Zippo
New Member
I have an outdoor wood boiler that I have had for about 15 years. It heats my domestic hot water with a sidearm heating device. My water heater sprung a leak a couple weeks ago, so I replaced it, and put the sidearm on the new water heater. The bottom of the sidearm is attached to the drain outlet with a T. The top is attached to the release valve nipple with another T. However, it is an AO Smith with the outlet about 2/3 of the way up the tank. That leaves the top of the sidearm about 13 inches above the top outlet, so I brought the pipe down the 13 inches not knowing if that was too much or if it would create a heatlock or whatever you would call it when the hot water will not go down because hot wants to go up. The directions on the sidearm said it should not drop more than 15 inches, however, I have heard people say that it must be level at the top or it will create a lock. In any case, it did not function once installed. I decided that although an inline pump would move the water much faster, that it would force the same function, heating the water less each time it came through the arm, but knowing it would come through more often. I got a small Baco inline pump with three speeds. The result is not better though. I installed the pump at the top of the pipe, right where the water comes out of the top of the sidearm. It is extremely hot there,you can only touch it briefly without getting burned. However, 13 inches down the run, with the pump running in that direction the pipe is just warm to the touch, to me indicating that although the pump is humming along, it is not pushing water through at all. I am sure this is explainable, but I don't have a clue what is going on. I would appreciate any help in this. thanks.
