For those heating DHW with a sidearm

[BoilerMan]

Ok, first off Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm curious as to whay type of sidearms anyone is useing for DHW. This setup is not for me, but I have a few jobs that have old Bock oil water heaters that are failing (a lot of those up here some 20+ YO) My expierence leads me to believe that electric water heating is the way to go in the summer, and oil/wood in the winter......so an indirect. I've touted the "best of both worlds for awhile" as an electric with a bronze circulator going through a tankless coil. This poor man's indirect is heated by oil in winter and electric in the summer. Now, I'm looking at a job with a Buderus and no tankless coil, so I am going to use a sidearm, but there are two types out there. One is basically a pipe in a pipe 48" tall, and the other is multiple smaller pipes in a single pipe, shorter but claiming more surface area. I'm concerned about long term scale, and establishing a good thermosyphon. Thinking the tall simple one would work better, but looking for some real-world expierence, preferrably long term setups and their charictoristics. Thanks in advance

TS

 

[maple1]

I've got the shorter one with multiple tubes inside.

The plumbing is currently dismantled as I'm re-doing it to lower it, so can't comment yet on how good it does. I did have it plumbed in for a while with boiler water going hrough the A side (a month?), and it is accumulating some of that nice dark 'boiler scum' on the inner tubes. Not sure it's a concern? I'm waiting for the timing to be right here to turn the hot water off & drain my electric tank some so I can get it back in & working - then I'm going to thermometer the bejeebers out of it to see how good it works.

Looking back and if I had the budget, I think I might try to find a decent indirect tank, that you could plumb the wood boiler to, and that had electric elements inside for periods when the wood fire wasn't going.

Maybe.

 

[woodsmaster]

I have the long type with a pipe in a pipe. I've run it two years now and havn't cleaned it yet.

 

[goodwood]

Ok, first off Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm curious as to whay type of sidearms anyone is useing for DHW. This setup is not for me, but I have a few jobs that have old Bock oil water heaters that are failing (a lot of those up here some 20+ YO) My expierence leads me to believe that electric water heating is the way to go in the summer, and oil/wood in the winter......so an indirect. I've touted the "best of both worlds for awhile" as an electric with a bronze circulator going through a tankless coil. This poor man's indirect is heated by oil in winter and electric in the summer. Now, I'm looking at a job with a Buderus and no tankless coil, so I am going to use a sidearm, but there are two types out there. One is basically a pipe in a pipe 48" tall, and the other is multiple smaller pipes in a single pipe, shorter but claiming more surface area. I'm concerned about long term scale, and establishing a good thermosyphon. Thinking the tall simple one would work better, but looking for some real-world expierence, preferrably long term setups and their charictoristics. Thanks in advance

TS

 

[goodwood]

i'm using the short one with multiple tubes,I back flush the tubes once a month, i've had it about 1year , works great so far

 

[maple1]

This is a timely thread - I've decided while mine's un-plumbed to re-plumb it to allow for easy back flushing. Just need to pick up a few more parts before I put things together. Thanks!

 

[2.beans]

I built my own SideArm for the direct hot water in my shop. About 2 feet long pipe inside of the pipe. I've had it in service for probably four years and haven't done anything to it works great.

 

[BoilerMan]

This is great guys, thanks for the info. I think I'm going with the long one, as it's type K and is not made in China as the others are. I was thinking of making my own as well with just some type L.

TS

 

[woodsmaster]

This is great guys, thanks for the info. I think I'm going with the long one, as it's type K and is not made in China as the others are. I was thinking of making my own as well with just some type L.

TS

The ones you buy have a swirl patern on the outside of the inside pipe for better heat transfer. You may also want to circulate your DHW if you have a large demand, It greatly increases the recovery time.

 

[heaterman]

We always pump both sides and control them with an aquastat. More $$ but much higher output with regulated temperature.

 

[woodsmaster]

I only pump the boiler side on mine. With a family of 5 if the boiler water is 150 or higher we have plenty of hot water. If it falls below that we may run out of hot water If we are using a lot of it. If you time your fire when it's bath and laundry time it works really good. I controll temp out of water heater with a mixing valve. I agree that heatermans way would be best unless there are only one or two people living in the house, the the extra circ. wouldn,t be needed at all. When I'm the only one here I can run my wter down to 110 F but I have panel rads for heat..

 

[Curly]

I always carry a Ruger LC9 when I'm heating.

 

[BoilerMan]

I'm a Mossburg and Beretta man myself. LOL! But thats not just when heating.

TS