Heating Help

We're having a contest!

Post a photo and tell us about the ugliest heating system you've ever seen. Our judges will pick the winner at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. The winner gets a check for a thousand bucks. Enter as often as you'd like!

Got Ugly?

The water got dizzy going through here...

In the words of Dr. Zachary Smith "oh the pain"

Rick

The check is in the mail...

Nice way to start!

Can you tell us about it. 

Here's one

Multi million dollar home in Old Brookville . We always find the worst installs in the expensive neighborhoods ........

They probably thought it looked good

The lines are nice and straight with lots of right angles. I dont see what is holding it up though. It looks like you could touch it and the whole thing would shake. 

waste oil over wood gravity buffer 6 circulator zones

I inherited this system.... waste oil burner cut into door over extended firebox for 4' logs welded onto bare wet base boiler, with 2" gravity loop into big blue buffer tank behind, and six circulators on extension cords and clock timers hanging above....it's gone now, but a nice little Teledyne Lars still pushes hot water through all the exquistely salvaged, sandblasted and repainted cast-iron baseboard upstairs.

Bob Vennerbeck

It's been gone 3 weeks now...

but I don't think I'll miss it!!!

could have been worse

at least it looks like the LWCO was being blown down!--nbc

Steam boiler ? or hot water boiler

This so called "Heating Contractor" installed this new Weil-McClain steam boiler. I have seen a lot of bad or not properly "steam boilers installation", but this tops them all. After day or 2, the customer calls back and complains that the new boiler "bangs a lot,.. makes a lot nosies", so he decided to fix it he will put an expansion tank to "absorb the banging"

Wow.

Wowy. Wow. Wow.
What did he reduce the boiler risers to?! 1 1/4" ?

Yikes.
Patrick

Bedside Bomb!

I usta sleep beside this thing.  Good thing the wall was a foot and a half thick.  It usta boil all the water out, then shut off on low water, then the feeder would run.  The condensate never actually came back because the returns were plugged.  After it boiled a few boilerfulls up into the mains it would just stop until I completely drained it.  Which way to the "most improved contest"?

Bad piping baaaaaad

These systems are sent to me by either other salespeople or contractors so I don't have a story behind them other than WOW!!!!

Wow! that reminds me of ...

of time I lived in the Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco.

nice

I had no idea Dr. Suess was in the heating biz too.

I admire the ingenuity here

Sweet

This is not solar thermal from the 1980's

I need the thousand dollars for medical and psychiatrist bills I had too pay after seeing this local install of a SHW system (Ithaca). This cost the customer 8k.
I heard about the bad installs in the 80's, but damn! are they this bad!
Michael

Ugly duct work

Rather than shoot myself in the foot and show ugly hot water systems, I'd be more impressed if the $1000 went to the ugliest hot air install.
The future looks bright for hydronics.

Still laughing here Devan

That looks pretty good for a hot air system actually.

Ugly in the Mountains

I offer two different mechanical rooms here, but will submit my personal Ugly Heating winner in my next post. It's amazing how ugly ugly can be ! 

Fil valve & Backflow:

Does any one recognize that it is WRONG to put the back-flow preventer AFTER the fill valve?
That's why Watts now makes "9-11S" combo backflow and fill valves. with a union fitting that takes a hex/allen wrench that is LARGE and most won't have them in their truck. Unless they make a habit of turning them around from their intended locations and make them wrong.

more ugly in colorado

this was one of the most convoluted system I've seen, but maybe not the ugliest -- that's next post. 

Finally, the most depressing, and UGLY

Low ceiling -- 68" -- had to wear a bike helmet to protect my already-damaged brain cells and bald head -- I charge extra in these kind of mechanical rooms !

When ya'll choose this as the winner, I'll donate half to a local charity -- the other half I keep as compensation for the scar tissue on my skull -- fair enough?? 

last photo is 100+ hours later ....... turned out OK.

45 Unit Apartment Building

you think this looks bad? You should have tried to work on these things...

Boilers?

What are they? 

V2 buzz bombs....

