Advice on which radiant baseboard to use.

ken_6

HAVE YOU CONTACTED PAUL ROSS AT HYDRONIC ALTERNATIVES
HE COULD TELL YOU WHATS WRONG WITH THE ORIGINAL INSTALL PERHAPS RATHER THAN REPLACE

Chris @ Marrone Construction

radiant baseboard

I am a General Contractor and we are retrofiting a home with new radiant baseboard that we built new approx. 8yrs. ago. Almost all our homes are "in floor" systems of one kind or another and we are accustomed to completely quiet systems. But, on this one we used radiant baseboard. Originally we used Radiant Technoligies "Radiant Panel". We've had nothing but noise problems that we are unable to fully eliminate. Without going into great detail, understand that the system was installed by my HVAC sub and is above industry standard in terms of installation quality and design. There are no issues with air noise, boiler design, circ. pump sizing or location, mixing valves, etc. We are using a Buderus boiler with Viesmann four way mixing valve and outdoor reset. We've tried constant circulation and that helped some but not enough. The noise is simply inherent to the design of the panels when they are operating in the 140-180 range. In any case, I am removing all of it and replacing with either a cast iron system like Burnham "Base Ray" or Runtal RF-2 and RF-3. I also have available Radson, Vasco, and Myson products but they aren't seen at all in this neck of the woods. Because of the PEX supply and return line locations and existing finished floor, walls, and electrical receptacles, I am for the most part restricted to this style of horizontal baseboard. Any advice/opinion from professionals with a lot of experience installing either one of these products? Ease of installation, quality of the finished trim products (ie valve enclosures, end caps, inside corners, etc.),finished appearance, heating quality, noise levels from expansion and contraction during cycling, durability, etc. Any opinion on these products would be helpfull. Thanks, Chris

Dave_4

runtal

....runtal & myson are pretty much equal...nice product, great finish quality, but the baseray will be the closest you get to in-floor radiant heat out of all the ones you list...they should be reasonably silent..runtal type RF have fins on the back to increase output...they tend to make more noise than the type R (no fins on back), but you need more rows, like maybe an R-4 or R-5....plus the fins detract ftom the 'clean'look of the flat tubes......i think they use plastic clips for their wall brackets that allow them to slide back & forth on expansion

Chris @ Marrone Construction

Yes, We're beyond trying to repair and working out a deal to replace. thanks

Chris @ Marrone Construction

Have you installed the Baseray product? What did you think about the finished look and finish? Is it noticeably quiter than the Runtal style heaters? I know this is subjective, but would be interested in your opinion. Thanks

Van

radiant baseboard

I too had a bad experience with radiant baseboard, in this case the AIM product. Noise was not an issue, I just could never get enough heat output from it. Switched it out to Runtal and am very happy with the responsiveness and performance. Radiant baseboard looks good but in my opinion, does not perform well. Base Ray is an excellent product but it's height might interfere with existing electric. Runtal, with the different heights of product available at least gives you optoions in this type of retrofit.