Quote:
Originally Posted by irman
A very easy way to eliminate that danger...
Add a premixing valve system right on top of the heater
Set the heater to 140 degrees.
The pre-mixer will reduce the water temp to 120 degrees by adding cold water.
The result, no scalding, and more hot water available.
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I had a combined hydronic heating/hot water system for several years. It had two persistent problems: first, the vent valve that purged air from the heating loop tended to need replacement every other season; listening to the heating pipes burble and cluck at the start of a heating season told me I had to do it again.
Second... since the water-chamber heating had to be kept quite high, a mixing/tempering valve was essential to avoid serious scalding issues.
They are crap. All of them. I had to have the valve replaced three times (and I suspect my ex has had it replaced at least twice more since) and it never maintained a consistent mix temp. At least once I was able to use a repair kit, replacing just the screw-in guts, but twice the whole body was faulty and had to be unsoldered/resoldered back into place.
I would be very leery of having or modifying a home hot water system so that it depends on a mixing valve. Better to increase the heater size and set the temp at a reasonable level. Or use anti-scald faucets in the bathrooms, which do seem to work consistently and can be much more easily adjusted.
("Had to have replaced" - among other things, the valve was in a tangle of copper beyond my confidence in my sweating skills, especially given the potential disaster of a basement water leak.)
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