1 Taco 007 Pulling & 1 Taco 0010 Pushing...& I'm in the middle...

Chris_102

I have a 129,000 BTU boiler in my home. I have 3 zones. 2 zones are dedicated to 1st floor and 2nd floor baseboard heat. The 3rd zone is for my domestic hot water. It feeds a Amtrol indirect water heater, with a 1" Taco zone valve. The circ. for this system is a 007 on the return piping back to the boiler. When the heat is on/off and there is a call for hot water I get maybe 7 mins of hot water for a shower and forget about laundry or doing dishes. I also have my  zone panel set for priority on the DHW.

I went and bought a Taco 0010 with IFC. Before i get into this project I wanted to see if it would it be a problem if I leave my 007 circ. on the return and not touch it, and then install the Taco 0010 off the supply side of the boiler and have that pushing the water through my indirect. only (instaed of on the return side?)( I was always taught that its better to have the circs. on the feeds anyway.) I didn't know if this is going to create a problem with anything else, or have no effect?

CMadatMe

More Info

What size is your supply/header piping? How many gallon indirect do you have? An amtrol WH-7 on 100,000 btu's should give you somewhere in the area of 170GPH. Can you post a pic of the boiler piping?

Robert_25

Hot water

Hi Chris.  Is this a new installation?  If your hot water problem started over time, it could be from mineral buildup on the coil inside the boilermate.

Some other quesitons for you:

1.  Have you checked the temperature control on the boilermate for proper operation?

2.  What are the aquastat settings on your boiler?

3.  When the boiler runs to recover the tank temperature, does it run almost continously or shut off on the hi limit?

Chris_102

1 Taco 007 Pulling & 1 Taco 0010 Pushing...& I'm in the middle...

The water supply piping is 1", it's an amtrol "PurePro" 40 gallon storage tank.This is a semi-new installation. The boiler is about 20 years old, the DHW tank is only about 3 years old. (Practically new!) I have checked the temp controll on tank itself, and it works perfectly! The settings on the boiler are 160/180 with a 10 diff. The boiler will run for about 5 mins. MAX. after how water is done being used. I will post pics when i get a chance. I do agree with the both of you, I should be running away with this set-up. There is no doubt in my mind that there should be enough hot water, like you said Robert, I have very hard water where i live (somewhere in the ball park of 25 grains. (which is really bad) I think i have scale buildup on my coils. But I dont want to open the tank and get into it, because i think thats asking for trouble. The heating engineer at the supply house told me to drain the domestic water out, pump that 180 degree water through the coil, open the top of the tank and spray the coil with cold water and the scale will come right off. I dont know about this method, i've never heard of it, but at the same time I've never come accross something of this nature before. 

Robert_25

Scale on coil

The Amtrol troubleshooting guide recommends that if you have insufficient hot water: 

Check Boiler Supply/Boiler Return during cold startup. If difference is less than 20F, clean heat exchanger. Install water treatment equipment to prevent recurrence.

Chris_102

1 Taco 007 Pulling & 1 Taco 0010 Pushing...& I'm in the middle...

Great thanks Robert! I will do just that! 

Ron Schroeder

Re-pipe?

How hard would it be for you to re-pipe both circs to "pump away"?