Burnham Hot Water Issue

Tonedog13

Hi,

1st post here so go easy

I have a burnham rs-112 boiler.

I own the house now 8 years and have to say that it just works, no real problems at all. "knock on wood"

My only complaint from the beginning is that the amount of hot water to the faucets and showers considerably less than that of the cold water output. 

It's always hot and stays hot I definitely winter, summer, all heating going or not.

The problem is if I'm showering 1st foor and you wanna wash a dish in the kitchen 1st you have much less flow/output of hot to the kitchen, If you then went to 2nd floor bathroom sink it's a trickle.

But everything even 2nd floor sink is good to go flow wise if your only using that sink.

Is that a clogged coil thing or a external tank, failing pump?

I'll try and attach some pics to get an idea.

Thanks in advance for any input
Best,
Tone

Jamie Hall

The most likely cause that I can see off hand is that the coil in the boiler is badly clogged. This is not, unhappily, that uncommon a problem. The pump has nothing to do with it -- all it does is circulate water from tank through the coil and back to the tank, maintaining the water it the tank at some reasonable temperature. The way it's pipe, for flow to come out of a faucet or whatever the water has to come in the pipe with the hand wheel on it to the left of the breeching, then go down through the coil, then into the tank and then out of the tank to the faucet -- there's no other place the water can come from.

You may also find -- though you may not have noticed -- that it takes quite some time to recover from a significant hot water use.

bburd

Sometimes those coils are installed with a flow restrictor to limit the hot water flow rate to that which the heater can supply. I suspect that brass doohickey in the middle of the horizontal pipe between the coil and the tank is a flow restrictor.

Since you have a storage tank the flow restrictor (if that’s what it is) can be removed because you no longer need it.

Jamie Hall

The brass valve which is being referred to above will restrict the flow from the pump, recirculating. It will not affect the flow from the hot water faucets (follow the pipes). It may be a check valve to prevent incoming cold water from bypassing the coil through the pump.

bburd

On closer examination Jamie is correct, as usual. I would check that the cold water shut off valve to the coil is fully open, along with any other valves in the DHW part of the system. If so, the coil is likely limed up and in need of cleaning.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, It looks like the piping is half inch copper run to fittings on the tank. Those dissimilar metal connections can fill with rust and restrict flow. You might want to have a look at those. 🫢
Yours, Larry