That one picture depicts just about every model that Hydrotherm made of the HydroPulse, worlds first and worst condensing boiler.

As soon as I got certified to work on them, I realized I NEVER wanted to sell one, and I didn't (WHEWwww!!)

I have heard of neighbors suing each other for the noise these boilers can generate.

mmmmmMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. (he said with a nasaly tone)

You get it :-) Bull moose in heat...

ME

Bull Moose in Heat Indeed.

So did a bull moose ever do the right thing and try to, ah, consummate with the exhaust and preserve neighborly relations?

Nah, the moose in our area just become smitten with dairy cows.

customer not ready for a conversion yet! circa: 1964

We tried to get the customer to convert to high efficiency gas condensing boiler, we did not have any success.

The Mills boiler

was one of the best of its time, is still made today, and if set up properly is more efficient than most people think. That Carlin looks like a 601 or 701 CRD, a high-speed flame-retention unit.

Not very ugly by my standards.

Look at the header though

not much of a swing joint there. Boiler could use some love and I am betting to drop 2 sections at least. It is amazing how efficiently the Mills boilers run well properly tuned.

wow

Thats an abortion of a outfitt !, i like the delay oil valve on the fuel pump. Pull'n out a old gravity system next week. Original to the farm hse 1930's with a shitty terry burner

Church in Detroit

Greetings!

I am a new member to this site and a new engineer for that matter and I really enjoy reading all the helpful tutorials here. First a short intro about myself, I was music director at an old church in Detroit and left after High School to work on steam, I started with the steam locomotives at the Henry Ford Museum and then became a relief engineer at the school district. This year in January I came back to the old church in Detroit as the music director and boiler operator! And what a task I have had! The steam boiler had a low water condition in October right before I came here (hence my position being created). The boilers (2 big old scotch marine wetbacks) had been running on timers and without an operator or proper water treatment for at least 5 years! The boiler had to be completely retubed and the other... well when I inherited the plant I spent 3 weeks this summer scooping  4 and a half 30 gallon garbage cans worth of scale and debris from the boiler!  Lets not even talk about the scale on the boiler tubes and oxygen pitting from leaving untreated water in them all the time.  In the smokebox there were 14 pigeons, fried, dead. The tubes were caked with carbon buildup and had not been punched in years and tube leaks abound! The boiler room looked like a yard sale with old 45 records, lawnmowers, matresses, garbage... that had been thrown in there. There was little care for the place and my powerhouse was a dump! I filled the trash dumpster 3-4 times housecleaning this summer.

After replacing floats and safety devices and cleaning both boilers, 1 passed inspection (the re tubed one) and the other needs to have all the tubes touchrolled. When the boiler had the low water condition all the insulation paper caught fire and burned, the asbestos elbows were in bad exposed shape and all the valve packings leaked!  There were also several leaks on drip legs and condensate lines. Many bad steam traps throughout the buildings..  Did I mention this system takes care of 8 buildings!! The tunnels were full of loose asbestos, etc. Luckily I found a very generous company to volunteer the abatement project and insurance covered the boiler room.

I have never seen a plant this filthy and in such neglect.. there was no water softener, everything seemed to be broken. I am almost ready to run.. awaiting 4 pump motors for my vacuum pump which was left submerged and ruined all the bearings in it, because someone unplugged a sump pump!

I am hoping to make a difference here where I work as I really care about the place and they just didn't realize the work required to take care of their steam system. I can honestly say If I won the money, I would be able to use it on test kits and books here at work. Enjoy the photos!

Michael Koprowicz
Building Engineer
Holy Redeemer Church
1721 Junction Ave
Detroit, MI 48209
michael_koprowicz@yahoo.com

Church in Detroit

Greetings!

