hot water loop on IN-5 piped backwards

AlexR

This is a "how much do I care" question.



The Burnham IN-5 steam boiler in our house has a hot water loop piped off it (through a heat exchanger).  The flow from the boiler to the heat exchanger is backwards from the direction indicated in the IN5 manual- it goes out tapping M (the condensate return) and in tapping N (on the front-right side of the boiler) whereas the manual said to go out N and and in M.



How much do I care?  As long as it's not harmful to the boiler (hard to imagine), reducing efficiency or something, I don't care.  But if it's likely to cause wet steam by throwing water in near the waterline near the riser then I might think more about having it corrected.



And to answer the obvious question- no, I can't just flip the pump around.  It's a Taco 007 and flipping it around to reverse the direction of flow either puts the motor on the bottom (against the installation instructions) or doesn't have enough space because the motor bumps the boiler exterior.  I suspect that whoever did this installation realized this same problem after they did the piping and didn't want to go back and fix it.



thanks,

Alex

icesailor

007 Circulators:

I don't understand why you can't turn the circulator body around and the motor Assembly being in the same place. Or, using opposite flanges from  standard flanges.

You should be able to remove the 4 5/16 bolts, remove the body and flip it around, and reconnect the motor assembly.

Steamhead

You'll have to get it repiped

if you're trying to flow water out the condensate return, it can interfere with condensate coming back to the boiler. Also, the water at that point would not be quite as hot since it has returning condensate mixed into it.



The Taco 007 is the wrong circ to use on a job like this, as is any wet-rotor circ. This type of circ depends on the system water for its lubrication, and the water in a steam boiler does a lousy job of this. The traditional 3-piece oil-lubricated bronze circ is the only one to use on this type of job, since the system water never touches the bearings.



Here's a pic of one, where the hot-water loop feeds an indirect tank.

Ron Jr._3

First question

Has it been heating the zone well ? If so , I wouldn't worry about repiping the zone . Worst case is it might not heat up till the condensate return water comes back hot , like Steamhead said .



Here's one we installed 3 or 4 years ago . Systems still running fine with that wet rotor circ on it . I do agree with Frank that a 3 piece circ is the better option .

icesailor

Water Loop:

NICE PIPE JOB!!!!

Ron Jr._3

Thanks

We installed the boiler with the baseboard loop off the bottom originally . The height to the baseboard was borderline too high and the customer knew beforehand it might not work . And the extra it would cost to make right . I went back a few weeks later after the no heat call came in . Now every hot water loop higher than the steamer gets an exchanger . No exceptions