Print

[sclifton]

I have had a 5036 now for a little over 2 years.  Never had any problems with my domestic hot water until tonight.  No hot water.  Everything else is working just fine.  The water-to-water heat exchanger is hot to the touch as always.  Have any of you had this type of issue?   If so, what steps did you take to correct the issue?  I did drain about 4-5 gallons of water from my hot water tank (I got a small amount of sediment out) and the issues seems to have resolved.  I do not have time this week to do any further diagnosis due to work and traveling home for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully next weekend though.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  Thanks in advance for any thoughts and help.

Scott

[RSI]

We will need more info on how it is plumbed to help much.

[sclifton]

Water comes into the heat exchanger from the bottom, exits the top.  Mixing valve on top.

[attachment deleted by admin for space issues]

[slimjim]

You may have an air trap in the top of the 3/4 inch pipe or it is starting to plug up with scale, if you have to take it off to clean it bring the hot into the top and return from the bottom, it will work a bit better, when you put it back together put drains and ball valves on each port so you can pump CLR or commrcial coil cleaner through it without taking it off next time.

[sclifton]

Thanks for the info. I will get to it after Thanksgiving.

[MattyNH]

Water exchanger plugged up?

[RSI]

Can you tell if the water in the tank is hot? If it is, the mixing valve could be the problem.

Did you vent some water out the relief valve? If there is an airlock at the top of the sidearm that should flush it out.

[pwdiver]

I had the same issue with my plate exchanger this morning the hot water line inlet the exchanger was hot the outlet back to the boiler was cold I throttled the water going to my heat exchanger for heat in the house to force more water through the plate exchanger it seems to have worked. I might have to clean it if possible because my in line strainer was clean.

[RSI]

I had the same issue with my plate exchanger this morning the hot water line inlet the exchanger was hot the outlet back to the boiler was cold I throttled the water going to my heat exchanger for heat in the house to force more water through the plate exchanger it seems to have worked. I might have to clean it if possible because my in line strainer was clean.

Might have been an airlock somewhere in your system.

[joe a]

If anyone has successfully used CLR to unclog a water-to-water heat exchanger, I'd very much appreciate the procedure followed.  I tried doing mine this way: I flooded the plate exchanger and let the CLR sit inside for 24 hours; I flushed the exchanger both ways using clear krylon tubing so I could see what came out; I got some gunk out, but I saw no improvement in function.  In addition, I now have greenish, stinking water when I first use hot water (I have a on-demand propane unit plumped downstream, and it supplies my hot water during the summer), even six days after performing the "fix."  This greenish water does clear up, but the next time I use the hot water after down time, the greenish, stinking water at start up reoccurs.  I do have the bleeder setup, which I have set to no bleed.  I think the bleeder system, for my use, was a waste of money.  From what I can tell, if a plate exchanger needs cleaning after a few years, the investment in the equipment and the loss of energy associated with heating water is not worth it.  I have a water softener upstream of the plate exchanger, so I anticipated no such clogging issues. 

[doow14]

couple years ago the heater core on my truck plugged up almost no heat at all coming out.I tried clr and super hot water blew it back and forth 10 12 times didn't get hardly anything out.I tried some drain cleaner as last resort,stuff called the works it has a small amount of hydrochloric acid in it filled it up and let it sit for 10 mins put 1 end into an empty milk or water jug so you can see if anything is coming out. blew it thru with short burst of compressed air,then hot water change direction you blow every time did that 8 10 times and got unbelievable amounts of junk out.blow it thru several times with boilin water to make sure all the drain cleaner is out. that was 2 yr ago and it didn't damage the core any.goes without saying don't get that sh## in your eyes it stings a bit.