My Hydronic Setup - Happy but not happy

Mplsavant

I had this installed in our new house in 2005. Generally happy but has been more maintenance than I thought....my contractor and I both think the Buderus is really working hard with the DHW, my air handler zone, my basement Wirsbo zone and my garage Wirsbo zone.



My question to you Pros is this: I am trying to figure out if my setup is actually correct. I've started to research a bunch more and one thing that seems odd is that I don't have a zone valve on my DHW? For example, the garage wirsbo water can be very cold (say 60 degrees) because it has not called for heat. When it does, it is forcing that cold water thru the tubing in the garage but also thru the DHW line thru my water tank. I know this because I just tested it. The DHW was very hot before and after pump, just finished heating. I turned that off and turned up the garage. In about 2 minutes my DHW lines were getting cold, and thus that cold water was now running thru my water tank. Is this right, maybe this is why my boiler is firing so much, causing to put in new ignitor, etc. Thoughts. Help is appreciated. I am thinking of taking the DHW out and putting in a side arm vent HE water heater.

lchmb

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Mplsavant

the black pump

is the circulator for the three zones (air handler, garage and bsmt). The big red pump middle lower is the DHW storage tank pump. The pump middle left, also red, but smaller is pump for the 3 zones. The DHW return, returns directly above the black circulator pump.

furnacefigher15

Flow check

I would try adding a zone valve to the dhw loop to prevent any possible gravity feed, before I would even think of buying a new dhwh.

Paul48

Wrong

I urge you to seek qualified help.There are too many things wrong with that installation and it reflects a lack of skills.It all needs to be redone,probably including the gas supplying it.

Big Ed_4

Check Valve

Check the check valve in the water heaters circulator , it may be bad or held open with debre ....

Ironman

Pumps

The Black pump is the boiler circulator and runs any time there's a space heating call. It should be connected to the green "PK" terminal on the boiler.



The Red domestic charging pump should be connected to the gray "PS" terminal on the boiler. It should run only for domestic charging; and, when it's running, the black boiler pump should not be running. It's either or, but not both at the same time.



As has been noted, you may have a bad check valve in one of the circs. That needs to be examined first. You don't need a new tank, unless this one is leaking.



You should also have some means to regulate the water temp to the garage floor besides the boiler as that has to be set to supply water for the highest temp zone. A smart valve or variable speed injection are the correct methods for this. A thermostatic mixing valve would be a cheap method, but you would have to tolerate wider temp swings in the garage. Other than that, I cannot see any problems with the near boiler piping in your pics.



P.S.

You must use the Buderus tank sensor in the indirect water heater for your setup. It should connect to the gray "FW" terminal on the boiler's board.

Mplsavant

DHW water

pump is a Grundfos UP26-99F.....my heating guy is going to check this out...the main black circulator says "with check valve" in the center of it, this one does not have that. I check the wiring, that looks good like ironman said......I like the idea of a smart valve, going to look into that for the slab line(s).