Newbie..... well kinda.

[ct97fd]

This is my first post. Here's my story. I purchased my house about 4-5 years ago. The previous owners had a Harman PB105 installed with the existing oil burner. The owner gave me a VERY brief description of the operation and cleaning. The first year went ok burned from December till sometime in March. I had the boiler cleaned/serviced by the dealer. The following winter is when the problems started. The boilers don't play well together. I loaded the hopper of the pb105 just like the previous owner said and I went away for a weekend. I came home to a 50 +/- degree house. The hopper was empty and the oil burner wasn't running. 3 thermostats were calling for heat and nothing was happening. Over the last couple of years when the zones call for heat nothing happens. When the temperatures are somewhat mild the boilers seam to work ok. When it's cold I have issues. This is just one of the issues I've been having. I'm now questioning if everything is installed correctly. My house is a Ranch around 2000 square feet, pretty well insulated.

 

[mike van]

some pics of your setup might help?

 

[ct97fd]

I'll add them as soon as I get home.

 

[maple1]

Did the boilers work well together that first year? Problems arose after the dealer service?

Maybe they changed some settings or flipped a switch they shouldn't have?

Or its been this way since you moved in?

 

[ct97fd]

Nothing was changed the first year. They only cleaned the unit and replaced burn pot.

 

[ct97fd]

 

[ct97fd]

 

[mike van]

Chris, I had the same [almost] setup with a Harman wood boiler, except for creosote issues, it ran flaw-lessly for 16 years. I don't know what the black iron T is for on top of yours though, it would seem to me to allow hot water to just circulate through the Harman & not go through the oil boiler? On my setup, there was a Taco 007 in that loop between the wood & oil boiler, when the water in the Harman got to 140F, it clicked on and ran, all the time, when it dropped below that, it shut back off. The oil boiler had a standard box on it like yours, the low was 130, the high 160. The Harmans aqua stat was set at 150 to open the draft door, 175 to close it.

 

[maple1]

Nothing was changed the first year. They only cleaned the unit and replaced burn pot.

So it was OK the first year? Or it's been working not right since you moved in?

I'm kind of thinking there's a valve not opened or closed that should be, or something like that, or a control not set right, that had to be done seasonally that you weren't told about. Hard to diagnose wihout being there.

 

[ct97fd]

Yes it worked ok the first year. That was only about 3 months of burning.

 

[maple1]

Some systems use separate wall thermostats for the different fuels too.

 

[ct97fd]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the pellet boiler feed the oil burner and have the zones off the oil burner?

 

[mike van]

Where in Ct are you Chris?

 

[maple1]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the pellet boiler feed the oil burner and have the zones off the oil burner?

Not necessarily.

Looks like a parallel setup in place now - but is there another circ we can't see, maybe inside the pellet boiler somewhere?

This is likely a case of having to be there to figure it out.

So the oil burner does not cut in at all, at any time? Or is it cutting in to keep your DHW hot, but not responding to a call for house heat?

EDIT: And if it worked OK the first year, but then not, that would seem to coincide with the service visit. What is that switch for just above the top right front corner of the oil boiler?

 

[ct97fd]

I'm from Vernon. The switch controls the power for both oil and pellet boilers.

 

[ct97fd]

The oil burner runs for the hot water and sometimes the heat. Sometimes nether respond when calling for heat and hot water can take a while to heat up. Also last winter I started getting a lot of creosote build up in the burn pot and on the hopper door. I've checked for air leaks. All seals are tight.

 

[mike van]

Vernon's a long haul for me, if you were close I'd swing by & try to ????? it out - When you fire up the Harman, what happens? As in temp rise, something trips on, nothing happens, nothing trips on, does water circulate? Where if it does?

 

[maple1]

Has the oil boiler ever been serviced? Sounds like that service call you mentioned was for the pellet boiler? Sounding like an issue with just the oil unit to me.

 

[ct97fd]

Oil burner gets serviced once a year. Both service companies blame each other for the things not working. That's why I'm questioning if everything is installed correctly. The Pellet service guy doesn't do installs he only knows the inner workings of the pellet boiler. He thinks I should drill a hole through my foundation to put my exhaust pipe through. When they installed the pipe they cheated and went through a window for the exhaust and intake.

 

[maple1]

I'm not even sure through the window is legal - but don't think that has anything to do with the current problem.

I'm sure someone who really knows what they're doing could do the necessary tweaks or see what the problem is pretty quickly if they were there to trace stuff & check stat/control settings etc. etc.

Can you track down the original installer?

 

[ct97fd]

The dealer won't tell me anything. The service guy says they use random plumbing / electrical companys.

 

[mike van]

Just going by these pics, I don't see how this setup could ever work, the tee on the back, and the one on top of the Harman will just let hot water flow in a loop, but the loop should go through the oil boiler, but it doesn't. The zones on the back should feed off the oil boiler, but they don't. I think you need a plumber that understands these setups to come out and re-do it. It just makes no sense to me the way it's plumbed.

 

[ct97fd]

Thank you! I thought the same thing.

 

[maple1]

That's kind of why I was asking about another pump we can't see.

Pretty hard to nail things down with net pics.

I think it would work the way it's plumbed, if it's controlled right. The way I see it, when the zones are drawing, the water has to to through the oil boiler - the water would get pulled through it. But there would need to be another pump on the pellet side to divert/pull the flow through the pellet boiler when it was burning.

Is the problem that the water isn't flowing right, or that the oil isn't firing when it should be? I was under the impression that it was a problem of the oil not firing when it should be.

Think more info and trouble shooting (determination of what water goes where and how hot the different system places are etc..) is needed.

Are the zone valves that we see in the return side of the zones? Looks like that to me. So where does the supply to the zones come off of? Can't pick that out in the pics.

 

[ct97fd]

Zones are plumbed off back of pellet boiler. Boiler feeds oil burner I think. When it's really cold out I have the problem of the zones not getting hot when calling for heat.