Need ideas

JPL941

Hello everyone. Recently I posted about repiping my combi boiler and I have some questions.

I was just in my basement looking at the combi only to find there are some connections leaking again. This happened before and I replaced the gaskets and piping about 4 months ago. Initially I thought about replacing it with a different combi or a mod con, indirect and a buffer. I already spent a lot of money on this failed equipment and a botched install and I want to know if there is anything else I could do. The combi takes care of two showers and two circulator zones. One zone is around 7000 BTU and the other is 2 toe kicks totaling 24000 at its highest on 180 water. I’m also thinking of adding copper fin tube to that run as well.

What about using a cast iron system like burnham esc with ODR? I’m guessing you can’t put a buffer tank on that so it’s likely to short cycle especially if I sized it for my entire house @ 2200 sqft. Could a gas water heater be used instead for those two zones?

I’d like to plan for the future. Currently I use steam and I’m concerned that should a radiator or behind the wall pipe leak, I could run pex to that room along with baseboard.

Thoughts?
Thank you for your time.

HVACNUT

You should probably post this on your original thread. You cant throw in a plot twist when I missed the beginning.

JPL941

Hi, here is the initial thread asking for piping opinions. Now I’m looking for ideas for dhw and space heating. I’m meeting with my heating contractor this week and I was looking to hear his ideas and maybe a few of yours.

Thanks!

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/169971/few-questions-regarding-combi-wmb-155c

KC_Jones

So you already have a fairly new steam boiler. You wanted some hot water zones and for that you added a whole other boiler? If you want a good idea I would suggest you abandon the ridiculously oversized combi and put a hot water zone off of the steam boiler. Even if you were to use the combo for the entire house it’s probably 3-4 times oversized for the job.

Your concerns about leaking steam pipes are unfounded, unless your system is really messed up making tons of wet steam. Hard to judge unless you post pics of how you had it repiped.

JPL941

Hi, @KC_Jones thanks for responding. To answer a few questions, when I bought my home, there was an old quietside installed. When that broke, I replaced it - I didn’t know any better. Also there wasn’t a contractor that even suggested your idea. I didnt know about a hot water loop until now and I like that idea. I appreciate it. My boiler was repiped according the install instructions and works so much better. Excluding a few miscellaneous things, the equipment involved would be an everhot tank, ex tank, taco 110 or similar bronze vs ss pump, mixing valves and aqua stat? Is there a better brand of gas hot water heaters - one better than the other?

Thanks