Boiler buddy or this type tank.

bob eck

When installing a condensing boiler or combi boiler on a system with coper baseboard where there is not a lot of water in the system are any of you professional heating contractors using the boiler buddy or other product like this to give the system more water mass to help the boiler to condense more of the time? If you have used this product how did theses jobs turn out? Take care Bob

SWEI

What's this?

j a_2

Your talking about a buffer tank,correct….Personally, i used to turn down jobs if i felt i needed to add a buffer tank…that just means the boiler is not a good fit….Yes you can reprogram the factory settings and that helps somewhat, but its not correct…My friend had a boiler installed a few years back,and he recently called me to look, as I have a lot of free time on my hands nowadays..His house is 1700 sq/ft with three zones of baseboard, Boiler size 150k I pulled up the program, this thing has like 12000 cycles for x amount of hours in operation…with a lag time of 5 min….His heating bill is out of site,but he figured that was normal…He has been trashing the boiler manf…When truth be told it has nothing to do with the boiler,and everything to do with the fake that put it in….This thing cycled every 4 min. and has never condensed…Fan speed set at 5 k….

Rich_49

Bob , Buffer tanks are very useful in helping a boiler not short cycle . fact is that all kinds of boilers can benefit from buffer tanks and many boilers do short cycle . this is definitely an issue in newer , tighter homes , there is not a boiler made that is small enough to not short cycle in a house with several zones and a small load , the worst time is in the shoulder seasons when loads are smaller yet . I do not use glass lined Steel tanks because bad things can happen to your boiler and system when and if the glass becomes compromised .

hot_rod

Rich, let me know what problems you have seen with glass lined steel tanks. We have been selling them for almost 10 years now without any failures, other than forklift damage . The company that builds our tanks has been suppling glass lined tanks for hydronic, DHW, and chilled water since 1952.

True, glass tanks in DHW that see fresh oxygenated water daily can eventually fail if the glass is compromised and the steel is exposed. Wide temperature swings in DHW tanks lead to thermal stress more so than hydronic tanks, and sediment build up above the burner may cause over-heating of the lining. Limiting the operating temperature in DHW tanks extends their life.

I'm pretty sure the glass coating used by most, maybe all manufacturers is supplied by AO Smith, same coating you seen those blue HarvetStore silos in farm field, durable and proven.

Rich_49

Don't get all uppity Bob . Just my choice of how I do things . Simple fact is that you cannot always tell if a glass lined tank has suffered and I just don't have time to be changing things because . the stainless steel tanks that I use cost right around the same as glass lined stuff . Just what I would rather offer my customers , not bad mouthing glass lined tanks , have used many of yours and probably will again . I just learned a long time ago how I would rather operate and present my designs and systems . Changing 1 tank gratis through no fault of mine is too many . Whether the damage be from fork lifts , dropping , bumping into walls does not matter , a glass lined tank that is compromised is not good . i can bump a Stainless tank around quite a bit , not that this is a "don't worry about it , it's stainless situation " ,but at the end of the day there is less chance I will have to change it . Just stacking the deck my friend .

hot_rod

No uppity here Rich, just trying to gather facts.

From my experience we replaced many more SS tanks that failed especially in the early years before they had the welding procedures worked out. I visited HTP in the early 90's when Dave showed us the welding procedures and methods he discovered, after many warranty replacements. Eventually other tank manufacturers learned the best welding methods and grades of SS to use.

Still SS has a weakness in certain water conditions, chlorides, ph, etc. Probably why the SS tanks have so many caution labels and water specs in the manual.