Staging a Utica JE

Harry_6

I have a Utica type JE which is divided into two sections with two separate gas valves, burners, etc. Is it allowable to operate these burners separately to act as a two-stage unit? Or is there some reason Utica doesn't like this?

Harry_6

C'mon, someone must have insight on this!

EBEBRATT-Ed

I would contact Utica and ask them.

These are really separate modules under the same jacket and of course if one section has a bad gas valve or ignitor the other modules will keep on running so in reality it looks fine.

The issue may be that they all use the same common flue and smoke hood. Possibly they will not draft well with some modules not running and the controls are set up for a single boiler 1 low water control and 1 pressure control and 1 high limit control.

I have never seen a staging control furnished by Utica as an option so I will bet they will say no.

The Steam Whisperer

If the installation and sizing is typical, you may only need one module to heat the building. Before installating any staging controls, I'd check this out first.

Harry_6

Found a reference in a Utica JC manual which says no to multi-staging multi-base units based on concerns over differences in water level between fired and unfired sections. So, case closed?

EBEBRATT-Ed

I am afraid so. Because there is one low water cutoff it protects the whole bank of boilers and it only senses in one location.

If you added a low water cutoff to every section of boilers, you could probably run them as separate boilers but you may not have tapping's for that