A head scratcher.

[mgbinspect]

No doubt all of you northern HIs have run accross this, but it was a first for me.

This domestic hot water system had me turning the house upside down looking for the water heater. I'm used to seeing the coils for the domestic hot water within the boiler and dismissed the tank over head as an old abandoned expansion tank. I finally reasoned that the tank had to be it and returned to it to confirm. Sure enough, there were the inlet and outflow pipes. That was a new one for me.

The boiler was original (57 years young) with a new oil burner, fill valve, relief valve and expansion tank. Looks pretty good for its age.

And, yup, caught the asbestos wrap and the missing relief valve extension tube.

The boiler was a Timkin Silent Automatic. First time I'd seen this particular brand and model.

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[Les]

Before your time we call them Thrush tankless heaters. You could adapt them to any boiler or heater. As I recall they were always green with silver trims.

[Chad Fabry]

It's a very nice installation. Les and Kurt are probably the only two people left alive that could make those joints. I wouldn't deliberately grind, concentrate and inhale the insulation on that tank.

[mgbinspect]

Well, I literally went through every nook and cranny of the house twice before I decided it had to be incorporated within the heating system and began tracing pipes. That was an education.

[kurt]

Originally posted by mgbinspect

And, yup, caught the asbestos wrap and the missing relief valve extension tube.

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That's not a release valve, and it isn't missing an "extension tube".

It's a Bell & Gossett pressure reducing valve (PRV), or water makeup valve, and there isn't any tube; it's a plastic cover on the bottom that covers an adjustment screw.

(see the little flow direction arrow?)

[mgbinspect]

Kurt,

Sorry about that. I knew what the valve you're referring to was. (I called it a fill-valve in the first post.) There is a brand new relief valve with no extension. I had originally tried to upload three photos and the way folks scrutinize the pics I was just anticipating someone would pick up on the missing tube. For some reason it wouldn't let me upload the third picture.

Richmond has a ton of boilers in the downtown area and I'm fairly familiar with them. Now, steam I don't see very much of anymore and I'm pretty rusty. I used to see steam often 10 years ago, but it seems they've all been replaced around here.

I do gather from the posts that you and a couple of other HIs on this site REALLY know your stuff about boilers and I'm thoroughly impressed. (I, on the other hand, know enough about 'em to do my job. But.. did you really think I was that ignorrant, Kurt?... I'm crushed!) [:-weepn] []

Well, heck, I'll upload them now. (You can just barely catch a glimpse of it over the elbow in the exhaust pipe in the profile shot of the boiler.)

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Now, say you're sorry... []

[mgbinspect]

Hey, Kurt, Les or anyone else good at this stuff.

Since the domestic coils are a few feet away from the boiler and there is a circulator pump on the distribution line, doesn't the pump impeade the domestic water heating system when it's not running? I have often wondered if water can still move through the pump if it's off?

[RobC]

Is the barometric damper installed correctly?

I've never seen one in action as we are on natural gas here, but I would think they should function thusley

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Is thusley actually a word?

[mgbinspect]

Yeah, the damper's fine. There's a shadow across it. This type has the counter-balance weight on the face of the damper instead of on the shaft.

[kurt]

Naaah, I don't think anyone in here is ignorant. We're just a bunch of guys w/poor eyesight, who need all the help they can get.

And yes, the circulator could impede gravity flow in the loop if it was off. Don't know how much though...