# Insulted, gear grind



## Coolcanuck (Jan 30, 2012)

Went to start up a boiler today. Boiler was low on water, no pressure so I opened the fill valve and one of the pumps started leaking at a seal. Wet rotor pump. Pulled the motor off to get to the seal and check the rotor. It was in pretty rough looking shape so I removed the pump and brought it to a guy to check it out. Called the property manager and he tells me, I don't mean to insult you but how much do you know about boilers... Tenant told me he has been waiting for heat for 3 weeks


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## Coolcanuck (Jan 30, 2012)

Yup, turns out the motor was hooped when tested, 2000 for rebuild or 3k new. Game, set, match


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Coolcanuck said:


> Yup, turns out the motor was hooped when tested, 2000 for rebuild or 3k new. Game, set, match


Do u really need one that large?? Most circ pump are way oversized for the job ..


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## Coolcanuck (Jan 30, 2012)

rjbphd said:


> Do u really need one that large?? Most circ pump are way oversized for the job ..


Not about to re-invent the wheel. The owners are cheap and property management is as well. There are no design prints with systems up here, what you see is what you get. The building is a fair size and its a primary secondary running through a four way mixing valve and into 2 fin tube boilers. With the amount of work we have, and are behind on, spending an hour and a half to pull a pump and move on to another job is more time effective for me. See the problem, repair it, move on.


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## Catlin987987 (Nov 12, 2010)

Coolcanuck said:


> Not about to re-invent the wheel. The owners are cheap and property management is as well. There are no design prints with systems up here, what you see is what you get. The building is a fair size and its a primary secondary running through a four way mixing valve and into 2 fin tube boilers. With the amount of work we have, and are behind on, spending an hour and a half to pull a pump and move on to another job is more time effective for me. See the problem, repair it, move on.


 No one here is telling you to reinvent the wheel just don't be another lazy plumber. It would be easy enough to ask your pump supplier to size that pump. If it was 18 story high-rise the pump still shouldn't be $3000. If it's a regular three or four story walk up, and piped in primary secondary configuration, The max GPM you need is one per suit, plus your head loss. A lot of people think it's a big calculation but it's not, size a pump based on The second speed she can either speed up or slow down if it's wrong. Assuming a it's for baseboard heating.


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## Coolcanuck (Jan 30, 2012)

Catlin987987 said:


> No one here is telling you to reinvent the wheel just don't be another lazy plumber. It would be easy enough to ask your pump supplier to size that pump. If it was 18 story high-rise the pump still shouldn't be $3000. If it's a regular three or four story walk up, and piped in primary secondary configuration, The max GPM you need is one per suit, plus your head loss. A lot of people think it's a big calculation but it's not, size a pump based on The second speed she can either speed up or slow down if it's wrong. Assuming a it's for baseboard heating.


Markup is quite hefty, pumping double :wink: oh and it's a slab, can't even guess the footage. It's all split up into different bays and offices, I think they might have a fan coil unit as well. They're one office was hot in the spring, zone valve was passing. Instead of repairing someone else went in and shut down the boiler for the summer.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Coolcanuck said:


> Markup is quite hefty, pumping double :wink: oh and it's a slab, can't even guess the footage. It's all split up into different bays and offices, I think they might have a fan coil unit as well. They're one office was hot in the spring, zone valve was passing. Instead of repairing someone else went in and shut down the boiler for the summer.


Suppose all the zone valves are closed except one.... even a small pump would be oversized...


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## Coolcanuck (Jan 30, 2012)

rjbphd said:


> Suppose all the zone valves are closed except one.... even a small pump would be oversized...


Being a service guy there's a lot of things I don't do frequently except for school. Sizing pumps would be one of them. I know how to look at a curve for my head and gpm. I'm quite interested in your guys' point of view on a job like this. How would you check the pump size without going through the building finding zones, knowing spacing, tubing size etc? Would I not need the design prints?


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## MatthewWats (Nov 20, 2014)

What will be the condition when every thing is closed?


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