A question about Circulators on Packaged Boilers

S Ebels

Glenn

That's the method we usually employ. What is your opinion of 24V vs 120V LWCO's? I ran into two situations where a 24V model has failed to detect the presence of fluid. One was an Erie and one was an M/M. Both times, the probe was covered with gunk. I have however, seen 120V units in much worse shape and still function. Just a fluke or are the 24V jobs more prone to fail?

Unknown

We would

rather see the 120v models simply to avoid cutting into the factory wiring harness and for the reason already stated. I am unaware of any difference in actual performance between the two though on that side of the circuitry. Just to satisfy my own curiousity, I will contact our friends at Hydrolevel and see if there is any difference in the actual operation on that side.

Glenn

Kal Row

why not

just use a tekmar relay, to open the main 110v ciculator supply line - and hook the relay up to a rb55
and make sure the cut-off is vented - "and have a nice day"

the reason for doing it this way is to preserve the power in the rest of the stuff for time and programming

Unknown

Sure pretty

but....wouldn't it have been easier to just use a 120v model to interupt the hot leg to the 361 and relays? That is all you are doing anyway with the extra relay at great expense I might add.

Glenn

Kal Row

i wish you were right, but the 120v model avail

was almost twice as expensive as the rb55 and the relay, - (which wasn’t actually a tekmar but rather the same exact OMRON relay from GRAINGER at half the price), and the 120v model was also huge - cause the minute you go to high voltage - the whole wiring arrangement is different especially around water - the "triac" electronic switch inside the rb55 could handle 120v/15a, provided you had a large enough heat sink and a beefy electrical connection

my personal preference is to keep the 120v wiring in a boiler room down to a minimum - i would rather see a 1000va 24v buss in the boiler room with 24v multi-phase brushless-DC electronic drive vari speed pumps - call me "new school" – though we should have gone to 48v a long time ago, 48v is still safe to handle raw, and gives a much better power to copper size ratio than 24v – cars makers plan to phasing that in, in the near future – with the advent of hybrid-electrics

hr

Steve, if the probe

is coated with gunk you need a good cleaning and flush. Really shouldn't be that much gunk in the system to render ther probe ineffective. If so your heat exchange surfaces in the boiler are getting compromised, by the sludge also..

I think the 120 volt have a more sensitive probe, also. I know there was a different sensor spec on the model 120 compared to the 120II. Although my brochures are pretty old, this may have changed.

hot rod

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plugger

Armstrong bearing assembly failure

Bearing assembly failure.

I have replaced 3 Armstrong bearing assembly in the last 6 mouths, the last one lasted 2 mouths. The bearing assembly model # M 810 126 507. The pump is on 24-7

I would like to put a pro in tank, when no call, pump will be off. I suggested to maintenance supervisor.

The pump is installed on a Lochinvar Power-fin boiler, between a 200 gal storage tank 2 inch piping . Tank is with in 5 feet of Boiler. Boiler size 745. 000 BTU providing domestic hot water.

The first bearing assembly lasted between 04 to 2011, Last 2 lasted 6 mouth.

Any help would be appreciated.

plugger

Armstrong bearing assembly failure

Bearing assembly failure.

I have replaced 3 Armstrong bearing assembly in the last 6 mouths, the last one lasted 2 mouths. The bearing assembly model # M 810 126 507. The pump is on 24-7

I would like to put a pro in tank, when no call, pump will be off. I suggested to maintenance supervisor.

The pump is installed on a Lochinvar Power-fin boiler, between a 200 gal storage tank 2 inch piping . Tank is with in 5 feet of Boiler. Boiler size 745. 000 BTU providing domestic hot water.

The first bearing assembly lasted between 04 to 2011, Last 2 lasted 6 mouth.

Any help would be appreciated.

icesailor

Bearing failures:

I don't know what your Armstrong pump is but bearing and seal failures that continue are usually caused by the motor mpount/bearings being worn and causing ossculattions in the moter whigh the bearing doesn't like. If it is a larger commercial tyle, mounted on a skid, the motor and wet end are not aligned but that usually k\just lunches the coupler.  If the Armstrong circulator is an antique, and you are having problems with the bearings and seals, change the motor bearings or change the motor.

A problem seen on old 3 piece circulator but not often seen on wet rotar circulators.

Zman

Turn it off

I do not know the reasoning behind "always on" hot water boilers and pumps. It make tank stratification impossible and tend to wear the pipes, pumps and boilers.

I recently put a tekmar 150 setpoint controller on the tank and used it to turn off the boiler which in turn controls the pump. The nice part is you can set the differential to get the optimal cycle time.

BigRich

armstrong bearing assembly

Plugger, contact me at rhalvorsen@armlink.com and lets see if we can get to the bottom of these failures,our local rep or service department can usually solve these problems quickly