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I only ask cause generally in situations where a gas or oil fired water heater is put into a utility style room or any enclosed room, the room get/stays warm/ hot due to a lack of air for combustion which may not be your situation but if it is down the line it can lead to trouble such as as soot production or issues with operation of equipment. I personally Recommend no matter what situation annually having gas and oil water heater systems checked and combustion efficiency tested.
Yeah, I was a little worried about that. The guy I bought mine from seemed fairly reputable, and I tested it (especially the welds) with hydrogen peroxide and salt, and didn't get any corrosion, so hopefully it will last. I actually had a really hard time finding a titanium heat exchanger made in the US in a reasonable size that is not custom made. All I found was Mexico and China. Do you know of a domestic source for them?You might want to be careful with those cheap titanium heatexchanges on ebay . most of the time they are not a good grade of ti or they are not all ti .
If a pex system is carefully designed I’m sure it could be just as low a risk- I would just want to make sure all connections were made outside the sump. And have daily flushing like you do. I still like the compactness of the ti heat exchanger.I am using the pex method for heating my 1600 gallon system with a ranco temp controller and a bronze re-circulation pump and my Apex acting as a backup over-temp controller. My radiant heating system runs everyday at least once even during the summer months so I am not really concerned about stagnant water in the loop but if it only ran a couple of times a week I would definitely have a concern about bacteria. Cost wise I was between $300-$400 for the pex system I installed largely because of the cost on the bronze re-circulation pump and the Ranco controller. I agree that using a hot water heater on larger tanks is more efficient and safer than using electric heaters.
I think the failure risk is on par with a pex system which is minimal with backup temp controllers and good plumbing connections.
What is your temperature delta between the water entering the heat ex-changer vs leaving the heat ex-changer when you use this method for heating?
A hot water heater could definitely be used only to heat a tank (I know of several people who use setups like this), but you would probably want to use a on demand heater, as the cost of having a tank hw heater idle is significantVery cool! Well thought out and useful.
Curious. Could a hot water heater be used solely for this? What if it wasn’t hooked up to the house and used only as a heater for a tank?
In this case Terance I would add the exchanger into the loop and use the pump and valve on your aquarium water side. That is, you exchanger is always hot and you vary the water flow through the exchanger.If I already have a hot water circulating system on my home gas water heating system, my guess is all I need to do is have this exchanger plumbed in on some section of the heating loop (obviously nearest my sump in my fish cave thats under the house) along with the ball valve. I would likely also add one of our flow meters on both the aquarium and the hot water side. I would probably use a pump for circulating the aquarium water through this as opposed to the return. I think it will make things simpler in my particular case. Gotta get the parts ordered and then the time - winter is here!
Well that heat exchanger is probably a better way to go- no worries about detritus buildup in the heat exchanger affecting return pump flow. how come I couldn’t find that when I was looking- could have saved $100. How is the coil holding up?I also use a gas water heater, with electric heaters as backup. I use an in sump Titanium coil (1/3HP). My setup as follows.
Hardware:
Controls:
- Apex Controller
- In sump Ti coil. (pictured below)
- STC-1000 Temperature Controller.
- Taco 007-SF5 Stainless Pump (w/valves)
- Misc. pex valves, fittings, and stainless swagelock adaptors.
Side Note. I take the hot water from our kitchen sink, but return the hot water directly to the water heater. Anytime the recirculating pump turns on, we have instant hot water at our kitchen sink and dishwasher. No basement and all of the pex tubing is run in the crawlspace from tank to kitchen/garage.
- Temperature controller used to as backup. It will cut power to the recirculating pump when it exceeds the temp setpoint. Relay is wired in series with the pump. Controller is never powered off.
- Apex controls the recirculating pump. After 0.1F increase in temperature, the recirculating pump shuts off. The pump needs ~2.5mins to heat the water 0.1F. After the pump shuts off, my temp continues to increase 0.8F. This is a function of my tank volume (~140g), coil size, and ambient temperature.
- The pump needs to stay off for minimum of 30mins before turned on again (Apex)
- The temp needs to be below setpoint for 1min before turning on the pump (Apex)
- Turn the pump on 2x/day for 1min to circulate water. After 1min, the hot water has not reached the Ti coil yet. This prevents stagnant water when not used during the summer. I do not purge the system, but have fittings installed if necessary.
- Misc. overtemp/undertemp emails & text message alerts (Apex)
View attachment 623282
If a pex system is carefully designed I’m sure it could be just as low a risk- I would just want to make sure all connections were made outside the sump. And have daily flushing like you do. I still like the compactness of the ti heat exchanger.
I didn’t really measure delta accurately, as I realized as I was taking it that I needed flow rate to do anything with it, but it may be around 2 degrees F
Well that heat exchanger is probably a better way to go- no worries about detritus buildup in the heat exchanger affecting return pump flow. how come I couldn’t find that when I was looking- could have saved $100. How is the coil holding up?
so maybe not better, but definitely a good in sump alternative and definitely cheaperVisually coil looks same as received. It was pressurize when I received it. I also pressurized to 100psi and let it sit overnight to verify all welds were okay. The risk is the swagelock tubing adaptors (tube --> NPT --> Pex) are directly over my sump. Any leaks and it drips into the sump. Thankfully, I have had no issues. After a few temp cycles, I snugged the fittings again just to make sure. I use the Pro Pex system, so no metal crimp rings and foolproof to install. The temp probes are also in the same compartment as the heat exchanger coil. The tank temperature probably trends much slower. Apex chart below.
View attachment 623309
Visually coil looks same as received. It was pressurize when I received it. I also pressurized to 100psi and let it sit overnight to verify all welds were okay. The risk is the swagelock tubing adaptors (tube --> NPT --> Pex) are directly over my sump. Any leaks and it drips into the sump. Thankfully, I have had no issues. After a few temp cycles, I snugged the fittings again just to make sure. I use the Pro Pex system, so no metal crimp rings and foolproof to install. The temp probes are also in the same compartment as the heat exchanger coil. The tank temperature probably trends much slower. Apex chart below.
View attachment 623309