New boiler and a few questions

Gravyfries

Pump

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.  I'm having the contractor come back out Monday morning and look at the pump.  At the very least, I'll get his opinion on it.  Maybe they will replace it.  If so, I'm sure that will fix the clank but I'll probably still have the water running too fast (noisy).  I'd hope that they would listen to a suggestion of a 3 way pump.   I'd have no problem covering the extra cost. 



Guys, there was a suggestion about cleaning my heat exchanger every couple of years.  Is this something that the heating contractor would do or I could do?  I know it is a long way off, but I want to learn as much as possible and I do find this stuff fascinating!



Thanks again.

Mark Eatherton

Hit it with your VOLT stick...

Sorry Greg, not sure how this slipped through the cracks, but you want to start the pump for a few minutes, then shut ;er down again and continue burping the system. This sakes loose any bubbles that might be trapped in the boiler and or near boiler piping.



ME

Sweet_Lew

Updates?

Did your contractor come out today?

Gravyfries

Yes

They did send out someone.  It was one of the helpers with the install.  He said the pump was bad and we scheduled to have it put on this Friday.  The sucky thing is that they didn't put a shut off valve on and they'll have to drain the system to put the new pump on.  I assume the new one make the whirring noise but wont clank.   

I did bring up the temperature issue and he called the supplier to ask some questions.  After he got off the phone I was told that I keep my place too cool (65 degrees) for proper water temperature.  He put a temperature gage on one of the pipes and it read 102 degrees (which is about what it normally gets to on the boiler guage).  I guess I'll wait and see.  If I see a lot rust in the pan, I'll have some piping done in the future.  I did check my manual and it recommends putting in a bypass with lower temps (i.e. converted gravtiy) as someone mentioned above.     

Sweet_Lew

FWIW

My contractor came out this morning. Brad White was right about the bang noise. It was the relay in the aquastat. It sounds fine in the basement, but the noise travels through the pipes up to the first floor radiators. He tried to see what he could do to make the noise less, but no luck. Gonna just live with it for now. Maybe I'll call another company out. I'm just happy I don't have to replace anything. For now...

Gravyfries

Relay

I can hear my noise downstairs and upstairs.  If they replace the pump and it still makes the noise, then I guess they'll have to fix that too.  Good thing for warranties!   Thanks for the update. 

Sweet_Lew

SOOOOOOOOOO....

Was it the pump??

Gravyfries

Update (Sorta)

Well the contractor came out a while back and put another pump on.  This pump makes a low hum when it runs and has a lower clank when it shuts off.  Kind of similar noise but lower in tone.  They came back out and brought out the distributor who knows the equipment inside and out.  The distributor recommended moving the pump away from the elbow and pumping as P/S and using the two pumps (with minimal piping).  The distributor said he would give the parts to the company at cost.  I recommended they put 2 shut offs on since draining the boiler is a pain.  Their estimate was pretty high and I was getting a little push back from the contractor.  In fact, it almost seemed like they didn't understand the problem.  I since have found a new guy who has a great reputation from an old house rehab forum in town.  The distributor and the new contractor are discussing the problem today.  I'm waiting on the estimate now.  The distributor has been great to work with.   

Magnehelic

relay or.........?

Sounded like the vent damper slamming shut to me.  Although one of my guys installed a couple relays that were screwed to the inside of the Knight case once.......sounded like someone shooting a .22 long rifle vertime one of those relays made or broke.