with the tank. My guess is never did anything about it and the proper boiler temp kept it from happening again.

Maybe it was working OK and the over heated boiler water popped the T&P.

John, you have anymore insight?

JohnNY

Not really...

...I just figured the too-hot boiler water was activating the relief valve. As a temporary fix, I lowered the boiler temp to about 150° and wired the pump to stay on constantly.
That was a ghetto solution but it worked for the weekend.
It was in a restaurant, I believe it was a 120 gallon tank and with the low supply water temp, they wound up short of hot water at their dishwashers.

I messed with it for the next couple of days...

....nothing worked until I changed the piping.



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