Another replacement with an added hot water loop

Dave0176

Thanks all for recommending me to Dan, he is a cool dude and I was very happy to help him out.

Old boiler was a Utica PEG 112, 112,000 input, rather large for his home, EDR came in at 193. I installed a Weil McLain EG30.
I couldn't make heads or tails of the way the old boiler was piped, two mains were counter flow, one was parallel flow. And all came off the basically vertical header. The one counter flow I repiped to run off the main and re pitched it to drip into a wet return, the other counter flow had to stay that way, only I piped it properly. Finally we added a new hot water loop to give the basement some heat. Only bad thing about the whole job was the dang brand new pump relay was bad outta the box. Forgot to mention we added a 2 stage gas valve also.

EzzyT

Dave that is some beautiful work. I've run into the same situation with the relays right out of the box being bad.

jonny88

Beautiful Dave.How do you sell this system,King Valves etc.I know the price of materials etc is real high and the competition on the low end would not do half of what you did.Does it take a lot of educating the customers or is it a job where budget is not an issue.Whats the magic trick cause when you are allowed to do the right job great things happen and its not even work its a pleasure to do it.Thanks for sharing.

Fred

It looks beautiful. I'm sure the homeowner is happy!

njtommy

Looks great. Why such a big pump tho?

jonny88

Bronze pump I did it once and inspector told me I was out of my mind.Maybe but isn't it supposed to be bronze.

Dave0176

I was always told hot water loop off steam boiler you need the B&G 100 AB 3 piece pump due to acidic boiler water which will kill water bearing pumps and cast iron pumps.

KC_Jones

That's a pretty one!

jonny88

Rarely do you see it though Dave.

Dave0176

jonny88 said:

Rarely do you see it though Dave.

I hear ya Jonny I follow Dans instructions to a tee for the hot water loop, never have had problem.

vr608

Dave0176 said:

I was always told hot water loop off steam boiler you need the B&G 100 AB 3 piece pump due to acidic boiler water which will kill water bearing pumps and cast iron pumps.

Very nice install Dave, but now you got me worried about the stainless steel pump on my loop. Have you ever experienced failure with pumps in this setup in the past? I have two, one for my indirect DHW and my baseboard zone, both Taco 005 pumps.

SWEI

Circ is good, but I'd be a tad concerned about those iron fittings next to it...

ChrisJ

SWEI said:

Circ is good, but I'd be a tad concerned about those iron fittings next to it...

What would you have done differently?

Dave0176

SWEI said:

Circ is good, but I'd be a tad concerned about those iron fittings next to it...

Idk the Flo Controls are cast iron too?

Dave0176

Hatterasguy said:

Dave0176 said:

SWEI said:

Circ is good, but I'd be a tad concerned about those iron fittings next to it...

Idk the Flo Controls are cast iron too?

.............as are all the wet returns.

Unless we pipe it all in copper and bronze................

http://www.supplyhouse.com/Bell-Gossett-107037-1-NPT-Bronze-HydroTrol-Flow-Control-Valve-8620000-p

Hmm what about the block that's cast iron lol....

Dave0176

Hatterasguy said:

Dave0176 said:

Hatterasguy said:

Dave0176 said:

SWEI said:

Circ is good, but I'd be a tad concerned about those iron fittings next to it...

Idk the Flo Controls are cast iron too?

.............as are all the wet returns.

Unless we pipe it all in copper and bronze................

http://www.supplyhouse.com/Bell-Gossett-107037-1-NPT-Bronze-HydroTrol-Flow-Control-Valve-8620000-p

Hmm what about the block that's cast iron lol....

Damn...........can't do much about that.

How about we convince ECR to produce a bronze boiler?

Now, you'd have a 50 year product.

Be worth it not to deal with the rust BS.

True Lmao,, I just wouldn't want to pay for it....

Bio

Damn...........can't do much about that.

How about we convince ECR to produce a bronze boiler?

Now, you'd have a 50 year product.

Be worth it not to deal with the rust BS.

Hey, I remember seeing an old water heater made out of copper , leads me to believe that someone was going to that direction

BobC

The original subway cars in Boston were made of brass, they were replaced in the 70's. Can you imagine what that would cost now?

Bob

ChrisJ

Oooo, bronze steamer.

KC_Jones

And Chris drifts off into his dreamland....

j a_2

honesty, I don't like it...why did someone pipe the first 90s off the risers at such crazy angles...Perhaps this was piped with nipples...and no threading machine...on site...jmo

Dave0176

j a said:

honesty, I don't like it...why did someone pipe the first 90s off the risers at such crazy angles...Perhaps this was piped with nipples...and no threading machine...on site...jmo

Please explain yourself a bit better before you criticize a job I killed myself on.!!!!

j a_2

I did explain myself,re read the post...hay that's just my opinion,so I stated it

Dave0176

I have a 300 machine that comes on all jobs and gets used. As far the crazy angles? This system was a counter flow that was repiped many years ago leaving some of the counter flow and the rest re piped as a parallel flow. The HO had just completely finished the basement in dry wall, so no way we were re piping the rest of the system.

As we speak the HO has told me this system is dead quiet, heats in mins and is great improvement over what had existed. I did my job and accomplished my goals.

BobC

I'd be very happy to have a boiler piped like that in my cellar.

Bob

j a_2

I am sure it works perfect, and only commented on the angle of the riser fittings, can't see where the angle would effect the heat...that's all I was saying...nothing else

ChrisJ

What crazy angles?

j a_2

Take it easy guys, I just posted my opinion on the picture that was posted...that's all....just because I dint like it doesn't make it wrong...Dave stated why the crazy angle, I am sure it's working fine

danFromNJ

Fred said:

It looks beautiful. I'm sure the homeowner is happy!

You are correct. The homeowner (me) is very happy. Dave, thanks again for your excellent work. And thanks to everyone on this site that recommended Dave. It has been a real pleasure working with someone that has so much passion and knowledge of steam systems.

vr608

vr608 said:

Have you ever experienced failure with pumps in this setup in the past? I have two, one for my indirect DHW and my baseboard zone, both Taco 005 pumps.

Never got an answer to this. Anyone know whether stainless steel pumps used in this application are any good long term?

Dave0176

vr608 said:

vr608 said:

Have you ever experienced failure with pumps in this setup in the past? I have two, one for my indirect DHW and my baseboard zone, both Taco 005 pumps.

Never got an answer to this. Anyone know whether stainless steel pumps used in this application are any good long term?

From what I understand the small cartridge pump bearings are water lubricated, so in a steam system the acidic boiler water eats the bearings. For what your using them for there probably fine.

vr608

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll have to keep an eye on them as well as test the acidity of my system periodically.

LionA29

Beautiful job @Dave0176 . Love the vaporstat setup.