I am a new member to this site and a new engineer for that matter and I really enjoy reading all the helpful tutorials here. First a short intro about myself, I was music director at an old church in Detroit and left after High School to work on steam, I started with the steam locomotives at the Henry Ford Museum and then became a relief engineer at the school district. This year in January I came back to the old church in Detroit as the music director and boiler operator! And what a task I have had! The steam boiler had a low water condition in October right before I came here (hence my position being created). The boilers (2 big old scotch marine wetbacks) had been running on timers and without an operator or proper water treatment for at least 5 years! The boiler had to be completely retubed and the other... well when I inherited the plant I spent 3 weeks this summer scooping  4 and a half 30 gallon garbage cans worth of scale and debris from the boiler!  In the smokebox there were 14 pigeons, fried, dead. The tubes were caked with carbon buildup and had not been punched in years and tube leaks abound! The boiler room looked like a yard sale with old 45 records, lawnmowers, matresses, garbage... that had been thrown in there. There was little care for the place and my powerhouse was a dump! I filled the trash dumpster 3-4 times housecleaning this summer.

After replacing floats and safety devices and cleaning both boilers, 1 passed inspection (the re tubed one) and the other needs to have all the tubes touchrolled. When the boiler had the low water condition all the insulation paper caught fire and burned, the asbestos elbows were in bad exposed shape and all the valve packings leaked!  There were also several leaks on drip legs and condensate lines. Should I mention that several condesate lines coming from the drip legs and several places in my plant use 1/2 welded pipe. That's right, some genius decided to weld 1/2 pipe all over so that I can't even replace parts of it, but rather need to replumb the whole thing. My favorite is the 1/2 lines with traps that connect to the top of my drip legs... so in other words, they always got water in them, and there were connections at the bottom, but they welded caps to those so you can't even drain them! ....Many bad steam traps throughout the buildings..  Did I mention this system takes care of 8 buildings!! The tunnels were full of loose asbestos, etc. Luckily I found a very generous company to volunteer the abatement project and insurance covered the boiler room.

I have never seen a plant this filthy and in such neglect.. there was no water softener, everything seemed to be broken. I am almost ready to run.. awaiting 4 pump motors for my vacuum pump which was left submerged and ruined all the bearings in it, because someone unplugged a sump pump!

I am hoping to make a difference here where I work as I really care about the place and they just didn't realize the work required to take care of their steam system. I can honestly say If I won the money, I would be able to use it on test kits and books here at work. Enjoy the photos!

Michael Koprowicz
Building Engineer
Holy Redeemer Church
1721 Junction Ave
Detroit, MI 48209
michael_koprowicz@yahoo.com

Hydronic Heating

ugly manifold for a hydronic heating slab heating job 

High Standards

High standards mdsons! Good to see, but I don't think you're winning this one haha.

Customer ask if it could be fixed

Would you believe the customer asked if we could fix it. This thing looks like it came off the Andrea Doria.

Yes I would believe it

My father would ask the customer what their religion was, then he would say the needed the corresponding religious figure to either perform a miracle or give it a proper funeral.

lets try again

this photo did not go the first time

Was this running?

Really.

Drowned??

Hi Sal, that boiler looks like it was submerged!!

Here's my entry

Provo, UT. Guy was very proud of his install. Not one unit had heat when I got there, but the boilers were running.....

Tim, you have a potentially deadly situation there....

That right hand boiler has two draft relief hoods on it, and it is only supposed to have one. Toss the bell shaped hood. There is another one below it.

ME

Draft hoods

That was part of the estimate I provided a year or more ago and never heard back. I pointed it out on my first trip, and the owner wanted laars to chime in on warranty status due to mispiping and laars pointed that out again. I think they went after the installer and I never heard back on my proposal. Good eye!

I hope you covered your butt in paper...

If more than one of us saw it, and identified it as hazard, it IS a hazard.

If you didn't get acknowledgement of this condition in writing and the required signature from the owner, it might be worthwhile to get the local utility involved. You need a definite point of disconnect as it pertains to liability...

ME

job date

Just went back and looked at picture dates. 10/07. Not sure how I would even pull that address up again. I am glad we did get Laars involved, but that was the last of it for me anyways. Good thought. I had no idea it was so long ago that I looked at this one. 

Bad commercial install

This is in a commercial shopping mall. There is a hot water tank on the far left, a Smith 28-8 and a Laars 2.5 million that we shutdown. Notice the vents going downfrom the boilers. Also the great pump connections. Turbulance? The fresh air make-up fan was not even operating. The Laars would fill the boiler room with combustion gases.

