Triangle Tube Excellence condensate trap sediment

Bob Vennerbeck

I took advantage of last Saturday's balmy weather to fix a drip in the connection between the condensate trap and neutralizer on our Triangle Tube Prestige Excellence 110. I was a bit surprised by the amount and color of the sediment in the condensate trap, so I tipped it out into a coffee filter and dried it out for later 'analysis'.



RISD was good enough to call a snow day 3 days later, and while holed up indoors between bouts of shoveling slush, I rediscovered a USB microscope I bought several many years ago, and my sample is thoroughly dry....



So here's what two years of sediment from an Excellence looks like. Since it does domestic hot water it fires year round, and the neighbors on the intake & vent side cut their grass dusty short.... Looks like about 9-10 therms a month in the summer to support domestic hot water for two apartments, each nominally a single occupant.



Burned 1044 therms of natural gas in the building since the boiler was commissioned just over two years ago - some fraction of that would be cookstoves, but probably insignificant.



I plan to track the amount and character of sediment between seasons going forward...



First photo is the coffee filter with a total of a scant teaspoon of dried sediment - notably enough of it is fine enough when dry to sift through a coffee filter and make a mess on the desk....



I am also delighted beyond measure to note that the sediment does not seem to be drawn to a magnet much at all, despite its rusty color - certainly no more than if you dragged a magnet through the soil, and probably less. That rigorous experiment will have to wait until the frost is out....



Second photo is random sample of dried sediment under microscope at 10x - the largest rounded bit is about 3/32" across.



Third photo is same sample at 60x -



Fourth photo is same sample at 200x -



Not the best microscope in the world - I think I paid $15 on ebay years ago....



Bob Vennerbeck

bld999

Magnetic?

Have you tried a magnet on it?



Edit: I re-read and see the answer.



That is about the same quantity of debris produced by each of my two NY Thermal Ti200c boilers in two years, combis also. The debris in my case is magnetic.

Bob Vennerbeck

nearby TT Prestige Solo has nearly no sediment

and for comparison, we have a Triangle Tube Prestige Solo 110 installed in another building about 100 feet due west of the Excellence I just mentioned - it's been running three years heating a minimally occupied renovation-in-progress, and NOT making domestic hot water (yet), so no summer firing at all. The condensate trap on the Solo has the merest smudge of gray dust in the bottom.



Vbob

Bob Vennerbeck

Sediment is not significantly magnetic

I was very afraid when I saw those rust-brown flakes in the condensate trap, but they do not respond to a magnet at all.



Dragging a powerful magnet through the dried sediment got me just a barest bit of fuzz - doing the same thing in the dirt driveway last summer got us a lot of antique roofing nails and large amounts of flake and filings - this is urban dirt, and it's got lots of metal in it....



I get my magnets out of old hard drives, and they are powerful enough to hurt you if you get a finger between two of them...



Vbob

Zman

Better out than in!!!

That looks a lot like the grounds found inside Govanni (sp) exchangers.

That is one of the things i like about the firetube design.

Thanks for the pics,

Carl