Sounds in My Boiler

Only to add; A desfunctional mixing valve does NOT respond to HIGHER input water temps.
Some mix valves have rebuild kits. They install w/ 3 union fittings to allow removal/repair.

I have hard water and my coil has been working for 6 years now with out shut down , I think it could be deposits will try to clean it and see what it does thanks

The above post is my 'solution. A new mixing valve is around 100.00, and the Honeywells, Taco's, Caleffi's, Watts all work well. Probably you have the original watts' small guy' with the knob to adjust, locked in place with corrosion and lack of ever needing to be adjusted, took its toll. Ball valves need to be added if and when you change it out...it will have unions on the 3 ports......cold, hot, mixed and I always use 3/4 in, but you can keep a 1/2" one if you wish. Before this all takes place, you can carefully try to remove the packing nut assembly, however usually they are piped in VERY tight and a wrench or channel locks may not fit. The domestic coil will love the vinegar treatment also. I noticed the 'hard water comment'....you are the victim of build-up for sure, and if you can rig up a loop to pump vinegar through the coil for a half hour, you may be good to go. The mixing valve still needs to come apart, or be replaced.

I don't know how you like the new tech electrical stuff, but Field Controls has a device called Clear Wave that wraps around you water line, is plugged in to a 115 outlet and attacks hard water particles with electromagnetic waves. It is not hokus-pocus, and they claim it is a salt free water conditioner. My wholesaler said after the 'old timers' stop laughing, that they are buying them to install at hundreds of location in NH, Vt Maine and Up State, NY. I have 13 of them installed right now, and the results speak for themselves. Go to http://www.fieldcontrols.com. One thing we know: you are having issues, and it is affecting your home systems, and I think they are about 125 dollars ' Clearwave' It is better suited to a single home, and not apartments, however it has been around for a few years, so time will tell.

Do you know how to cook out a coil? It's not difficult but you need some specialized equipment. A small acid pump, tubing, hose clamps and muriatic acid. Most HVAC supply houses will carry the supplies. Not expensive. Wear eye protection. One more question,....is the FLOW of hot (warm) water decreased? If it is, noticeably, it is likely the coil. Still could be the mixing valve. Is the DHW pipe coming out of the coil before the mixing valve warm or hot when a hot water spigot is running?

If you find you want a new coil, I have one that I will never use and would sell you.

A water softener would be a grade addition once you get the coil/mixer working.

Thanks for all the help you guys got me thinking ,could be trouble !

BigFoot wrote:Thanks for all the help you guys got me thinking ,could be trouble !

For more thought, w/ high mineral domestic water and using a tankless coil the minerals over time reduce the size Inside the pipe coil,
Where when using a Indirect WH, the minerals are only near the outside of pipe's coil and only boiler water is inside that coil.

Went down and took a good look at my water lines ,two years ago my hot water tank went down had it replaced , the guy (I was at Ft Bargg ) moved my lines so that the cold gos in three dir , one to the kitchen sink. and one to the Bath sink taps , and one gos to by pass around mixing valve and through boiler out to mixing valve and into hot water tank, then out of water tank to taps , The water used to go to water tank out to taps and when I was using my boiler I could switch water to boiler only and back to taps ,so now hot water sets in hot water tank and then when taps call for water it comes from hot water tank ,the boiler keeps hot water tank from coming on and heating the water the water , I think the water should go from pump to H/W tank to boiler to mixing valve and then to taps with a bypass straight to taps from H/W heater that would allow just H/W tank to heat water when not using boiler ?

The HOT into mix valve is from where?
And you now still have HW...from electric HW tank, right?

Boiler to mixing valve then out to H/W tank and out of tank to taps My H/W tank is on but not heating water because on the temp from mixing valve, temp in tank stay below heating limit

No circulator from boiler to tank? Interesting......standby losses would be substantial if you did not use much water......especially over long periods of time. If you can get an infrared heat gun from a friend, turn on the hot water tap, and let it run. Go back to the basement and check the piping for temp. Obviously it should read highest where it leaves the boiler for the mixing valve....then the output on the valve should be be 120 to 140 going to the tank. If not, you know that the issue is there. If suitable temps are viewed, the now off electric water heater in not able to warm the volume by the amount of hot water you have passing through it. Maybe you are going to be lucky, and the tank less, and mixing valve are not the issue. There needs to be some means of keeping the water tank at the same temp as water leaving the boiler tank less, and a circ that runs off an aquastat in or on the hot water tank. Temp drops off, circ kicks on. In your case, you would have to have a bronze circ because you are on the potable water side and there is no chance of contamination in the domestic side of your hot water. This is a tough call, and the reason many of us like indirect water heater where the heat exchange requires no tank less unit, and the heat transfer is isolated from the domestic side of things. The indirect merely becomes another zone for your boiler, albeit having thew ability to safely keep you water hot and isolated from the boiler water. I use them both ways, so I see no reason to change but you do need to have a recirc line back through the tank less, or a bypass to the hot water tank. Either way, you have some work to do.

If I could use a beer tap cooling plate as an example........beer is 'warm leaving the keg, it passes through a medium that is very cold......on the other side of that plate, you have transferred the cold from the plate to the beer leaving it. It is now icy cold. Your situation is the same where a 30/40/50 gallon tank of water is not being heated by another source and it is removing the heat from the tank less in the large volume of water in the hot water tank.

If you don't have an infared gun, yuor hand will do just fine. The human hand does NOT like 140 water, so you can carefully place you hand on the piping to see how it feels. Probably you will be screaming 'son of a biscuit' when you feel the results.

I think the water should go from pump to H/W tank to boiler to mixing valve and then to taps this way I should have hot water coming right from the boiler ,I would be using the H/W tank only for a temper tank to warm the water from the well,I could place a bypass with shutoffs that would go straight to taps from H/W heater that would allow just H/W tank to heat water when not using boiler could this work ,when Im using my H/W tank to temper it would have the braker in the off position ,and switch it on when I use the bypass ! if I did this could the coil in the boiler keep up with the use of hot water being call for about how much water will the coil produce to keep the temp up for a shower or running hot water in a sink ? stander coil in a AA130