New home owner with a central boiler 6048

[ski603]

First off, new to the forum so thanks for bearing with me. I've done some searching around and have found some great info but need some input. I recently purchased a second home that has a CL6048 on the property, the previous owner was full time and ran the boiler 24/7 during heating months. It's up in Northern NH where the average winter temp is 10*F. The boiler is plummed direct into the headers down in the basement for the oil furnace, and there isn't currently a bypass inline only isolation valves for feed and return and low point drain valves for the OWB loop. I'm concerned about the boiler freezing up during extended periods of no use. After pricing out glycol that would wipe out any savings from the OWB. Seems like keeping the water circulating even during no use periods will prevent freezing and keep every thing protected. Would something like this: Amazon product ASIN B077GRNHTW plummed into the low point drains give me enough flow to protect me from freezing?

Thanks for any input

 

[E Yoder]

Is there a pump circulating in from the OWB you could let run?
That pump you linked to would keep circulation going, but for that price I'd get a name brand like a Grundfos 15-58, a three speed basic circulator.

 

[E Yoder]

Another thing, you could use a WiFi BBQ thermometer to remotely monitor temps on the piping.

 

[ski603]

That's the problem I'm having with the existing plumbing setup. There is a circulator in line but it's right at the manifold in the basement which would work perfectly if there was a way to isolate the two systems and open a bypass. How well insulated are these OWB? If I leave the circ running right now it'll make the oil fired furnace keep everything at it's setpoint which is somewhere around 150*

 

[E Yoder]

They're insulated pretty well, but keeping the outdoor boiler at about 50F would save a lot of fuel.
If you don't plan to use the outdoor boiler then I'd lean toward draining it, making sure the valves and fittings aren't holding water out at the boiler.
It's either that or some kind of re-pipe.