Ok Shep is fine lug. I live in PA pretty cold. Not like the midwest. I am going to wait till spring to do the lines. I have a backhoe so digging them up is not hard. I have a Ranco thermostat hooked up although it shorted because the leak from the back of the tank got water on the unit. I am ordering another ranco. Is it a bad idea to drill a hole through the dhw plate and insert the ranco sensor directly into the water? I will work on other corrections first and will do lines this spring or summer.
Still would like recommendation on a fan.
Regarding the Ranco.....okay, since you haven't siliconed the top plate in yet...don't. Here's what you have to do regarding the Ranco, actually you can do this one of two ways. You have to either "make" or "buy" a dry well. "The probe on the end of the sensor wire on the Ranco can NOT go directly into the water. " I cheated and went to Menard's and bought a 12" copper tube that was soldered and coned on the bottom; then I bought a male adapter to solder on to the opposite end so that the dry well would not slide into the tank. Most fellas on here have done it the easier was because they may have had tubing lying around...I didn't. Take a piece of copper tubing 12" long by 1/4 or 1/2" and solder a cap on the bottom; get a male adapter and solder that on the other end, again so it will NOT fall into the tank.
NOW since you haven't siliconed that plate in, I would remove the plate altogether and take it where ever and drill a hole into that plate, preferably 2" from the rear most edge ....make the hole the SAME size as the copper tube. put the plate back into it's frame and THEN silicone the snot out of it.....take the dry well tube and slide it into the hole and then (THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT) silicone "carefully" around the male adapter really good. You might want to hold onto the center of it with one finger and then silicone with the other hand.....drop that probe into the well and voila! You're done with that part. Now, I will NOT even begin to tell you how to wire that bad boy up....I cheated, I called in the professionals.
Next......
Jerry