pros advice

Bob Bona_4

What's any of that got to do with it, "Bruce"?

Ben_6

rusty boiler

I installed my radiant system, except the boiler and the copper connected to it. I used rad link (any input on that if, any of you are familiar with it, would be great).
It is regular pex, NON O2 barrier, and two inline stainless steel grundfos pumps. It has worked great for 2 years.
My problem has been with the Bronze Taco pump on the boiler loop, I've been through 3 cartridges already.
And even a bigger problem is the boiler (possibly). My plumber at the time used O2 Barrier pex on his jobs and told me I needed a Bronze boiler. I had already purchased the NON O2 pex and agreed to whatever boiler he recomended.
Well my kid's room was too warm so I removed some tubing (staple-up and the basement is unfinished). When I drained the water from the 60' of tube I removed it was VERY rusty. I called the boiler manf. and gave them the model and was informed it was a cast iron boiler. So, I was duped with a pretty bronze pump on a cast iron boiler. I called him on it and he said that bronze was really expensive and he wanted to save me money, and that the iron boiler will last 20+ years or he will replace it. He also pumped a few ounces of something into the system to help reduce the rusting.
I'm concerned about all the rust in the system and it's effect over time on the pex and the pumps. Should I be concerned??
Should I demand a stainless steel boiler(which he now uses with NON 02 Barrier)
Your opinions are greatly appreciated!!

MRRADIANT

You got screwed on this one. Boiler will fail prematurely and your going to have a lot of contamination in the water that will cause problems with boiler components and manifolds over time. Replace with stainless steel or copper fin tube boiler, and make sure all fittings and parts are of non ferrous materials. Alternate option would be isolating non barrier tubing via a heat exchanger. Cast iron boilers also must be protected from the cooler return water that occurs in radiant systems. I'm sure this is also an issue with your current system. This is obviously an inferior contractor, this should be common knowledge to anyone working in hydronic heating. If you could I would try to get a qualified contractor on site to inspect your system. Your current contractor obviously isn't knowledgable and sounds like he's looking for the cheap way out, start to finish.

Ben_6

Thanks for the reply Jeff, even though it's not what I was hoping to hear.
How much efficiency will I loose with a heat exchanger?
How is the best way to flush all that rusty crap out of the mile+ of pex I installed?

Erich_3

Contract

At the time of installation did you sign a contract? If so, what did you sign for? If there was a verbal contract and you were told that it was something different than what was actually installed I would insist that the contractor replace it at his cost.

Bob Bona_4

HXer

was the missing link to seperate the ferrous from non ferrous. No loss of efficiency if sized right, installed properly and kept clean. Of course you want to make sure your water chemistry is good. Flush the boiler w/ Rhomar or similar cleaning products.

Saved some dough w/ that non barrier tube, eh? (sorry, couldn't help it )

Ben_6

When I bought the tube I thought pex was all the same, my boiler installer was the one who told me I should have bought barrier tube, and that I needed a bronze boiler, I agreed. The company I bought the tube and manifold from where also clueless about pex, the system does work and my gas bills are lower than my neighbors.

Ben_6

I am in the process of finding that invoice, I don't know if he charged me for a bronze boiler or not. But he is the one who told me I needed it.

Paul Pollets

The solution

Since you have non-barrier tubing, you'll need to put a flat plate heat exchanger (FPHX) between the boiler and the system water. The best device is the Taco Mixing Block. I'd flush and clean the boiler when adding the FPHX. If you do nothing, you will have premature failure of the cast iron boiler due to oxygen corrosion.

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