So had the new line from the boiler to the shop in the ground for awhile now but just haven't been able to get the new one from the house to the boiler installed. Was either busy with harvest, or when I did have a few days free the rental place didn't have the trencher in I wanted to use. Finally everything jived and went and got it last Monday, got most of the trench done Monday night, started again in the rain Tuesday morning. Took most of the rest of the day finding a few tiles that we cut while trenching, then used the trencher to back fill most of it before taking it back as the skid steer and mini excavator were too big to get in part of the area I ran the Logstor.
1: Find an old reamer like used to clean the ends of black or galvanized pipe after using a pipe cutter on them, chuck it in a cordless drill and use that to chamfer the ends of the Logstor and the fittings go right in with a little spit or wire pulling lube. My fittings had two o-rings on the inner barb, then a split ring that went over the pex then a nut that tightened that down just like a compression fitting. The reamer would also work well with Sharkbite or other push fittings.
2: Getting the outer sheath off. Using either a razor knife or a cordless skill saw with the blade set at a 1/8" of a inch go completely around the sheath, then one cut along the length, using a long large handle screwdriver I rapped the sheath a few times wit the handle of the screwdriver and it practically fell off. Using the razor knife go down the length of the pex between them so you don't accidentally score the line, using the screw driver pry them apart then using the handle rap the insulation up and down the length of it, then bend them back and forth several times, once loose I was able to twist the insulation off the lines in several large pieces.
I had to expose about 5 feet in the basement, using the above method I got the insulation off both lines in about 7-10 pieces total.
3: MUCH better flow, my delta t pump is actually working correctly as the old "one inch" lines were starving it for water. I used the old 1" lines to run water to a hydrant, 3/4" fittings that are meant for polyethylene water line fit just right in the supposed 1" pex, a few crimp rings and water tight.
4: No heat loss what so ever that I've been able to measure. The old line when I started hand digging to find the corner once I got 18" down the ground was actually steaming, I could feel the sides of the trench and tell which way I needed to dig to find it. The one corner by the house is a mess and we are waiting for it to settle so we can finish repairing the downspout drains, have maybe a few inches of cover over the Logstor, had a little water in the trench over the Logstor, had ice on the water this AM.
5: Wood use is considerably down, I built this stove years ago and have almost 15 years of experience with it and can load it to within a piece to get 12 hour burns, first day I got it back up and running I loaded as normal for the length of burn I wanted and the expected lows that night, had enough wood left in the AM I didn't add any till six that night. Getting better at guessing as it's a whole new ball game now but when you're not heating the ground it doesn't seem to take near the wood
6: If the fire does get low, the water temp doesn't plummet like it used to as the heat is staying where it's supposed to.
So....while not a professional by any means, and paying for the stuff will definitely make certain unmentionable parts pucker, it's worth it. Don't be a tight*ss like I was years ago and do it right the first time. Not that I really want some temps like last winter as -40 was a bit extreme, I'm really interested to see what happens if we get any bitter cold this winter as most likely with the soupy mess I have that part of the trench may stay open till spring before it ever settles enough to finish fixing the tiles.
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Topic: A few observations about Logstor (Read 3450 times)