Henry

Pump

Henry, is that a belt driven pump in your first pic?

Ever wonder about CO

Here is another one that we shutdown. It is a large old building with two heat sources, one hot air (the one with the barometric some 20 feet away) and the other an old Daisey that someone rerouted its vent some 30 feet into another chimney and then boxed in. The building is own by an architect firm!

Pump

Yup. it is a Darling.
I will have more when I get some spare time. I was just going through my photo files when I saw these.

Henry

Upgrade Needed

It is amazing how much work is out there, just sitting to be done.

Ugly and dangerous

Got a service call  to  "just relight the pilot"
Sorry, not by me

OMG!

wow

I got a good chance at this one.

I used to take my camera on my "rounds".  I will post the photo after I find it.

I didn't have my camera the one day that I witnessed a renovation contractor move the standard tank-type water heater to the outside wall, near to the clothes washer--where it wouldn't be in the new walkway.  As you can imagine, the temptation to vent the water heater into the operational dryer vent was overwhelming.......................... Thankfully, they were not "overcome".

Mike

The Terminator!!

I hope anyone visiting the next door neighbor doesn't have to stand on the steps too long when the heat is on!!

Dirty Job found in basment

Worth a 1000 words!  

new system

installed in a new house

New System

Wow, I wonder if those risers upstream of the pumps were originally installed vertically? and then they just "tipped" over.

your photo brings to mind this little standard:

For Want of a Nail

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

nice boilers

.

Redneck heating!

Farm shop I was asked to add a LP boiler to the existing corn pellet boiler.  Farm hand said he needed to add the mixing pump to mix the water so the boiler wouldn't condensate. Well pump to move the water through the in-floor and water bottle for water reservoir. There is another that serves as the "pressure tank" for the house loop! 

Redneck heating!

Farm shop I was asked to add a LP boiler to the existing corn pellet boiler.  Farm hand said he needed to add the mixing pump to mix the water so the boiler wouldn't condensate. Well pump to move the water through the in-floor and water bottle for water reservoir. There is another that serves as the "pressure tank" for the house loop! 

Well, the height of the water is almost above the highest radiation

so it works!
Not exactly up to code, but it works.  How is that irrigation pump holding up? 
I know I would have congratulated this guy for his ingenuity.
This is the stuff that makes me smile....

Farmer ingenuity...

I envy these guys for their ability to understand EVERY thing. When their combine breaks down, they don't call AAA. They break out the tools and fix it themselves.

They have to have a worldly knowledge of how everything works. Sometimes the end results look funky, but bottom line, IT WORKS!

And where would we be without them?

Hungry!

ME

I've been an engineer for 35 years and...

worked at four different companies.  During that time, the best engineers I've met all grew up on farms.  :-)

To their credit, the contractor did not cut away the Differential Loop and associated piping.

However, the decision not to head for the exits on this oil to gas conversion haunted them.
It did give me a great opportunity to photograph the Differential Loop while still installed.
In the battle between boiler installers and physics, physics takes the day.

More bad steam piping

Being that I am in the photo vault anyway

How about some manufacturer's parts that we can't replace any longer?

My favorite, the vent damper.
The other photo "imported steel?"

And this one which defies explanation,

And seemingly, gravity.
And don't give me that "unsafe" lecture--this is problem solving at its best.

Please tell me that...

...the cassette player was cued to Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap by AC/DC.

yes, that was what was on the radio

followed by In-a-gadda-da-vida, Comfortably Numb, Born in the USA,  and Kashmir.  The radio was turned off half way through "Defying Gravity" (Musical "Wicked"). 
Are people finding ASU for steam service with the recent cold snap?

MR

Yes they are!

but that particular Gordan is not he who is my partner.

Well,

at least it's got a regulation size floor drain.  Hey, you two, find a hardhat, and get over here quick, pour this corner first, before the floor joist breaks. 

Passed inspection....then died after we moved in. Yay!

