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[andyjs]

Boiler worked great when fired up in October but after last snow storm the snow melted the boiler is always on trying to catch up.losing 6 degrees from boiler to house and another 15 on return line when furnace is running.i know my lines suck but never had any poblems with it last year?any advice would be great.cant sleep at night now im always running out to boiler to check on it

[RSI]

Sounds like an air intake problem. Is it opening properly?

[hondaracer2oo4]

Your numbers aren't crazy, only losing 21 degrees on the whole loop? Why don't you try unplugging your pump and letting the boiler come up to temp. After that turn the pump back on and the boiler should easily be able to keep up until its out of wood.

[MattyNH]

Burning wet or green wood?

[andyjs]

Burning green wood but I've always used green.did shut off pump and started back after boiler shut off it still fell on its face.intake is ckear .think its underground pipe got a 4ft wide path of snow melted.went with the cheap stuff.thinking about buying thermopex what's everyone think about the thermopex pipe?

[jerkash]

If the snow is melted that much, you just found your problem

[ITO]

 It sounds to me like what your describing the lines may be suspect, something must have changed that you didn't used to get the snowmelt before? Maybe there's water in the insulation of your lines now that wasn't there before from perforation in the insulation/drain tiling or did you have flooding? If the melting is new than something must have changed there?

[cantoo]

Yup, sounds like your line is showing you how good it works. Is there anyway you can access the inside of the lines, either at the house or the boiler? I made some homemade lines for part of my system and I made them so I could pull the lines if something went wrong. I used Logstor for my other lines because they weren't going to be accessible and they had to travel above ground for approx. 30'. Water is the killer on the Big O drainage tile lines.

[andyjs]

We got about 8 inches of snow and you could see a little bit of it melted but soon as it warmed up a wide path was melted now boiler is eating wood

[willieG]

my home made boiler is 250 feet one way from my house...when my underground lines went bad  i had a 4 foot soft gravel path all winter...my wood useage went up 4 full cords a winter but my boiler was always able to keep my house warm but it did take complete fillings of the stoe twice daily

[ITO]

 I used Insul-seal 4" PVC then pulled pex inside it.
  http://www.insulseal.com/index.html
This was 9 years ago I don't know if many people do that anymore but it was what my dealer sold me back then and it has worked OK, anybody else use this or seen it? My lines cross my driveway with my well piping about 7 foot down under my driveway so they are deep, the water table is low otherwise that depth would not work. Kind of nice that you can pull the pex lines out if you had to, they are 90'd into the floor of both my boiler and utility room, hope I don't have to mess with that tho. Pretty straight forward installation, no idea how prices compare to Logstor (or similar).
 Maybe something for you to look at but my guess is you're going to probably use some extra wood to get through to next year unless you can fix it now.

[andyjs]

I can access the lines but doubt I can pull them.its a 150' run its the Styrofoam halves taped together in  6" black tile

[andyjs]

Forgot to mention my pump is on high I'm losing 6 degrees pumping 19gpm

[heat550]

I used Insul-seal 4" PVC then pulled pex inside it.
  http://www.insulseal.com/index.html
This was 9 years ago I don't know if many people do that anymore but it was what my dealer sold me back then and it has worked OK, anybody else use this or seen it? My lines cross my driveway with my well piping about 7 foot down under my driveway so they are deep, the water table is low otherwise that depth would not work. Kind of nice that you can pull the pex lines out if you had to, they are 90'd into the floor of both my boiler and utility room, hope I don't have to mess with that tho. Pretty straight forward installation, no idea how prices compare to Logstor (or similar).
 Maybe something for you to look at but my guess is you're going to probably use some extra wood to get through to next year unless you can fix it now.

I just put in 55 feet of insulseal last year great product. I read online for hours and with a bit of co min scene It was the best for my application. One keey feature I liked water will never get to the pipes that's the key. I didn't care if it was more work . I'm looking at the long haul . Fast install don't mean its a good product . I seen something very interesting about black drain pipe with my first install . Heat it up to 180f for year it shrinks and cracks It was the heavy stuff also. Maybe the newer stuff is better I don't know . It was a lesson learned . had to rip that out then Went with the spray foam trick I have 6 inchs close cell all around pipes  with 3-4inch  round rock under it .
My idea was  if trench does get water in it for any reason  water can sit at bottom and drain away also put heavy plastic covering over the foam and pipes . I have 2 runs 125 feet and 100 feet done like this ( its 15 years old still no problems ). 3rd zone is insulseal 55 feet. Funny part about this zone 55 feet from stove it heats a 28x48 house easy we even put smaller fans on exchanger to make it quieter have 2 of them assist fans for duct work like 900cfm total Its in a closet center of house not tied in to the furnace. It does work great . 

Heat550

[ITO]

 Thats good to know Heat, I thought I was the only one using that product! My run is about 90 feet with the lower end being at the boiler so I put a short piece of clear hose in with the pex so I could vacuum out that end to double check if water was getting in, never has been any water and I check it every year at start up.
 Putting some hot water through it right now for sure, had 11 below (F) this morning.