HVAC Pet Peeves

Wellness

I’m curious how pros handle these issues.

1. I’m mystified why manufacturers don’t provide a wiring channel on buffer tanks and indirect water heaters with side-well sensors to avoid looking like this. My solution was to cover my sensor well with a rubber furniture leg tip and used a coat hanger to snake the cable just inside the outer tank jacket and used a plastic knockout to cover the hole on the black top cover. My sensor wire is rated to 250 degrees, so your mileage may vary.

2. The LV labels inside a Prestige boiler I recently installed looked nothing like the label shown in the manual and were confusing to boot. I made my own label, because, well, boilers are complicated things, manuals get lost, and one day, somebody besides me is going to have to work on it.

Boiler Label
Label shown in manual @ page 36-39

ratio

But, but... the factory sticker has intuitive graphics to show you where the wires land!

Solid_Fuel_Man

In situations like that I install a box on the well and then run EMT or some type of hard conduit up to the ceiling to neaten up the wiring.

hot_rod

I saw a European tank once that had a copper channel along the entire height of the tank. It allowed you to slide sensors down to whatever level you needed. On solar tanks it is sometimes desirable to have a top and bottom sensing point.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Most won't have high temperature wiring in the truck
1/2" EMT is cheap

the_donut

I hate it when boiler labels are the same for 20 different boilers with ranges as low as 400 mbtu up to 2500 mbtu. What, you want me to identify this by measuring cabinet width, or taking off panels. It’s silly. Labels cost nothing compared to a $20,000 boiler.

/end rant

Wellness

@ Solid_Fuel_Man. I thought about EMT. In fact the tip of the sensor well has groves in it that looks like it might accept some kind of fitting. But the space is too tight for EMT pipe to sit proud of the tank, unless the pipe first went down lower to the floor before it turned up. It's a tight fit in the utility room, and I'm sure me or somebody else might bump up against the EMT pipe tying to access the electrical panel and other equipment in the room.

SuperTech

@Wellness
I like what you did there. I can really appreciate your attention to detail and neatness. The sensor well has those grooves in it for installation of a typical aquastat like the Honeywell L4006A.

SuperTech

I have several HVAC pet peeves. Using zip ties and not cutting the ends off, guys who insist on installing a drain trap on evaporator coils on the positive side of the blower, drain traps without use of a tee for cleaning access, installation of condensate pumps in a finished basement without the overflow switch wired up, use of tankless coils, mod con boilers without outdoor reset, master/slave forced air zoning. I could list pet peeves all night long!

Probably my biggest pet peeves are technicians who don't care about the technical details like combustion analysis, superheat/subcooling measurements, static pressure measurements, use of a micron gauge during evacuation, etc
Another major pet peeve are bosses who want me to be more of a salesman than a service tech. I had a boss that expected me to sell the customer something every time I entered a customer's house. If a furnace was installed by his company and serviced by his company every year if it wasn't under warranty he expected me to quote the customer for a replacement even if the furnace was working perfectly. We were forced to try to upsell and rip the customer off at every opportunity. Naturally this led to guys condemning equipment that only needed minor repairs on a regular basis.
Sorry for hijacking the thread. I think I will start a new one.