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[gtownky]

Hello, I"m new to the site and have done allot of reading. Well after about five years of looking at these. I have finally started my install. Took today off work and Friday in hopes i can get this thing warming the house before the weekend. I will try and get some pic up. I know everyone enjoys them. Myself included. This furnace was built by a local fab shop who built 2 of these for a customer. The son put his in operation. The father did not and had it stored in his garage for the last 2 years. I looked at it 2 years ago because i was told the father had bought a commercial unit. I had talked to the local fab shop and got the price he paid for it before i went to see it. They had charge 3600.00  I had offered him 2800.00 because i was going to be making modifications to the unit due to things i didn't like in the original build. He passed on my offer.  About a month ago. I stopped by his house to see if he still had it. He said he did. I asked are him if he was ready to sell it yet. He told me he was and asked what i would give. I told him i would give him 2500. He excepted. I took it to a welder and had a outer shell made so i could insulate the water jacket. I used the spray in foam. then i will wrap insulation around it and shoot metal to the out side. I was told by the son that his door warped the first year and had to have a new one fabed and his has water in the door. I had the door designed similar but i shot foam in the door. Now I think about it. I will probably have to redo the door because i am not so sure the insulation will hold up to the heat from the fire box. i had a plumber out last Friday to plumb fittings into my existing boiler. Today i had the plumbers back to help feed the pex into the 4" PVC pipe. We slid frost king pipe insulation on the pex return and supply. I'm also inserting a fresh water supply pex line in also since the ditch is dug. I'm doing this because i was not going to pay 11.00 a ft for foam insulated line and had read and heard to many bad stories of the wrap insulation pex. the PVC is a lot thicker and appears that will hold up better than corrugated pipe. I'm also running a straight line. I hope i am not making a mistake here! If i am it will not cost a lot to replace if i have to. I had a hole cut into the clean out door to install the blower ( PSC Blower, 115 Volt PSC Blower, Forward Curve, Direct Drive, Wheel Dia 3 15/16 In, CFM @ 0.000-In SP 146, Voltage 115, 60 Hz, Single Phase, Full Load Amps 0.75, RPM 3100 DAYTON 1TDP7 $87.60) and had to add a Solenoid (Laminated Solenoid, Current @ Maximum Stroke 4.90 Amps, Coil Resistance 20.5 Ohms, Coil Voltage Rating @ 60 hz 120 VAC, Seated Current 0.43 Ampere DORMEYER $31.55) I also added a (   
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Electronic Temperature Control, Input Voltage 120/208/240 Volts, Switch Action SPDT, Sensor Thermistor, 2 Inch Long x 1/4 Inch Diameter, 8 Feet Cable RANCO ETC111-000-000 $80.90) to measure the water temp. I added a float to the top of the furance to tell what the water level was as well. Tommarow the plumbers are coming back to get the pipe in the ground and to hook up. I will be using the pumps on the excisting furnace. i was told not to spend a bunch of money on water chemicals. I  had read to go get some calgon and ad to water to keep down scaling. Any sugestions or comments would greatly be apprciated. Also am open to questions. Thanks for letting me be a part of your community.    

[dave_dj1]

Sounds good except you insulated pipe. The $11/foot will seem like a bargain when you have to spend all of your time loading wood in it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for DIY projects but everyone will tell you the pipe is important.
Is the pvc large enough to slide the pre-made foam'd pex into later?

[gtownky]

I hope to have this thing going this evening and will find out if the savings on the pipe was worth it. im not gonna cover the ditch until i have tested. That way if i need to replace the pex i can.

[Scott7m]

As a fellow Kentuckian.  You don't need $11 a foot stuff, properly installed is more important than the price tag.  However ive not seen any home made line be successful to the point I would use it. 

You paid a big price for it though I think, by the time you change this and fix that you coulda bought a well built stove with a proven track record and warranty, ncb 80 or ridge wood come to mind.

Best of luck!!!!
 

[gtownky]

Scott, what kinda price on those stoves mentioned?

[Scott7m]

Well, we have the ncb80 in stock now, there $3480 on the remaining ones....normal retails is $3880

Ridge wood is another one I carry and there $4295.   In Michigan they are around $3700 or so but of course it costs a lot to get them down here, hence a higher price.

[mikey37]

turn pump on low speed

[gtownky]

Scott here is a diagram of my situation.

[Scott7m]

Good diagram, I dont see it being able to work that way...    It's hard to invision a different approach when your used to doing things a certain way lol

I'm gonna message RSI and have him look at this too and see if there is an easy fix for you, me personally I think your best bet is go separate the systems, use closely spaced t's to keep the flow up and have a pump on the supply side of the close t so that it only pulls water out of thr loop when need be.

A closely spaced t is easy to do, take 2 t's separated by no more than 2", the first one the flow encounters is the supply to that particular loop, the second is the return, when that zone isn't calling for hest it bypasses through the close t's and goes right on by.   I would do this off of the exsisting boiler loop, I would return it to being a pressurized boiler on that side and use a plate exchanger in the floor, if you return your exsisting boiler to pressurized you'll have to run boiler treatment in it now, unless the pex you used is oxygen barrier pex

I'm gonna throw RSI a message to look at this

[gtownky]

here is a pic of the original boiler with the owf plumbed into it.

[attachment deleted by admin for space issues]

[willieG]

i am a firm believer in "if your original indoor bloiler was created as a closed system...it should remain that way!

simply plumb it as the CB web page suggests...easy..simple and it works

[Scott7m]

Here is a link to the simplest design possible...   The old boiler and zones will work the same as they always did only the heat will come from the stove

http://www.centralboiler.com/Tech/C220.pdf

Sometimes it's easier to kinda start over and go from there, I don't see how it will work according to the diagram you had and pics....

[gtownky]

I'm getting reading of 105 off of the grates. But i am now worried that the air in the system may cause corrosion. If i separate the 2 systems then that possibility will be gone. I'm heating the home good now after bleeding the air out. So I know it works.  But now i am thinking of the system later down the road. What kind of heat exchanger do you recommend? Can i put a separate thermostat on the extra pump that i will need to by? also will be hooking up 2 hwh this summer.

[Scott7m]

You'll probably need a 50-80 plate heat exchanger just depending on how many btu you need


Yep the other pump could be controlled by a ranco aquastat with the sensor on a pipe.....

In hooking up water heaters it's hard to beat 20 plates

[gtownky]

Thanks!