combicore for radiant floor heat source?

Dana Zaichkin

Has direct fired units that use their tank-in-tank design with the jacket water used for space heating. They have a residential series that I looked at pretty seriously, but haven't used. Relatively compact, with quite a few features, but not inexpensive and run at about 85% effeciency.

Best Regards

DZ

Gasman

combicore for radiant floor heat source?

We are going to be installing radiant floor in the basement(rambler w/walkout) ,for our new home we are building. what options for heat source would be the best and why?,which would be the bad option and why? . Looking for opions to help us decide.

hot_rod

longevity

has been my biggest concern with the Combi Cors. I have yet to see any of my installs last 10 years. On the plus side they handle warranty issues promptly.

A clever product, with plenty of good applications, something's up with the coil inside, in my opinion. The tubing product, or coating, seems to be the weak link.

Plenty of options out there. Depends on the BTU load and temperature requirements of your system.

hot rod

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Bill Clinton_2

HR is far too polite

I've installed more than twenty Combi-Cors. To my knowledge, none have lasted five years. I know several hydronic contractors with exactly the same experience. My wholesaler reports the same. It's inexcusible that Bradford White continues to market the product. Let's not ****-foot around: Combi-Cor is crap. So sue me.

Bill

hot_rod

I cut open

the last one that failed on me. I discovered the plastic coating on the coil HX was falling off. Also where the HX tube penetrates the top of the heater there seemed to be some electroylsis going on and eating into the aluminum HX tubing.

I talked to several folks at Bradford White tech help and got no where. Too bad they won't answer questions or step up to the plate regarding the problems. They were off to a good start with this heater

I'm down 10 or so. Not too many replacement units that will fit in it's place.

hot rod

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Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

If you're going to sue Bill Clinton,

sue me as well; crap is a nice word for them and I, too am surprised that they continue to sell them with a history of so many failures. They say they have improved the product, but I've stayed away.

When the HX coil failes, we've sometimes kept the CombiCor and piped in an external HX.

We've also had the same problem with their PowerCor's which are indirect water heaters. This one lasted about 5 years.

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mike14

So what's the best alternative?

So they're crap. Thanks for the honesty because I was looking at them yesterday and trying to decide whether to go that direction. So what's the alternative if you want to use your water heater and not convert to a boiler? If the answer is a heat exchanger, who makes the best one in terms of efficiency and longevity? How do you size the circulator on the water heater loop?

hot_rod

Yes to the HX

contact any of the HX manufactures and they will size the HX to your application. I think the Flat Plate brand catalog has a table just for water heater/ radiant applications.

One word of caution. If you go with a flat plate, be sure the water on the "A" side (DHW tank side) isn't too hard. Those small passage ways can quickly plug up with hard water deposits. Actually any HX will scale and coat over with hard water deposits. Seems to show up quicker in small flat plate types

Or a seperate dedicated heat sourse for the radiant, if room and flue size allows. I hope we see a 50,000 Munchkin soon. It sure would fit a lot of my small radiant systems nicely. A great "electric condo" retro fit size also.

hot rod

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Gasman

Thanks , all of u have given me just what i needed, good advise!, i will continue researching before deciding.

BobbyG

CombiCor

You guys are having the same problem with the Bradford White indirect heaters? Is the same material used for the coil's in both?