More garbage made by Honeywell....aquastats.

The Steam Whisperer

We like to keep things simple and use direct bulb mechanical stats for heating system outdoor shutdown and control of water heaters. We've regularly used Honeywell but are now regularly seeing controls that are 25F out of calibration right out of the box, with the good ones being only 5 to 10F off....generating a large number of callbacks and of course the "Since you installed such and such, our heat now doesn't work right" calls even after the problem has been corrected. We have already ordered some Johnson Controls/Penn steam boiler pressure controls to see if we can get more accurate and reliable controls than the Honeywell pressure controls ( I'll report back on those after we try them out). Any recommendations for other brands that you have found to be relatively accurate for simple bulb controls for outdoor shutdown of heating systems, control of hot water heaters and boiler aquastats?

hvacfreak2

I have always liked the JCI modular controls. I have always used the blue 350 series but it looks like that may have been replaced with the 450 which I haven't used.

penncontrols.com/products

EBEBRATT-Ed

I like the Johnson 350s as well. But I think @The Steam Whisperer is looking for a simple aquastat. I always had good luck with Honeywell there like the standard of the industry. Too bad they are letting quality slide. Outside of Penn/Johnson, is White /Rogers still around? There is also Mercoid and Dwyer but they are probably pricy.

hvacfreak2

I guess an A350A with the sensor attached to a pipe ( or in a well ) could be considered a simple aquastat. A350 R for reset with no messy cap tube bundles.

kele.com/Catalog/22%20Thermostats_Controllers/PDFs/A350%20P352%20R353%20W351%20Series%202010%20Catalog.pdf

ratio

I've got an A350 on my church boiler, zero issues since it was commissioned (5+ years) and I have the capability of easily adding another stage (If I do it before the 350 series is obsoleted in favor of the 450 series!). I've also used a Ranco ETC111000 as a temp stat when I was cooking out a steam boiler, to good effect.

The old mechanicals have a certain appeal, but electronics are the way of the future. The time is coming when the average HO won't have the strength of hand to turn a knob that's not a digital encoder. (Hmmm. Maybe that's not such a bad thing?)

EBEBRATT-Ed

@ratio , @hvacfreak2

I have used a lot of 350s. I think its' my favorite control.

I don't know what the 450 deal is but I saw them in the catalog at least 4 years ago and figured they would replace the 350s went to buy some back then and they were not available.

Has anyone installed a 450??

mikeg2015

I think it’s a race to the bottom like most all manufactured goods. Sometimes there is real innovation in reducing costs. Other times quality seems to suffer.

I’m still not convinced all aluminum coils on outdoor and indoor units were a good thing. Certainly lighter and cheaper. But pretty much disposable.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@mikeg2015 Don't forget the micro chanell issues. I here they are unrepairable

The Steam Whisperer

Yep, I am looking for simple cap tube controls. I am trying to avoid the additional work needed to add more transformers, wiring and complexity to something that can be easily done with a basic cap tube control. To me a basic light switch to turn a light on and off makes more sense than installing an electronic switch with a low voltage touchscreen to do the same thing. That's just how I see it.......

ChrisJ

mikeg2015 said:

I think it’s a race to the bottom like most all manufactured goods. Sometimes there is real innovation in reducing costs. Other times quality seems to suffer.



I’m still not convinced all aluminum coils on outdoor and indoor units were a good thing. Certainly lighter and cheaper. But pretty much disposable.

I'm still not convinced the material is to blame.
GE Carry Cool window units used spine fin aluminum condensers and evaporators and they were never known for leaking.

They were low EER, and noisy but they rarely failed and were very cheap.

Now I hate spine fin, but I'm not convinced aluminum is an issue.
Most likely thickness, as well as there are many kinds of aluminum. Of course this is just a guess, I really have no idea.

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

@mikeg2015 Don't forget the micro chanell issues. I here they are unrepairable

"I hear" is never a good thing.
Believe half of what you see and nothing that you hear.

Tinman

@ChrisJ - Borrowing lines from Marvin Gaye, I see.

ChrisJ

Steve Minnich said:

@ChrisJ - Borrowing lines from Marvin Gaye, I see.

Edgar Allan Poe, actually.

HVACNUT

> @ChrisJ said:
>
> Edgar Allan Poe, actually.
Quote the @ChrisJ .
I needed to click the quote icon so I could quote the quote.