Outside boilers...which brand

[John D]

Third year for this thing. It uses a Taco pump every season. I am going to switch to something different (Bell & Gossett). The dealer said he buys 25-30 of these pumps (Taco) every year for "stock". He had 3 left a week ago.

I burn about 8-9 chords of wood to heat the house. More than I thought it would take. The insulated "PEX" looses a lot of heat to the ground. Snow is melted over the top of it all the way to the house. Snow melts off the top of the boiler in a couple of days. Big long icicles hanging off both sides. Not good.
This year it is starting to use water, Pex must be leaking underground. UGH!!

I bought the corn burner addon. I burned 340 bushels of corn last year (about). It takes a lot of babysitting to make it work.
Corn was so high I switched back to wood this year.
I would not do it again, I would go goethermal. My .02 Peace, MAD

Welcome to Arborist site!
If you know the pex is leaking,thats why your losing so much temp,once the insulation gets wet,it acts as a transmitter of heat from the hot pex to the cool ground.What kind of pex lines do you have?If you fix the pex you will probably burn a lot less wood,maybe 1/2 if your lucky.

 

[tazz001]

Thanks for the input I have received so far...So far we are looking at the Centrals again...we have had pretty decent success with our ol'stove...not to mention the dealer lives locally and I can go torment him at home if needed

Some have suggested an inside stove...nope did that for 2 winters and hated the mess in the house. Big house = lotsa buggy wood inside. We run hot water base board, 3 zones and one zone runs constantly (basement...helps keep floors warm). Not to mention that the wood fired boiler would have to remain in the basement and there is no easy way to get wood to it. House was not set up user friendly for wood burning.

We would definately not go with a duel fuel type system. They sound like more of a headache. The electronic controls seem to scare me off a bit as they are so sensitive.

 

[trialanderror]

I initially seen the warranty and thought wow,thats great!Then I read the details of it,and decided what good is the lifetime warranty if its only 10% at yr 10? 10% off a new one is nothing.I feel if they were that confident,they'd offer more off a new one.The fact that its only 10% tells you its just a selling tool.If mine failed at yr 11,I wouldnt buy another heatmor! As would most ppl,so the warranty is useless. My first choice was a heatmor,that was the main dealbreaker for me,Shaver has a much better warranty. Warranty aside,the heatmor seems likes a great unit,I'd have one now,if they stepped up on the warranty.
Speaking of Shaver,I wouldnt buy one again unless it was 1/2 price.Id go with a central boiler if i was to do it again.

maybe in the future someone will make something worth the money.

i spent some time and did some welding fabbing on this boiler someone gave me.

It performs as good as my buddies CB. if anything, burns less wood, as mine has nearly triple the water storage, but smaller waterjacket around the firebox. I would say mine acts almost like a gasifier, it has to run the draft full blast, and maybe 2 or 3 firebox loads worth,then it can heat both houses for maybe 12-16 hours before the water temp drops below 150F.....

i think with ANY installation, install some type of water storage. a shaver, cb, heatmor, or a gasifier like a garn, you'll always win, as your storing heat somewhere inside the house at least, instead of smoldering and going out the chimney.

i think you could only go wrong with that if your boiler isn't designed to catch the 2000*F temps going out the chimney. When i modified mine i put quite a few feet of chimney against water. And it's got a baffle on top of the firebox, so heat has to zigzag,
lets see if i can do this with ascii....
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW **
W|----------------------------------------------------------------------- *
W| *****************************|WWWW|*************** *
W| * -------------------------- |WWW | * | WWW | * | WWWWW |
W| ********************| WWW | * | WWWW | * | WWWW |
W|------------------------- * | WWW | * | WWWWW | * | WWW |
W|******************** | WWW | * | WWWW | * | WWWW |
W| ********** | WWW | * | WWWW | * | WWWW |
W| ******* | WWW | * | WWWW | * | WWWW |
W| "i'm burning!" | WWW | * | WWWW | * | WWWW |
W|-----------------------------| WWW | ********** | WWWWW |
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

it looks bad, but i tried....
anways, the heat kinda boils inside the firebox, heating the sides of the firebox/waterjacket. then as it works it's way out, heats some more water as well.

so if the draft runs full blast, i would say it kinda works like a gasifier, if not exact performance, quite similiar.
mine performs quite nice, it's simliar to heatmors 100 or 200 model. i heat about 4000 to 5000sq ft with it. i pull heat from it with 3 200K btu heat exchangers.

 

[trialanderror]

MAN! all that hard work!!!

i hate vbulletin, cuts out the whitespace!!!!

