A.O. Smith copper boiler

kevin

like you don't have enough flow through the boiler....copper boilers(Raypak and Laars designs have got to have plenty of flow) if the tubing in the floor is only 1/2" i am positive that's it.The water is flashing to steam. It needs to be fixed and FAST before damage happpens. put in a bypass to assure that you have flow. If you are not sure how to look into the owners manual or call the factory. Hope this helps. kpc

Bob_9

Boiler overheating

I've got a client with an A.O. Smith copper boiler, 420 mbh, water on nat. gas. The original house has cast iron radiators. Problem is that last fall when a kitchen addition was done someone added a small zone of infloor radiant to the system. When the main house is calling everything is o.k., boiler cycles normaly. If the radiant is the only thing calling pipes start shaking and the boiler kind of howls. Boiler temp will rise very quickly. The boiler never did trip the manually resetable limit.
Anyone ever had this happen? Thoughts?

ta finnegan

Zoning.

Is it zoned with valves or circulators. If with valves it could be a velocity issue. An oversized circulator perhaps?
Just a thought.

Worked on 3 such problems this week.

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Paul Rohrs_2

Copper fin boilers

Fin-tube boilers typically have smaller helical coil exchangers (12 or 58) and when water quality is an issue, I have seen them scalelime up in a short amount of time. We had a Laars Endurance that after 4 months, had limed up to the point that you could not put the end of a pencil into it. That might be contributing to your flow issues. For the record, Lochivars Mini-fin uses a 4pass
78 extruded fin that isn't as succeptable to scale buildup. I have sold AOS boilers and find them to be a good boiler as well.

PR

Jackchips

I lean toward

Kevin's response. I saw one teledyne actually leave the pad because the electrician wired the pump to come on after fire. You did say the system was fine except for the radiant, which is the best clue so far.

hot_rod

It's obvious...

that the AOS boiler doesn't like the radiant edition....;-)

Copper fin tube boilers are extremely flow sensitive, You need to pipe the system primary secondary to keep the boilers flow rate up.

ME

Art Pittaway_2

Get the installers guide

and read it..!! Every time I have run into an A.O.S. they have a section in the installers guide to determine flow rate. Temp. drop when it's firing will translate to velocity. To high and the water will literally errode (eat thru) through the tubes, to low a velocity and it will overheat the copper and it will collapse. Either way it's a miserable and expensive job to change it out. You may need to add a buffer tank to keep the boiler from short cycling to bad.
Good luck, Art

Bob_9

Boiler overheating

The original house has a single b+g pump, no other zoning, and operates fine. My thought is to seperate the radiant and put it on its own heat source. The homeowner likes this idea too. Of course there is no paperwork for this unit on site, I'll check the AOS web-site for install manual though.Thanks for the replys.

kevin

Bob give..

us some more info... Pipe size(s), pump model and h/p. How is the radiant piped? You can switch it out but if you get the right info there is no reason to not use the AOS boiler. Challanges like this are what make this such a fun and interesting line of work...Hope this helps...kpc