Furnace and Boiler Woes [System 2000]

EyebrowWiggle

I have a tale of woe to spin, and I would appreciate any advice from those more experienced with heating systems.
My family moved into a house in the Hudson Valley of New York in March 2021. The house was undoubtedly a fixer-upper, both cosmetically and in terms of functionality.
The very first thing we had to do was install a water filtration system because the well water is extremely hard. Like off the charts hard. Even the filtration system can't remove all the dissolved solids, so we installed a reverse osmosis machine on the kitchen sink for drinking and cooking. This is important because the water could potentially be messing with the heating system.
As for the heating system - it's a System 2000, oil-powered , installed in 2019 by the previous owner. The heating is mixed baseboard and radiant. We inherited an HVAC/plumbing/oil delivery company from the previous owner who came out to do repairs.
Before moving in, the previous owner did the following:
October 2019 - Installed System 2000
November 2020 - Replaced expansion tank
January 2021 - Replaced circulator pump
Here are the issues we've had since moving in:
April 2021 - Hot water went out, replaced oil nozzle.
May 2021 - Replaced 4 zone valves that were in disrepair.
June 2021 - No hot water again, replaced bad aquastat sensor.
November 2021 - No heat or hot water, replaced a section of pipe going into the boiler
January 21, 2022 - Heat was out, boiler room flooded and water pour from relief valve. Replaced water feed, release valve, and expansion tank. Basement and radiant heat still out.
January 23, 2022 - Checked on the system to find the relief valve pouring water again, replaced it again.
January 24, 2022 - Follow-up to check on basement and radiant heat being out, found air in the lines to bled out line. Water still leaking from relief valve but at a much slower rate, so ran a hose to a utility sink to prevent flooding of boiler room. Found the plate heat exchanger was faulty. Suggested getting an indirect water heater or possibly an electric water heater.
As of today, February 3, the well has run dry, most likely from the furnace constantly leaking, which means the heating is out as well. It's unclear if most of what this company has done was even necessary, and they keep sending us higher and higher quotes for the next fix, which seems to only last a few months before something else goes wrong. They seem to be slapping bandaids on some greater underlying issue that they're either unwilling or unable to diagnose.
We're about at the end of our collective rope with this furnace as well as this HVAC company. We've tried reaching out to other companies, but almost no one will touch a System 2000.
Here are pictures I took in the boiler room. I'm happy to take more/closer pictures if anyone thinks that would be helpful. https://imgur.com/a/6jvwXui
So here's the question: do we just say screw it and get a more widely used and therefore more easily repairable system? Or are all of these problems not the system but something else? Thank you in advance for any advice you may be able to offer!

STEVEusaPA

Sending out the EK bat signal...
Luckily EK monitors this site and provides excellent contractor and customer support.
A few questions. Everything related to water, pipes, relief valves, water feed, faulty heat exchanger, all 4 zone valves, were they specifically water related, IOW were the components gummed up?
I wonder if the black tubing is allowing oxygen to enter the system.
I'd also test for stray current causing electrolysis.
Also testing the water and posting the results would be helpful.
As a side note, you should put the pictures with your post so they are here permanently for other to view in the future.

STEVEusaPA

Here's some of the pics...

Jamie Hall

The EK System 2000 is a fine boiler. However... as we've said before, even the best of them can be sabotaged by poor installation and maintenance. The one flaw is that they are a little unusual, and it can be hard to find people to service them. Hopefully the EK folks will see this, but it would do no harm to reach out to them directly.

From the look of the scuzzys on the pipe, you do have a water quality problem. However, I have to ask: are you using softened water for the boiler? That can cause quite a variety of interesting havoc. If the water is exceptionally hard, and softened water has been added, I would completely drain the system and, after repairing what needs to be repaired, refill with deionized or distilled water with an oxidation and corrosion inhibitor added. I might do that anyway...

I don't see an expansion tank on either the hot water heater lines or on the boiler and heating lines. Are they there? They absolutely have to be -- two different ones. If they are there, do you have any idea to what pressure they are charged -- or if they are working?

I also don't see the pressure reducing valve on the boiler makeup feed from the domestic water. Is there one? Any idea what it's set to? Is there a backflow preventer?

Roger

Thank you for your post, @EyebrowWiggle - sorry to hear of your woes. There definitely are water quality issues, and your well running dry is a concern all around. I'm quite sure the boiler could not adversely affect your well. As @Jamie Hall and @STEVEusaPA have commented and as you know, there are corrections required beyond water quality problems in you system.
Please give us a call at (800) 735-2066 so we can coordinate with a good heating professional and get you back on track to reliable heat and hot water. Contacting us directly is always welcome.
Roger

Cokomo

Will be interesting to hear what went so wrong ? Bad install ?

Zman

The only thing worse than filing a system with very hard water is continuing to fill the boiler with very hard because of leaks. I would replace any questionable parts to avoid future leaks, run a good detergent through the system and then refill it with good quality water, preferably from another source.

mattmia2

Is that tank an indirect or is it just a storage tank heated through the hx?

The first step in troubleshooting a relief valve opening is to see if it is working as intended which means looking at the hot and cold pressures and seeing if the pressure rises to the setting of the relief valve and if it only happens when the system heats or if it happens cold over time.

If it happens cold over time the possibilities are a leaking pressure reducing valve or an indirect water heater or in your case heat exchanger(if your system works the way I think it does) leaking so the domestic water pressure leaks in to the heating system through the leak. If you turn off the makeup water supply and verify that valve is holding and the cold pressure still rises you know you have a leak between the heating system and the domestic hot water.

I think your other problems are from an enormous amount of makeup water from not diagnosing the above problem correctly. Hopefully it hasn't destroyed the boiler. The expansion tank and the relief valve could have been damaged from the above but were most likely replaced unnecessarily.

I would refill from a better water source once you are sure the dhw leak is sorted out. You probably now have other leaks to fix too.


Pay attention to the question of if that black tubing is oxygen barrier.

Roger

We are working with @EyebrowWiggle , who has brought in another heating professional that is an Energy Kinetics dealer. In addition to the photos and information presented and requested so far, we look forward to finding out more and working on a long term reliable solution to the issues in this system.
Roger