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[Vincent Paul]

The posts from you Ridgewood owners have been awesome.  As I am doing this install by myself ( frustrating ), your comments, feedback and pictures have been unbelievably most helpful.   I am now at the side arm install.  Can anyone of you upload a picture of your sidearm install?  Tim and Craig have been awesome so far from Ridgewood, but I am not impressed with the sidearm I purchased.  I've seen others out there that seem to me to be much more installer friendly.  Any help you could provide is always appreciated............Still packing firewood to both fireplaces 

[chiselchain]

just my opinion but I went with a side arm when I first installed my ridgewood, I was running out of hot water(2 adults.2 kids). last summer I installed a 30 plate exchanger made a big difference. never run out of hot water now. but it does put a bigger demand on the boiler.

[JTS717]

I installed my sidearm on a 50 gallon electric water heater and flipped off the breaker when I stared up my OWB.  I put a thermostatic mixing valve coming out of my water heater since the water in the water heater is HOT!  I have never ran out of hot water with 2 adults showering and the dishwasher going.  The biggest thing is to make sure you plumb the sidearm as close to the top of the water heater as possible.  The thermosyphoning cannot push the hot water back down into the water heater easily and it will not circulate as much hot water.  I have a picture of mine but cannot figure out how to post it.  If you PM me your email I can send it to you.

[automan77]

I never run out of hot water with my side arm. Works great

[chiselchain]

that's probably my problem. I mounted mine low off the drain. bummer

[Vincent Paul]

send any pictures to vpmeyers@reagan.com & thank you very much

[Roscoe]

I mounted mine to the hot water supply about and inch off the top of the water heater and obviously to the drain. Works great.
However, I have in the past tried to plumb it to the anode rod hole (after removing the rod) and the drain. That did not work as the water would not siphon. 

[Pinehouse4]

I added a very small circ on my side arm to push the water through and circulate in the tank, has to be bronze though, since the domestic hot water is considered potable.   

Bob

[andyhowardcity]

That's what I'm thinking about doing with mine, (adding a pump) because it is struggling and, if I'm honest not working at all

[Vincent Paul]

I thank you all very much for your pictures.  It will help me once I get back on the install ( after today ).  Happy Thanksgiving to you all...............vpm

[Vincent Paul]

Sidearm finished yesterday, to be honest, if our well water wasn't so rust/lime ridden, I would have gone with plate exchanger.  This install was a pain in the butt and expensive with all of the extra plumbing involved ( sharkbites plus pex fittings ).  Nonetheless, no leaks and am ready to pipe over to the indoor furnace and install that heat exchanger, I thank all of the Ridgewood guys who sent me pictures, plus SlimJim for a post in the plumbing section that was useful.  It helped a great deal.  Any suggestions on what I should or shouldn't do on the furnace heat exchanger would be helpful too.  Thank you all again, hoping to be fired up this time next week................Vincent Paul Meyers

[CountryBoyJohn]

Install a by-pass route with valves in case you need to service your exchanger.