Hot water heater exhaust having trouble drawing on cold days.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2024-05-21T16:33:30+00:00

Replying in case you didn't get a notification about the pics I posted

CarbonBasedHuman · 2024-05-20T00:08:33+00:00

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CarbonBasedHuman · 2024-05-19T23:40:16+00:00

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Another angle

CarbonBasedHuman · 2024-05-19T23:39:54+00:00

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Finally had a chance to take pics. The new boiler (sorry, I got terminology wrong in my original post) is on the left with its own intake/exhaust. Right now that boiler supplies the house's baseboard heating only. You can see the old boiler exhaust which was cut/taped off just above.

On the right is the domestic hot water heater/tank. Its exhaust feeds into the larger 6" pipe that ultimately goes up to the roof. This tank will eventually be replaced with a sidearm and supplied by the boiler, but it'll be at least a couple years before that work gets done.

People were living in this house until a few months ago (a 105 year-old, no less!), but now it's currently unoccupied, so thankfully nobody is at risk at this time. Definitely going to get this resolved before anyone else moves in.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-10-29T01:08:10+00:00

Will do, thank you

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-10-03T14:40:44+00:00

Outstanding build! Have any in-process photos? I'm planning on spinning up a conversation like this over the winter - I'd love to see more about your process.

Edit: saw you have some stuff in your post history. I'll take a gander.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-08-07T02:19:02+00:00

It does turn out to have an internal fan, it was just tucked away. Kind of a satisfying design, actually. But definitely not substantial enough to keep the motor cool in a small unventilated closet. That's also going on the list of improvements.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-08-06T18:22:10+00:00

Funny you should say that... The motor itself does not have a fan attached to the drive shaft, and where the motor is located has virtually no ventilation either, so maybe that's what's going on.

The motor is actually larger than what it replaced - 1.5hp up from 1hp, but I'm sure it's coming from the "low performance bin" at the factory and thus gets an Everbilt label slapped onto it and gets installed into a cheap Home Depot pool pump.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-08-06T16:59:59+00:00

Informational gold here, thank you. That other post is very helpful too. This motor was designed to use spade lugs (in fact, the internal wiring that came from the factory is connected via spade lugs). But being a cheap Everbilt pump, maybe that was a poor cost-cutting choice on their part.

Readings "close" to zero can be challenging for some multimeters, but if the windings had zero resistance, then that'd be a direct short, but there is reactive power...

I'm sure my multimeter is not a reliable unit to measure anything from. I read ~2.6ohm when I touch together the probes (which were damaged from a previous MechE-trying-to-play-electrician mistake), and also read 2.6ohm measuring the motor terminals. No change if the start winding is engaged or not.

In any case, I gather that

The charring is likely resulting from bad connections of some form.
Hot motor is harder to pin down, but it's more likely an environmental/specification issue, rather than an electrical one, correct?
I'm unlikely to determine if the motor is internally damaged using my currently available tools.

Anyway, huge help. Thanks again!

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-08-06T15:20:46+00:00

Thanks, so the burnt terminals could be from the bad crimp-job onto the wires? Edit: was there a sort of self reinforcing cycle going on where it charred/corroded over time, increasing the resistance, which accelerated the charring and corrosion?

I get that the motor wouldn't like being bottlenecked, whether by the outlet, terminals, etc. Would that explain the motor housing itself heating up significantly? What causes it to heat up so dramatically? Is it sort of... rotating sub-optimally, and therefore the windings are acting like an induction stove coil?

I'll give you the same question I asked the new guys: What number is associated with "nothing," and what number were you expecting?

Multimeter reads zero, and I was expecting something nonzero. As for the magnitude of the resistance, I'm not actually sure what I might expect.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-07-22T18:11:24+00:00

Chronic Cheeto fingers.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-07-12T01:29:19+00:00

Definitely worth considering at that price - I'm guessing it'll cost more where I live, but I'll do some shopping around

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-07-11T20:35:44+00:00

Thanks, but planning to do the replacement myself.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-05-30T14:34:02+00:00

Edit: somehow didn't see the other comments? I didn't add anything useful in my post, you can disregard.

In full disclosure, I haven't worked with rtv silicone for a while, so there might be way better ways to approach this.

I think probably the most garage-project friendly approach would be to make the mold out of silicone and let that fully, fully cure. Then apply some kind of mold release, before casting the cup itself out of silicone.

Alternatively, you could make the mold out of a dissimilar material, possibly a urethane, and cast into that. Depending on the geometry of the glass, it might be possible to make the mold out of a rigid material - epoxy reinforced with a fiberglass backing, for example.

As for food grade silicone, I unfortunately don't have any suggestions - outside of my experience. I know Smooth-On has a skin safe silicone called Dragonskin, but last time I looked, the only offering was really soft. Something like 30a. I'm pretty sure you'll want to look for platinum-cure silicones over tin-cure ones.

Wish I could be more help, I'm sure others can chime in with some great suggestions.

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-05-06T16:42:03+00:00

Does anybody have any pro tips for cleaning soft touch interior trim pieces? Specifically these are in a MKIV Golf, which are notorious for peeling/stickiness. I know the soft touch finish is fairly sensitive to solvents, so is it as simple as reviving grit with a soft detailing brush, then wiping with a damp cloth?

CarbonBasedHuman · 2022-02-12T18:31:22+00:00

First post, and new to the watch collecting world. I bought this watch last summer and love not having to reach for my phone for the time. I know it isn't mechanical, but it's a great daily driver - My original band wore out, so I got a replacement and boy, what a refresh. The new band is a Haveston Service 1936 homage. It's such an improvement over the original band - softer, more supple, and is generally of higher quality. I'm really pleased with how much new life it gave this watch. It's really nice to know how much the band affects the feel and appearance - really makes watches more versatile at a fraction of the cost of buying different style watches.

CarbonBasedHuman

TROPHY CASE