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Partial heating system replacement ( Ron Jr. )

clammy
clammy Member Posts: 3,103
Nice job Ron A total vast improvement over that old klunker ,Why the pumps on the return a lttle bit of a pia to repipe and is that ataco sr502 or 3 on the wall did you hook the zc zr to the dual aquastat i had promblems once with a backfeed i believe from a honeywell pre post relay but it's been a while .Great looking job there oil use should be less but that bock for radiant who was thinking what on that .Keep up ther great work i miss doing 2 or 3 a week in sprit i don't think my body could talke it may be for a week or two but that's it .Have a GREAT WEEK END peace and good luck clammy
R.A. Calmbacher L.L.C. HVAC
NJ Master HVAC Lic.
Mahwah, NJ
Specializing in steam and hydronic heating

Comments

  • And let me say , the pics don't do this justice

    We replaced the leaking boiler that had a coil for hot water and 2 zones of baseboard heat . I think it was a Federal . The Bock heater was installed 5 or 6 years ago by a " heating guy " their home contractor suggested . It really looked like they cut the return setup off another boiler and soldered it right into this one . There's no way to manually open any of the 3 zone valves because they wired handy boxes right into them . It was pretty funny watching Kenny watch the air-water mix run through the loops of radiant . Oh yeah , no air eliminator either . We heard the installer had a leak or 2 AFTER they did a cement pour on top . The lady of the home DETESTS radiant heat now , all because of a sloppy installer .
  • Burnham V84

    The lady of the home was concerned about enough hot water through the coil . We suggested a few options . We can install a storage tank and let the coil make the hot water . Or install an indirect . Or ....... pipe the radiant to the boiler and use the Bock as a true water heater . We left provisions in case she goes for choice 3 .
  • BillW@honeywell
    BillW@honeywell Member Posts: 1,099
    Nice!

    Looks like you had a bit more room to work than usual. Good looking job, as usual.
  • David Sutton_6
    David Sutton_6 Member Posts: 1,079
    Who's the guy with the Skippy peanut butter?

    And why is he just standing there? Should'nt he be working, maybe testing the boiler or leveling the t-stat ?

    Nice job Ron jr!!!! i hope she op's to fix the radi hate to have have a dis-taste due to poor workmanship!

    David

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  • Naa

    Not much room , really . Just a wider path to the boiler area . The wacky heater piping screwed with us all day . I seriously considered repiping the return . But ...... my charity work goes only so far .

    Thanks alot Bill , it's good to see you posting . How's things going for you ?
  • That guy is .......

    Jeter , from the Spankees . What's he at , 18 mil a year . And he has to hawk peanut butter for pocket change ?

    I was talking with the homeowner about the radiant that was in my home , and how I had to switch to baseboard . And how much I hate it . I didn't look at the aquastat on the heater but she said some spots on the floor get so hot they can't walk even in socks . I'm betting the fools spaced the radiant loops too far apart . And why use 1/2 inch with 3 small zones ? Ahh , I'm beating a dead horse and this has been one damn long week . Time to hit the bar for some Coronas . Thanks alot David .
  • Robert O'Brien
    Robert O'Brien Member Posts: 3,540
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  • kevin coppinger_4
    kevin coppinger_4 Member Posts: 2,124
    ron...

    very neat, as always...curious, why not pump-away from extrol as usual? If the water heater was used for a non-potable application (the radiant)does that not dis-qualify it to ever be used as a potable water heater? Whose tubing was that?..looks simlar to Wirbo...
    Sorry you had a tough week....hope the weekend is relaxing....kpc

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  • This job

    was in Jericho . The whole hamlet has 3 styles of homes , and this one is the easiest to access the basement .
  • Good question

    The builder decided to run one 1 1/4 inch pipe to the other side of the basement and split the zones there with flow valves . In theory we could open the flow valves or cut them out and circulate the system in reverse to pump from the PONPC with IFCs , but we haven't tried that trick yet . These are baseboard systems , so we rely on a good power purge and hope for the best . Looking at service tags we very rarely see issues with air bound zones .

    Another good question about the pex . I saw it was Roth , but I didn't see if it had an oxygen barrier . I would guess it has it because they do have heat even without any air elimination .

    The weekend started off with a bang . I cleaned house on the pool table ( a rarity ) and had more than my fair share of Coronas ( a certainty ) . Now I can sleep without the usual tossin' and turnin' with all my crappy aches . Thanks alot Kevin .
  • Hey Clammy

    We used a dual aquastat to maintain a semi - constant temp in the boiler for the coil . If there was no coil we would have integrated a triple aquastat with the Taco . It was a 2 zone , but it has the chassis of a 3 zone .

    Buddy , if you did that steamer by yourself , I think you can easily handle 2 or 3 of these a week . This was my 9th boiler in 10 work days . If the pace gets any faster I will not make it through the fall and winter . This 37 year old body don't respond or heal like it used to . Thanks Clammy .
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    the install is a decided improvement .

    the homeowner ought to get someone back over there to chop out the tube and re rout it through the floor joist to a 4 way mixer away from the window,off the boiler and diconnect the bock stack lose the creative header parts,bag off all the professional wiring around the bock and square up the corner altogether...that bock looks about as appetizing as a pile of Greasy grimey gopger feet...
  • lchmb
    lchmb Member Posts: 2,997
    Dam 37

    Now I feel old. Thanks, think I'll have to go have a drink myself. Nice job per the norm Ron, after seeing some of the garbage I've seen in the last couple week's it's nice to see a nice clean install!! 9 boiler's in 10 day's, incredible... I'll trade you, I've done more tin in the last 10 day's than I care to think of, and have all the bandaid's to prove it!! Keep up the good work and have a cold one on me!!
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    been pounding rebar stakes *~/:)

    and if i could get Weez to quit pounding my hand with the sledge hammer.....:)
  • Thanks Weezbo

    There's plenty of excess tubing to reroute the radiant toward the wall if they decide to do it right . Here's a pic of another horrible radaint pipe job - same town , a few days before . Could it be the same contractor ?

    Notice the Taco mixer . The cold inlet goes directly to the bottom of the boiler , the hot goes to the supply , and the mix goes to a radiant manifold . The return of the manifold goes to the circ and back into the boiler . I never seen radiant piped this particular way .
  • No way !

    Keep that tin for yourself . What kind of tinwork are you doing ?

    We have our own tin project going up on the Gold Coast - 6 air handler zones into existing furnace ducts wih AC coils for each , and a Burnham V904 . Thank God I wasn't invited to that party .

    Thanks alot Lchmb .
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,452


    nice job as usual. Isn't it amazing the mess some contractors can make. Was that old red burner a "Texaco" Beckett SF ???????



    ED
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    Thats new to me too*~/:)

    so it is Pulling through the mix and drifting thru the mix hmmm... you may be on to something ... a new game called Guess that return temp *~/:)
  • Ted_9
    Ted_9 Member Posts: 1,718
    boiler

    Much better looking Ron. Too bad they dont want the radiant reworked.

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  • Constantin
    Constantin Member Posts: 3,796
    Wow...

    "Interesting" doesn't even begin to describe that system.

    Besides making it impossible to access anything by cramming the boiler into the corner (cleanouts anyone?) this system looks like it has been dripped on for a long time. Condensation seems to have occured in the flue, the absence of shutoff valves makes any pump replacement a true joy to consider.

    I hope it too will get ripped out and make way for a Ron Jr. special. You truely have a gift for 3-D thought laying out all the parts, and then assembling the whole shebang in a orderly, plumb manner that can be serviced...
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