 

[MAD]

Welcome to Arborist site!
If you know the pex is leaking,thats why your losing so much temp,once the insulation gets wet,it acts as a transmitter of heat from the hot pex to the cool ground.What kind of pex lines do you have?If you fix the pex you will probably burn a lot less wood,maybe 1/2 if your lucky.

Thanks for the reply.
The system just started using water about 1 week ago. I noticed the snow melt on the ground over the PEX line the first year I ran the stove. I got the PEX line in a package deal when I bought the stove. The dealer told me it was the best on the market at the time. It is the 1" supply and return inside a black plastic jacket filled with hard foam. The dealer told me to only bury it 2 feet deep. He said they had fewer "problems" with the shallower depth. I didn't know enough at the time to ask him what the "problems" were.

My main weak point has been the circulation pumps from TACO. They just don't last. I know other users with the same experience. Saying that, I know several users with other brands of stoves that are using the B&G pumps and have been for up to 10 years without touching them. So, I am going to switch. They drop right in because the dimension from flange to flange is the same as the TACO and they will also bolt up to the existing flange bolt slots on the isolation valves. The B&G motors are a little longer but there is plenty of room behind the door for a longer motor. They are also more expensive than the TACO but in my opinion a better unit.

I have experience with the Bio Advantage corn addon that I can relate if any one is interested. Just E-Mail me.
Peace,MAD

 

[John D]

Thanks for the reply.
The system just started using water about 1 week ago. I noticed the snow melt on the ground over the PEX line the first year I ran the stove. I got the PEX line in a package deal when I bought the stove. The dealer told me it was the best on the market at the time. It is the 1" supply and return inside a black plastic jacket filled with hard foam. The dealer told me to only bury it 2 feet deep. He said they had fewer "problems" with the shallower depth. I didn't know enough at the time to ask him what the "problems" were.

My main weak point has been the circulation pumps from TACO. They just don't last.
Peace,MAD

The pipe your describing sounds like logstor,which is top of the line pipe.I know ppl who laid it on the ground and snow didnt melt off of it,something doesnt sound right.It dont get any better than that.Maybe there was an issue from day one with it. Too bad about the leak you have,other than kinking or installing it on a rock that cut thru the whole jacket,I cant think of a reason why it would leak. I think the pex is rated at 195 degrees,unless you' ve been boiling the pex,I wonder why it would fail,and if there is any warranty on it that would be worth pursueing,esp with the high cost your going to incur digging it up again,and the cost of pipe,even 70 ft will be 1000 bucks or close to it.
I 3 have taco circs on my existing home setup,the one i put on my OWB HX loop is a B&G,the one shaver supplied looks like a B&G as well.No problems with either one. I run the circ loop on medium most of the time,but ive run it on low as well with no problems.I just worry that if the power goes out,then comes back on,the pump wont start on its own on low,I seen that in the manual.

 

[MAD]

The pipe your describing sounds like logstor,which is top of the line pipe.I know ppl who laid it on the ground and snow didnt melt off of it,something doesnt sound right.It dont get any better than that.Maybe there was an issue from day one with it. Too bad about the leak you have,other than kinking or installing it on a rock that cut thru the whole jacket,I cant think of a reason why it would leak. I think the pex is rated at 195 degrees,unless you' ve been boiling the pex,I wonder why it would fail,and if there is any warranty on it that would be worth pursueing,esp with the high cost your going to incur digging it up again,and the cost of pipe,even 70 ft will be 1000 bucks or close to it.
I 3 have taco circs on my existing home setup,the one i put on my OWB HX loop is a B&G,the one shaver supplied looks like a B&G as well.No problems with either one. I run the circ loop on medium most of the time,but ive run it on low as well with no problems.I just worry that if the power goes out,then comes back on,the pump wont start on its own on low,I seen that in the manual.

It's been my experience if the TACO shuts down hot they are toast shortly thereafter ie; by power failure I mean power outage or short power interuption or shutting it off intentionally. All my failures have been in the cartridge side of the pump. The windings haven't gone bad on any of my pumps. I'm only running one loop. I never run my system hotter than 180*F and it has never boiled over as far as I can tell. I have seen the water temp. coast up to 183*F after the damper closed on the door. A new pump cartridge goes for about $80.00 plus tax. A new complete pump is $180.00. You might want to think about getting a spare cartridge for your TACO pumps if you are running more than one loop. The B&G pumps are red in color. The one that replaces the TACO I use is model # PL36 and costs $267.00 new.
Peace, MAD

 

[Marklambert61]

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