16 year old mod con combi dissected

hot_rod

I replaced this Laars Mascot, a re-badged Baxi 330 I believe, this weekend. It had been disassembled only twice for cleaning, never flushed the Dhw side of the HX. It had Rhomar conditioner in the boiler.

HX and burner, even flame rods in very good condition. I cut the plate HX in two, also in very good condition.

Never a single issue with 15 years of Dhw and heat, it has cycled thousands of times while providing Dhw. It was a direct vent model flue and vent in a concentric tube.

It was starting to leak on a few of the bayonet type connections on the Giannoni HX, and I see the gasket between the HX and flue assembly was starting to crumble. The control was fairly dated, and parts may no longer be available.

This is one of the best constructed mod cons I have worked on, all the piping, brackets, assembly was top notch, very well engineered.

I suspect this HX could go another 10 years judging by the condition.

These Giannoni are a well built HX, properly cared for and installed it should last 25 years or more in my opinion..

Solid_Fuel_Man

Was that running NG or LP?

Nice teardown! Thanks for sharing.

Solid_Fuel_Man

Are you going to cut the HX open?

ScottSecor

Bob,
Thanks for sharing.

We have installed and/or serviced about one hundred boilers with a Gianoni HX (residential and commercial) and only had one HX failure to date. The one that failed was a Munchkin that installed by others, without p/s piping. This one only lasted fourteen years. As far as I know the fire-side was cleaned one time, the water side was never cleaned and there were no chemicals in this system.

I tend to agree, obviously we've had good luck with the Giannoni HX, but the controls and blower assemblies are another story.

I think I might have to cut one of these heat exchangers up in the near future...

hot_rod

Solid_Fuel_Man said:

Was that running NG or LP?



Nice teardown! Thanks for sharing.

LP, consider by some a "dirty fuel"

Le John

Hi @Hotrod - the Laars couldn’t be repaired? What did you install in place of it?

hot_rod

I had a 120 Lochinvar Nobel Combi sitting in the shop from our old home that we demolished. It has better turndown and more control options for the application.

Le John

The Lochinvar Noble is very nice boiler. I have one in my house and one in a tenant apartment. Works very well. I’d like to see some of the more advance controls that’s in the Lochinvar Knight to be implemented in the Noble like ramp delay and some of the data logging like number of ignitions run time etc.

hot_rod

Le John said:

The Lochinvar Noble is very nice boiler. I have one in my house and one in a tenant apartment. Works very well. I’d like to see some of the more advance controls that’s in the Lochinvar Knight to be implemented in the Noble like ramp delay and some of the data logging like number of ignitions run time etc.

I think this model was intended to be a price point combi to compete with the tankless companies offerings.

It would be nice to have the Knight control, or be able to "buy up" to a more features control.

bob eck

Check out this condensing boiler heat only and condensing combi boiler.

https://www.idealusa.com/getmedia/e0dc621d-9f09-48fa-b6b0-3975087539c7/11-1_Exalt_SpecSheet.pdf?ext=.pdf

SS Firetube heat exchanger
Great domestic hot water GPM on combi boiler.
Can run two different curves for two different temp zones.
Control runs primary pump plus two more system pumps.
8 to 1 turn down.
PVC, CPVC, Polyethylene and SS venting
Great warranty
12 year heat exchanger
6 year parts
3 year labor.

kcopp

That's the exact same boiler that Triangle Tube brought over as the Instinct...

hot_rod

Or does Ideal build the TT Instinct😉

bob eck

Ideal builds the TT boiler.

hot_rod

bob eck said:

Ideal builds the TT boiler.

Just that one model of TT is built by Ideal in the UK?
Here is some good info on Triangle Tube latest program.

https://www.phcppros.com/articles/10724-new-beginning-for-triangle-tube