20 Years Later

Dan Foley

I went back to a job we did in 1999. The house was recently sold and the new owner wanted maintenance and repair work done.

This was one of my first “big” projects. It is approximately 22k sq ft.

Dan Holohan walked this job while it was still under construction and wrote a column about it.

My techs have worked here over the years but it had been many years since I had been on site. It was interesting to go back into time and review the job and see what I would do differently if given a second chance.

Dan Foley

The entire house is radiant We also did the ac, ventilation, snowmelt and pool heat. We also did the mechanical systems in a detached carriage house, pool house and horse barn.

They brought in a contractor from Lexington, KY to build the horse barn. I’m not kidding when I say the horses live better than I do.

Four MZ boilers power the systems. One is no longer operational and has been robbed of parts. This is first on my list for an upgrade.

There are many things I would do differently now but it has held up well for two decades.

Dan Foley

We put in miles of this radiant tubing back in the ‘90s

Bonus points to whoever can identify this brand of tubing.

Hint: the company is still in business but they pulled out of the radiant market shortly after this project was completed.

Solid_Fuel_Man

Nice clean install! The radiant and condensing equipment sure was a lot different here in the US 20 years ago. Glad the rubber tube was pretty much out by 1999.

It's not Heatlink tube is it?

bob eck

What brand condensing boilers are on this job?
Are they the original boilers?
What type of heat exchanger is in these boiler?
Are the boilers natural gas or LP gas?
I take it the boilers had yearly maintenance.
How did the PVC venting hold up?
What brand radiant pex tubing did you install?

RayWohlfarth

@Dan Foley nice looking job for your first one. The best lesson is to charge more LOL

hot_rod

EHT tubing or Stadler?

Dan Foley

@ Solid Fuel Man good guess but not Heat Link

@ Hot Rod close but no cigar

The radiant tubing was Burnham Radiant

It was a Pex-C manufactured by Hewing

Dan Foley

@ Ray Wohlfarth

Yes, I learned that lesson the hard way. Charge more! Way more!!!!

Intplm.

The pex? Viessmann? In metric?

Dan Foley

@ bob eck

These are the original boilers. 3 of 4 are still operational.

They are Monitor Products MZ boilers. They were among the first condensing boilers widely available in the US.

Each boiler was 140k btu. Two/stage. They did not modulate.

They are no longer in boiler business in the US and parts are no longer available.

We serviced these annually. The vent pipe is actually schedule 80 cpvc. The intake is pvc. We field fabricated the two-pipe kit with a 4” PVC Y and slip couplings as MZ did not have a kit at the time.

Dan Foley

@ Intplm.

It was Burnham Radiant tubing.

It was manufactured by Hewing. It was metric size.

DanHolohan

Thanks for the memories, Dan. Twenty years ago. Gosh.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

@Dan Foley I'll bet Pete Caruso liked you.......a LOT!

Parts are still available! Call Budney Fuel Oil. Talk to Robbie (800)597-6484

Dan Foley

Alan,

Thanks for the tip. I did not realize parts were still available. We still have many MZ boilers in service.

- DF