Gas boiler question - Weil Mclain

lydell

New to the site and have a quick question: Gas boiler in house for heat and domestic hot water. Have four thermostats in the house - simple Honeywell dials - but don't see any zone valves on the boiler. Is this a 4 zone heating system?
Also - water heater is (blue) Amtrol 41 gal 115V. Is this just a holding tank for water that is heated by the main boiler?
Boiler is a Weil Mclain Gold GV-4 (series 2, I think) Serial number indicates a mfr date of 1994.
Lastly, is this considered a combination boiler?

Thanks for your help. Not real familiar with boilers.
Lydell

Ironman

We need to see some pics of the boiler and its near piping to tell how it's zoned.

The tank is an indirect water heater.

No, that's not a combi boiler; it's a boiler + an indirect water heater.

Jamie Hall

There might be four separate pumps -- in which case yes, four zones. It might also just be overkill on the thermostats...

And no, that is not a combination boiler -- the domestic hot water is supplied by a coil, I imagine? Just two pipes into the side somewhere?

lydell

Thanks for the quick response. Re: overkill on thermostats - by that you mean if any one of them calls for heat, the whole house gets it? Then it seems like each radiator would need a valve on it to control the flow or the heat would never be even.

Jamie Hall

I presume this is hot water heat?

If the whole house is plumbed as one heating zone -- which would seem unlikely, but quite possible, then yes -- if any thermostat calls for heat (assuming it's connected...) the whole house would get heat. And there may well be valves on the system or on the radiators to balance it out.

You can check this pretty easily, after all -- crank up one of the thermostats, and see what parts of the house heat.

lydell

So the water heater has a coil inside, thru which hot water heated by the boiler transfers the heat to the water in the tank. Perfect. Is there a separate pump for this loop? or what is the 115v connection used for?

lydell

Thanks Jamie. Yes, hot water heat. No valves on baseboard radiators.

Jamie Hall

Single zone hot water heat without valves is almost impossible to get balanced really nicely. I would suggest that at some point you consider putting zone valves on the system -- which in turn control the boiler -- and a modern pump controlled by delta P to circulate. At the same time you could also set it up for primary/secondary piping and make sure the expansion tank is where it belongs and other upgrades.

But... if you are happy enough with the heat as it is, relax and enjoy.