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[abide]

I have posted a couple other questions earlier about a Shaver that was part of a property I purchased this summer.  Being a foreclosure I am unable to ask the previous owner how it worked for him...so I am kind of winging it.  Today I did my first test fire.  I got the temp up to 165 fairly easily.  I installed the Ranco mod so I am confident that temp is accurate.  I then turned on the indoor system and started the circulator.  Being as I just repressurized the indoor radiators the temp had to come way up.  Looking at my indoor boiler the temp raised at a good pace until it hit 110 then it just kind of stalled there and the outdoor unit ate up the wood pretty quick (4 hours).  Is it normal to have a 55 degree differential between the two sides of the heat exchanger?  The unit is 50' from my house and today it was 60 outside so there was not a large demand.  I am new to having a baseboard hot water system but it seems to me that my boiler/radiator temps should be closer to 150?

Rod

[Scott7m]

Don't sound normal to me, but that seems like a tough one to figure out, could be partially air locked or pump severely undersized, but the fact it ate up so much wood so fast has me scratching my head on that, because if it wasn't using up the heat the wood woulda lasted a long time.......   

What kind of underground pex do you have?! 

The delta t across the exchanger is indeed huge but how did u have such a large demand for heat today, it should have ran you outta there quick haha

[abide]

The underground appears to be homemade (insulated in corrugated pipe).  I see no signs of water as best I can tell.  Would I be better to shut off all radiators and then let it come up to temperature? 

[RSI]

What size is the heat exchanger? If it is way undersized it could easily have 55 degree differential.

Was the return water to the outdoor boiler hotter than that?

[slimjim]

When you say radiators are you meaning cast iron as they hold a lot of water and will take a bit of time to stabilize, if you have lots of them it will take more time.

[abide]

I have numerous cast iron radiators.  The house is 2500 sq. feet.  The way I see it there are only two options.  The heat exchanger is dirty or undersized or the underground lines are wet.  It is my thinking that if the heat exchanger is not doing its full job my burn times should be extended.  Therefore I am leaning towards the underground lines being deficient.  Last night at 2300 I loaded up the boiler with many large rounds at 0630 this morning the fire was largely coals and ash.  The indoor boiler never got above 110 last night.  The return water off the exchanger back outdoors seemed very cool.   Thoughts?

[Scott7m]

Are you feeling your lines at the stove or at the boiler!?

If its hot on one side of the exchanger and cold on the other, that heats going somewhere, and I agree if they werent putting out heat your burn times should be going the other way....

[abide]

I should also add that my circulator is designed to only run on demand.  Therefore it is not continually pumping water through underground.  My pipe seems pretty hot at both stove and boiler.  Does anyone with bad underground lines have similar experience?  The run is only 40-50 feet.

[abide]

What would be airlocked?  Circulator on inside, outside or heat exchanger.  Seems to me the heat is going somewhere...but where? 

[RSI]

Try shutting off the pumps on the indoor system and see if it can keep up to temperature with the OWB pump running. If it does then it isn't the underground pipe.

[Scott7m]

Yea I've seen that happen but it sounded like you were saying the the water was arriving hot at the heat exchanger and being real cool simply by going through it. 

[Scott7m]

Gonna have to start checking some temps with a thermometer or perhaps heat gun......   

[baldwin racing]

I should also add that my circulator is designed to only run on demand.  Therefore it is not continually pumping water through underground.  My pipe seems pretty hot at both stove and boiler.  Does anyone with bad underground lines have similar experience?  The run is only 40-50 feet.

what if you turn it on pump full time circulating full time to and from boiler ? and shut off other pumps in house? get a dig temp gauge and get readings..... see if you are loosing temp in pipeing.....? is it plumed right on boiler? and circulating it the right way? just trying to give ideas...
kelly

[abide]

I am currently heating water back up right now.  Hopefully this evening I will test running outdoor circulator with indoor turned off.  I need to get a heat gun soon.  The stove holds temperature remarkably well when there is no call for heat.  So I have a baseline...In 50 degree temps how much wood should I go through to heat 2500 sq. feet? 

[abide]

unsuccessful test last night.  One thing I found...Since the OWB went unused and empty for several years, a large deposit of scale formed on the inside of the pex piping.  I installed a filter on the pump but this does no good when the contaminants are in the pipe and can flow freely downstream and clog the heat exchanger.  Today I will move wye filter from pump to heat exchanger supply.  I will do this after I reverse the flow on the exchanger to push any debris back into OWB.  This problem was confirmed by a visual inspection of exchanger.  When I cleaned out the exchanger last night and restarted the pump the pipe got almost too hot to touch for the first 30 minutes or so then the temperature gradually declined.  This should solve my temperature problem, however, I don't know if this will fix the consumption issues.  One idea I have is that the reduced flow of water causes all heat to be lost in piping.  Since the flow then never gets to stop the continuous cold return causes the wood to be consumed faster.