Recent content by John Molyneux

Does the unifit need to sit level, front to back? I have an old cast iron flange that sits slightly above my tile floor, which will make the unifit higher in the front. Is that OK, or should I shim the back and use slightly longer screws to set it in place? Or do I need to do surgery on the flange?

Here are my suggestions based on having gone through the same process you are: 1. You need to start with a heat loss calculation because the size of the boiler is one of the most important criteria. You can search this board to figure out how to do it yourself based on actual historic fuel use...

My son just bought a house in Maine that came with a 1990's vintage oil-fired Burnham boiler, which currently provides DHW via an internal coil. I know it's a terribly inefficient way to make DHW, but on the other hand we're only talking about 1 shower a day and some dishes (no dishwasher)...

Would it be worth it and/or possible to replace a standard 3-speed internal boiler circ pump with an ecm version?

I'll be installing one in the next couple weeks and will report back. It just works with their line of boilers, however.

"I don't really understand the roll the outdoor reset plays in all this. Does the installer set the max water output at say 150deg and the outdoor reset does it's best to keep the boiler at condensing temps?" No. The outdoor reset doesn't "try to keep the boiler at condensing temps" -- it just...

Everybody has their own preferences but if you read through many of the older posts here you'll find lots of recommendations for either a 'set it and forget it' strategy or relatively limited setbacks. Your 7* setback is pretty deep. So if you keep the boiler at a low fire it will take a while...

Good point about the Man. J. Duh. Once I saw that it confirmed the DIY method I didn't look at the room-by-room detail.

I need some additional radiation in my basement family room to replace a meager amount of baseboard that just isn't cutting it at the low water temps I'm running with the new modcon. The room is about 15 X 22 with 7 foot ceilings. Walls are below-grade concrete with a layer of beadboard...

140,000!!!

My place is a 1940, 1400 sq/ft cape in southern Maine. It's pretty tight and well insulated (and we also get some decent solar gain on a nice day). I came to the board a year ago to start my research. I was lucky enough to see the wisdom in doing a Dana-style heat loss before I started getting...

You can take a horse to water .....

I have a Greenstar 57 and I really like it. But if I had to do it over again I'd get something with a lower min-fire. My initial heat loss estimate was approx. 30,000. We did some insulation and air sealing that we calculated (and subsequently confirmed) would bring it down to 24,000 or so. I...

Unlike washing machines and refrigerators, with boilers you can't go to a consumer magazine (or an online forum) to see which model or manufacturer is 'best'. There are lots of good reasons for this, not the least of which is that the quality of the installation and properly matching the new...

With a modcon, 'strain on the equipment' is mostly related to cycling. Steady state means less wear and tear. And if you're making DHW with an indirect the boiler's going to cycle up to max fire anyway when the tank is being recharged. And that's what you want. And that's what the boiler's...