We were new to steam heat when we bought the place. Inspector said that all boilers start to look like hell after a while, but continue to function just fine. Ummm, not ours.
So we had to have it replaced -- in December -- and all's well. The guy did some kooky things when installing -- like securing some pipes with spare pipe and zip ties.... and putting a valve up against a hot pipe. We kindly asked him to come back.
Thanks to all the help on this site and Dan's book, this not-too-handy guy has been able to tweak a few things on his own.

Got Steam?

Why anyone can do it! Pass me a napkin and I'll sketch it out for you.Two new forced hot water zones off your existing steam system for your new addition. The stock list is on the back. Good luck son! This was one of the worse I've seen, a terrible waste of a Super Store, thank goodness the piping was nice...Need less to say I couldn't tear this out fast enough!

Last Leg Boiler

I work on the control systems of large boilers. But this one, "Takes the Cake"!!! They actually had to replace the tube sheets and all tubes to the tune of $85,000+. Names not only changed but DELETED because of stupidity!!!

Last Leg Boiler

I work on the control systems of large boilers. But this one, "Takes the Cake"!!! They actually had to replace the tube sheets and all tubes to the tune of $85,000+. Names not only changed but DELETED because of stupidity!!!

Dangerous Gas Line

This boiler went under water, I guess?
How long will it last?

Genius Flange Repair

I admire the ingenuity...

I think I had a similar repair on my 63 Chevy Belair

the rust on that car was unreal.  6 cylinder with a two-speed trans I think.  You could stomp on the gas, the car would heave and make a great roar, and about 30 seconds later you were going about 30 mph faster. 
A camera is a valuable thing on service calls--congrats on your pic.

Viessmann Vitodens 100... As seen in Saskatchewan

Viessmann makes a great boiler...  but it can turn not so great if installed by the wrong guy.  This boiler still doesn't run properly to this day.  I shouldn't get into full detail on the on goings of it.. lol.  And take a close look at how the piping was hung to the wall....  you'll see.  I do not take credit for this install.  I did work at the company (but i do not work there anymore)  where it happened...  not my proudest days as a plumber.

Vitodens 100:

Simply stunning.
I need to ask though, what is the function of the poly sheeting on the walls behind that modern art museum piece?
I true plumbing faux Picasso piece.

lol,

That poly in the back was just all over the place, the contractor never took good care to make the site look good, nor did the guy who installed this boiler.

The Can Man

We Found this guy on the other side of the basement on a boiler installation project! It is a pellet stove with a garbage can mounted on top and flex duct cut into the garbage can! There is a blower assembly out of a furnace 1/2 HP! Probly why he needed the extra weight on top. I am also very fond of the fan limit switch!
As much as we would like to pin this on our competition, this was most likely the previous homeowners creation!
Chad
Twin Ports Custom Climate

We can stop the competion now!

This made me laugh harder than the 5 gallon bucket sewer pit from a previous post!
Shame we can't recycle foam padding or other formidable home waste to heat or keep houses comfortable with.

The Can Man Boiler

This is the boiler we removed from the same house as the Can Man above! The boiler was rusted out and sitting on the cast iron sections - But the relief valve setup / repair is priceless. BOOOOOOOM????
Chad
Twin Ports Custom Climate

Can we go for three

So......       What do you think would have happened if that second valve had relieved or started to drip?  Third one in its outlet port? I wonder if the first valve would even open under pressure

Let's make sure the flue gases are cool

I don't even know how you ever get to this point. Someone must have been running a special on 6" pipe.

It forgot my picture

It dropped my picture.

Sale on flue pipe

It's the poor man's economizer.    "But it gets all that wasted heat back into the garage".  That same "wasted" heat that keeps the gas from condensing and destroying everything?  "Yeah, that's the stuff ".   At work, I was asked about a heat recovery setup for the big gas burning drying oven, which is currently vented directly up to the roof.  "Can't you just run a whole bunch of flue pipe all over the room before going out the roof?"  You can guess my answer.

Our Ugly Dragon

Our dragon in the basement may be ugly, but he heated this home for over 100 years (first by coal, then by gas).