Well-McLain boiler and ODR

gaschef

Hi,
I’m a bit new to hydronic heating so forgive me if I say anything silly. I have a Well-Mclain boiler from 1984. I couldn’t find a model number on it and the CP lookup on their site didn’t give one either. It's 110k BTU. I’ve been advised to add an outdoor reset to it. What I really want to do is to just run the wire or sensor for it right now (drywall is being installed in about a week) and add the control as well as zone it over the summer. Is this possible/advisable? If so, which ones do you suggest? From my brief searching it seems like there aren’t universal temperature sensors that just plug into pretty much any control mechanism. If I have to, or it is strongly suggested that I buy the control now I, was looking at the SR501-OR-4. I want to make sure that this will work with my existing boiler which has a new 3 speed Grundfos 1/25 HP pump on it.
Thanks

icesailor

Good advice. As long as he doesn't have a tankless Coil in that Weil-McLain 568 boiler.

Running that *68 on strict ODR will kill it faster that a road kill raccoon.

Driving a 1984 (30 year old) Vintage auto daily to work and back? 1984 cars Weil-Mclain 68 series boilers were really efficient 30 years ago in their day. When they were replaced in 1994, the WGO's were/are much more efficient.

IMO.

icesailor

And if it doesn't have a tankless and you go to Cold Start (same as ODR), you will have a wonderful bag of Kibbles & Bits when you properly clean the boiler. If it ever has been properly cleaned. That means the front comes off. If the 4 bolts on the front haven't ever been slathered with Never-Seize, don't even try to get them off. Breaking one off requires serious skill.

RobG

Since you are closing the area in, just run the wire now and worry about control strategies later.

gaschef

Thanks Hatterasguy! That's exactly the info I was looking for.

I do realize I can do it manually but I also like the idea of having it automated. In addition I'm turning the basement into a rental so I don't want to constantly going in there to fiddle with the temp. The boiler room will have a louvered door and MO detectors will be installed throughout the living area.

To all the others: the boiler does not provide hot water to taps. I have a gas hot water heater which I am replacing in the next few days. I heard there are new regulations coming out in April which require gas hot water heaters to be power vented.

vaporvac

Don't mean to hijack this post, but you got my attention Hatterasguy! My gas HW heater works fine, but is older now. I really like it because it works in a power outage, of which we seem to have many due to icestorms, etc. Is there any was to use the pwer-vented ones w/out electricity? Can they vent into the chimney it currently uses? It has its own next to the old incinerator.

vaporvac

Thank you. I know a few people who will appreciate this info. My boilers are on the other side of the house and don't share this chimney. It was built only for the incinerator and HW heater and only one side is exterior. It's bad enough having no heat during power outages, but no HW would be horrible! Nothing like a hot shower by candlelight! Plus, how difficult to put in on a solid brick 100yr old house and how ugly would it look.

icesailor

Portable emergency generators are a lovely thing. Especially dual fuel. If you have lots of gasoline, good on you. A couple of properly installed LP tanks will run your generator for a longer period of time. Plug in transfer switches are nice. A microwave, cook top, hot water, and your living better than many 1%'ers.

Way better than camping in the woods with the Bears.

Actually, outdoor quality gas grills are better than a cook top. The good ones have them already installed. You can make quite a feast when the power is out.