Hi,

I currently have a forced hot water heating system using some Slant/Fin 1/2 inch baseboard heaters. They are damaged and were not putting out enough heat on very cold days even when they were fine. The boiler is keeping up, doesn't run all the time even though the circulator is running but the rooms never get up to heat when it's crazy cold out. (fully insulated house)

My thought is to upgrade the baseboards to some 3/4 inch Slant/Fin 80 Hydronic baseboards.

3 questions:
- Am i OK just adding some 1/2 to 3/4 converters and installing the 80's in place of the old units?
-I just want to replace the baseboards in one very large room, the others are fine. (its a single loop) Is having two different type/size baseboards an issue?
- Is there a better alternative to the Slant/Fin 80's in the same price range?

Thanks mucho!

G

Just replacing the 1/2" units with 3/4" won't help, unless you upsize the piping as well. You probably need to do a room by room heat calculation to see how many BTU's you need. I think by splitting into 2 zones or at least into 2 loops you would see a big increase in the output of the heaters.

What's the hi-limit on the boiler set to?

He implied the boiler is cycling, so it has enough temperature. It is just not getting into that one room.

Not if he has the hi-limit set to , like 150. He might as well get as much as he can out of what he has, for the time being.

if, repeat if, you upsize the fin tube use ECCENTRIC couplings

install 'flat side up' to eliminate the potential for the fin tube unit becoming an 'air pocket'



(pic is oriented opposite of the way you want to install)

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638



Edited 1 times.

What temperature you have the boiler set at??

The boiler was set to 180. Turned it up to 220.

Thanks to all for your replies.



Edited 1 times.

Did some more reading and turned it down to 200. Still high from what I've read but it might help the house stay a little warmer for now, gonna be way below 0 windchills around here tonight.

Will turn it back down when it starts getting warmer.

I'd spend the few extra bucks and put high output baseboards in. Ideally, as said earlier, you should do a heatloss room by room, to know exactly how much baseboard you need. SlantFin actually has a free download of a heat loss program, you can get online. If you're interested, let me know. Is your system monoflo ?



Edited 2 times.

Water over 212 under pressure becomes a superheated liquid with very very high stored potential energy.

The latent heat of superheated water is in excess of 970 btu per pound.

Should the pressurized vessel burst or rupture said superheated liquid will FLASH into steam and expand by a factor of 1,700 releasing said potential energy.

BOOM

NEVER, NEVER set a boiler control higher than 200

160-180 is the accepted safe standard

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

160 may be adequate to heat your home in south carolina but on cape ann my high limit is set at 205 from mid decemember to mid februrary. this year it is later than mid februrary.
in normal cold weather i set my high limit to 180. in warmer weather i set it to 160 for domestic hot water making.
anyway, if as you say it is catostrophically dangerous to set you high limit above 180, tell me why boiler manufacturers send their boilers with controls that will adjust beyond your apocolyptic setting?
in any case 160 will not warm a home around here when the outside temperatures are hovering around zero....

What is the best reasonably priced high output baseboard for 1/2 inch pipe? I'm limited to the footprint of the baseboard currently in the house and adding a loop is cost prohibitive.

packy,



YOU know what you are doing




ps. I have a central forced air heat pump - In NY I once had a one pipe 'vacu-vent' system which actually worked!

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

There are a few (very few) steam pros around, that can still apply and keep vapor/vac systems going. They are Cadillacs of steam heat in the hands of a true pro.

don't know if I still could

.... once upon a time in a land far far away

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

i think that the baseboard heater manufacturers compete price wise with the standard variety of heaters. but when it comes to the high output, taller variety they all charge too much.
one point, the pipe sticking out of the floor for regular baseboard is 1/2 or 3/4 inch closer to the wall than the high output.
i would use 3/4 x 1/2 copper 90's on the ends and roll the 90's back towards the wall and use 1/2 inch street 45's. you will have room to play around because the high output heater will be at least 2 inches taller.

There is plenty or room for higher baseboard units.