NTI Trinity or Triangle Tube Prestige with Mini Smart?

Nelson_6

I am in the process of replacing an old oil boiler in our house with a high efficiency gas boiler. The house is about 2000 square feet however that 2000 square feet also includes
a basement suite. The radiators in the house are a low profile baseboard style enclosed in a large steel cage. A hot water pipe projects about 3 inches from the floor and splits into three copper tubes through aluminum fins. The upstairs suite has seven radiators and the basement suite has four (one in each room – living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc)

The suite has its own electrical meter and electric hot water tank. We plan to keep the suite’s DHW with an electric tank, however we will be replacing the main suite’s hot water tank using the gas boiler to supply our DHW. For the main suite, we have only one bathroom, sink in the kitchen (obviously) and a dishwasher. For our clothes washing, we pretty much always wash our clothes in cold water.

For our boiler, I am torn between a Triangle Tube Prestige with an indirect hot water tank or an NTI Trinity that has DHW built in. I have heard great feedback about the Triangle Tube boilers however I feel that having a 40 gallon indirect might be a big waste in energy for our DHW needs. Triangle offers the Mini Smart instantaneous DHW heater, which appears to essentially be a small indirect tank. The Mini Smart offers 3 gpm of DHW at 120 degrees whereas the NTI Trinity Ti200 offers 4.5 GPM at 130 degrees. I think that the Trinity would be able to offer adequate DHW for our needs. The Mini Smart might be a bit on the low side. I am unsure what our inlet temperature would be, but for location, we are located in Victoria, BC (Canada) which is about a two or three hour passenger ferry ride to Seattle.

I’m leaning towards the Triangle Tube as I hear that it self cleans very well and is built to last. I also like the idea that if we ever sell the house, the Mini Smart DHW heater could be replaced with something bigger if the new owners needed more hot water (or if we decided to add another bathroom to the house – all many years down the road). However I like the fact that the Trinity offers better DHW service than the Mini Smart. I am unsure of the quality of the Trinity as there is not a lot of mention of these boilers on the Internet. I did see some mention of a large NTI recall about a year ago. There is one company here in Victoria that almost exclusively installs the Trinity and has done many installs and claiming no problems. As for Triangle Tube boilers, there are quite a few installers that offer them. The last big advantage of the Trinity is cost. For both boiler and
DHW, it is a few grand less than a Triangle Tube with a standard 40 gallon indirect tank (although I don’t know what the cost is for a Mini Smart).

I would appreciate any opinions or comments regarding experience with a NTI Trinity, or any feedback in general

Thank you very much

Cedar Mountain Boaz

NTI Experience

We installed about 25 of them in 06 and 07. A recall associated with condensate piping was not very well supported in our opinion; i think we were reimbursed $25 per replacement while driving our service vehicles ALL OVER northern NM.

Then the "Sentry Boards" started failing.

This year we've installed about a dozen Triangle Tube Prestige boilers, with great success. The one start-up issue was well-handled by factory support. In our experience, the additional cost is worth it.

From a design standpoint, i don't understand how having an indirect tank "wastes energy." Do you mean standby losses from having a tank sitting around hot?

Boaz

Robert O'Brien

Excellence

Triangle Tube has a fairly new combi unit by the name of Excellence.It's basically a 110 in a 399 enclosure with a integral 14 gallon indirect

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Nelson_6

Yes, standyby loss is what I was getting at. I would gather that a 40 gallon indirect tank would have a similar standy loss as any electric hot water tank, or is that incorrect?
Secondly, a 40 gallon indirect adds about another grand to any quote. I hate to spend that kind of money if the GPM a 40 gallon indirect offers is totally overkill for what we need.

michael_34

go solar

Nelson_6

Would you feel that the Excellence would offer adequate GPM
for our needs? I think the Excellence is essentially a 110 with a Mini Smart inside the boiler. The one advantage of the Mini Smart that I liked was that you could always upgrade to a larger indirect tank down the road. I just don't know if the GPM from either the Excellence or a Mini Smart be enough for our needs.

