How to be sure Taco 007 has enough capacity to replace Bell and Gossett Series 100

rogan

I need to repair or replace a Bell and Gossett Series 100 bearing assembly in a rental house I have, (and am thinking I should also replace the motor mounts and coupler while I'm at it) and have seen many recommendations to switch to a Taco 007 circulator, with a fair amount of disagreement about whether the Taco will be adequate in all cases.

I have an older Burnham gas boiler with fin tube baseboard hot water heat. The boiler is in the basement, and it's a two story house, with three zone valves, and thermostats on the first and second floors. I believe a previous owner plumbed the boiler/ zone connections himself because there are pipes running wild, but the system has worked well. The height from boiler to second floor baseboards is about 22 feet, and I usually run the system at 14-16 psi, and have the aquastat range from 165 lower limit to 190 upper limit during the coldest months here in Minnesota.

Is there any way for me, a rank amateur, to be sure that the Taco 007 has the right characteristics to deliver as much heat to the baseboards as the B&G during the coldest days?

Also, to do it myself, it would be best if I didn't have to replace any flanges. I need to measure the current gap, but my understanding is that the Taco 007 is 6 3/8" from flange to flange.

Any advice about how to figure the Taco's adequacy for this application?

Thanks.

rogan

Thanks, Hatterasguy. It will take me some time to get over to the house to investigate further. It seems like in this case, discretion may be the better part of valor, and with my limited expertise, it may be best to stick with the B&G components.

Along those lines, the current bearing assembly is the 118844, with the sleeve bearings that require oiling. I see that there is at least one vendor on ebay offering a ball bearing, permanently lubricated version described as a Wands, Inc., #WBA10 bearing assembly. I haven't seen any references to this elsewhere. I wrote to the vendor to see if there is any history on this unit, but haven't heard back yet.

Do you or others have any ideas about the longevity of this unit or other ones I'm not aware of compared to the standard oiled sleeve bearings? The reduced maintenance would be appealing if it worked, since each time I want to oil the current unit I need to make arrangements with the tenants.

Thanks.

rogan

Tempting as a quick fix. Are you talking about the bearing assembly, or the whole shebang with the motor? I think my unit is about 20 years old, and I've seen recommendations that i should replace the motor mounts at that age. Any idea what the shipping would be? Thanks.

hot_rod

The B&G series 100 was, and still is a great long lasting, flat curve circ pump.
I've seen them go 50 years, if properly maintained. Amazing what keeping the motor and bearings out of crappy fluid does to life expectancy.

Maybe someone should offer an ECM replacement motor for them

We may have an efficiency standard by years end as Europe does, regarding pump motor efficiency.

In August of this year solar pumps need to meet the EU EcoDesign pump directive, also.

SWEI

hot rod said:

Maybe someone should offer an ECM replacement motor for them

I've been wondering this for years. If they follow the model of the fan makers (Greenheck comes to mind) they'll produce a 1/4 or 1/6 HP model that would work with a half a dozen different pump ends. Just reprogram the firmware (or set a DIP switch) to match the need.