Indirect d/h/w with tankless coil

Unknown

We prefer an aquabooster and coil to an indirect . Very high failure rate for the brands of indirects we used to install .

For steam , I like that the coil is up out of the muck in the boiler . No pumping of steam boiler water through an indirect's coil . We don't see many indirects with steam , but the last one , a Phase 3 , looked like a horror show on the boiler side of the tank . Proper yearly flushing would have made the tank last longer , but how many are gonna do that ?

Do any manufacturers offer long warantee electric water heaters or purpose-built aquaboosters , like John Wood or Super-Stor make ? The ones we install come with a 5 year warantee .

john_126

Indirect d/h/w with tankless coil

I would like to install an indirect tank heated by the tankless coil in my Peerless steam boiler.I would make a closed loop through the tankless, use a circulator and have even thought of trying to gain a small heating zone with a second circulator and priority zone controls. My question is does this make sense to pros? Is there a better way? I would be setting this up on an oversized 20 yr.old boiler that serves my one pipe system.Being a carpenter, I could use some advise from the right trade maybe even a schematic if one exists
THANKS

Big Ed

Aquabooster

What you want to install is a aquabooster.... This is one system every pro pipes a different way .And will state his is the correct way. Sure you get it in your trade maybe figuring rafters ... What it really come down to is whether you use a check valve or not.. Using one the coil will self clean but drops water volume...

You have to use a bronze pump and don't add any iron part or fittings....

Using it for domestic and heating may be a no no... One or the other is fine.. With heating yo can run a 20 - 30 K btu loop...

Hot water- A aquaboster would recover about 2 gallons per min..Which is slow compaired to outher heaters.. SO if you need allot at once figure a large storage...

Scott04

John,

I believe you are looking to add a hot water loop to your steam boiler using the coil as a heat exchanger. This will work fine, as will piping it off the bottom of the boiler.

Go to the top of the page and click on "Heating Q&A" from there click on http://www.heatinghelp.com/heating_howcome6.cfm

Scott04

John,

I believe you are looking to add a hot water loop to your steam boiler using the coil as a heat exchanger. This will work fine, as will piping it off the bottom of the boiler.

Go to the top of the page and click on "Heating Q&A" from there click on "Condensate Hot Water Heating" all your questions should be answered.

If you hire a pro. they should know how to do it without "overloading" the system and causes problems with the heating!

Hope this helps,
Scott

mark schofield

aquabooster

When my parents built their house in 1975, they had baseboard fin tube - 3 zones -off a NewYorker steel boiler with a tankless coil. Because they wanted alot of hot water, they bought a "Carlin Aquabank" system - a 40 gallon stone lined storage tank with DHW outlet, with a Taco bronze circulator and Tstat attached to the tank. When the tank cooled down below setpoint, the circulator would come on, circulating the potable water thru the tankless coil in the boiler, which would then come on to maintain boiler setpoint when the tankless coil lowerer the boiler temp. This was probably state of the art 30 years ago. But it works/worked well. With the proper plumbing, a de-electrified can be used for storage. There are probably profesionals on this forum who have installed or remember this particular system.

Unknown

> When my parents built their house in 1975, they

> had baseboard fin tube - 3 zones -off a NewYorker

> steel boiler with a tankless coil. Because they

> wanted alot of hot water, they bought a "Carlin

> Aquabank" system - a 40 gallon stone lined

> storage tank with DHW outlet, with a Taco bronze

> circulator and Tstat attached to the tank. When

> the tank cooled down below setpoint, the

> circulator would come on, circulating the potable

> water thru the tankless coil in the boiler, which

> would then come on to maintain boiler setpoint

> when the tankless coil lowerer the boiler temp.

> This was probably state of the art 30 years ago.

> But it works/worked well. With the proper

> plumbing, a de-electrified can be used for

> storage. There are probably profesionals on this

> forum who have installed or remember this

> particular system.

mark schofield

warantee legenths

http://www.whirlpoolwaterheaters.com/products/electric/

a few years ago I went to Lowes and bought a 50 gallon Whirlpool electric water heater to use as a storage tank for DHW water comming out of a Grumman solar system heat exchanger. About 1/3 the price of a "solar storage tank".

Scott04

Aquabooster

The aquabooster is basicaly what the System 2000 uses to produce hot water. External "coil" and boiler only runs on demand, but the same principles are used.

I service a small motel that heats all the water with aquaboosters. Has two boilers, one on each end of the motel, each with a 10gpm coil. One has an 80 gallon tank, and the other has a 120 gallon. No problems until the coil plugs. Coil needs to be acided about once every two months. Owner refuces to treat the water! Not the systems fault! I also have to replace the 3/4" pipe from the coil to the tank about once a year, when the ID is reduced to about 1/4". Some people just don't learn.

He says a softner is too much$$$ I guess he has never added up my bills for mantaining the system.

I know the aquaboosters work well, I just gave this person the info he was looking for on the indirect.

Scott

Unknown

Is it city water ?

We have a similar setup in a strip-mall / apartment complex . A Peerless with an external heat exchanger coupled to 2 - 100 gallon aquaboosters . Put in maybe 5 years ago , no problems yet . I think the high chloride levels keep coils cleaner around here , but seem to attack whatever indirects are made of . Just a theory .

Scott04

Ron,

This is on well water. All of my customers have wells. Most of them plug coils big time, and eat stainless indirects for lunch. I think it may be why I have such good luck with the Amtrol, when others, yourself included (as I recall) have nothing but trouble with them! Just a theory, but it would help explain things.

Sorry Ron, I just went back and looked at the post, and you had said you weren't familiar with the Amtrol. It was others that had seen problems with them.

Again, my apologies.

Scott

mark schofield

coil cleaning

How would you determine when the coil needs to be cleaned, aside from an actual visual inspection inside the coil piping. A water flow problem at the hot water outlets, boiler cycling, slow recovery time, ect.? TIA Mark S.

Patchogue Phil_29

12 yr warranty

I bought a GE electric 50 gal WH (made by Rheem) from HD as a storage tank off my tankless coil. Big time savings compared to Aquastor and the like. Cost was 1/3 to 40% of the Aquabooster.

ScottMP

coil size

I would be concerned with the size of the coil for transfer of heat. Its one thing to get domestic hot water off the coil but to heat a tank and get space heating also, sounds like alot for a tankless coil that has age on it.

Scott

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Unknown

Good point Scott

I didn't mean to imply using an internal coil for an aquabooster AND for heating .

Has anyone used a coil in a steamer to heat an indirect and for a zone or 2 of house heating ? Very limited in what you can do , but prioritizing the indirect would help .

Pinball

Just a thought...Does anyone make a steam heat exchanger?
Steam on one side...water on the other? might be a neat invention. Hot Rod you listening?

Al