Steve M_2

Go Excellence!

Of course going solar is a smart thing to do but you still heat and hot water when the sun ain't shinin'. I just installed my 1st Prestige Excellence and was very happy with the equipment. It's very well thought out, small foot print, easy to install and easy to set up combustion. The Trinity is a nice boiler too but it has the Giannoni heat exchanger which you need pull the burner and clean every year. If your installer can provide a service plan to do that for you, all the better.

Do your homework on the companies who quoted the jobs and go with who you feel is the most qualified and will be around to take care of any problems down the road.

Attached are Excellence pics...

duffy_4

am currently replacing a 5 yr old trinity with a prestige and a smart 80 [more dhw demand]owner said he kept having problems with it over the years ,leaks ignitors and the boardhave installed 20 tt prestige in last 2/3 yrs only repaced one blower so far

Kal Row

go with a \"plus\" tank...

as there isn’t a better heat source to water device on the market there than the triangle tube “plus” tanks – hands down!!! – your heat source can be solar, electric, wood, oil, gas , or your hot babe – don’t care, the “plus” will put ever drop of it into the water and keep it there, put an anti-scald mixer on, and heat traps on the hot and cold sides and you are good to go - you don’t need lots of gas pressure, water pressure , and clean water like any of the tankless ones – or filtration like the flat plate ones, or having to change it every 10 years like the glass lines ones – you cant touch this – the only caveat is that you have the fill/pressurize the inner stainless domestic side first or the pressure in the outer tank will bend the inner tank

there is a reason while a big brand name like Weil-McLain would OEM it under there own and their Williamson labels, – the only jobs I don’t use them on is were I need tons of commercial hot water for a few hours a day and no long term storage, then I use a Lochinvar boiler with a Turbomax from thermo2000.com or a Lochinvar armor/direct tank combo, depending on the load type, the Turbomax for non stop showers, like arena showers for the end of game rush, and the armor/direct tanks in regular baths for hotel rush hours

but for residential - i don’t even want to think of anything but the plus tanks, all my solar drive plus tanks – it’s lifetime warranty in residential applications sells itself

Terry Larsell

ModCon & indirect

The indirect has more insulation than the average electric and standby losses are negligible (less than a half degree per hour). Further most will last 30 years in residential operation.
Proper system design is the key, heat and domestic hot water loads come first: the rest is easy. The buffer tank in the Excellence is brilliant and also a feature in the new Navien high efficiency tankless water heater.
MA

JohnL

Triangle Tube Prestige Excellence

Steve,

Very nice install!

Looks like a very nice boiler. Over the last several weeks I have been asked by potential home buyers about the mod condensing combi units and how they perform. It seems as though the last three homes i sold that has forced hot air units, the homeowners want to change change to baseboard.

I am curious to see one of these run. Where can I get to see one running? Will these units handle two bathrooms?

Any comments are appreciated.

Steve M_2

Thanks for the compliment John. I'm in Boulder, CO. if you'd like to see this one running. As far as handling 2 bathrooms, it depends. A Jacuzzi tub with a waterfall type faucet probably won't keep up. But 2 showers with flow restricting shower heads, no problem. You can always add a storage tank such as an electric water heater and then you can remove the mixing valve out of the Excellence's indirect. Then use a circulator and power it off the upper thermostat to run it thru the indirect tank back to the electric tank. That way you always have 50 gallons on hand. I used to do this with Heatmaker boilers which is what I replaced with the Prestige.

Maverickdk

Any feedback from using the TT Prestige Excellence

I am in the process of replacing my Boiler. The 110 fits my heating needs but the DHW is the main question. Our current demand is pretty small. One bath tube very young kids so I am assuming the Excellence would be a good fit. The question that comes up is about ten years down the road when kids get bigger, showers get longer etc.... So I am am between a solo 110 with smart 40 or the excellence?



Has any one put the excellence in and if so what kind of results.

Maverickdk

TTExcellence or Indirect

Moving on two years or so from the last post. What was is the impression today Does the TT Excellence handle the DHW need?