This will be my fifth season with my LDJ 165000 boiler system. I also heat my domestic water with a sidearm and have a heater in my garage that is rarely ran. The first 3 years I had it plumbed like my dealer told me ( wrong ). The dealer is no longer an LDJ dealer. The line from my boiler went to the heat exchanger in my furnace and then to my sidearm and then thru my garage heater and back to the boiler. All in series.It used an excessive amount of pellets. Last year I separated the sidearm and garage heater off on their own circuit and pump. Water was picked up from the outlet on top of the boiler and returned to the bottom on the opposite side for each circuit. I attempted to hook it up like shown in this picture on LDJ's site but it is not very clear as to how the connections go to the boiler. Every couple of days or if I wanted to run my garage heater I would turn on the pump for that circuit. www.ldjamaizeingheat.com/index.php?optio...;id=32&Itemid=26 Fuel usage was much better but I am still not sure it is plumbed correctly.Just below the zone 1 pump in the picture it says Max Separation 6.....is it inches or feet? I can't tell. Need advice on how to plumb correctly. I plan on replumbing and firing it up this weekend. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

6 inches. You want the water returning to mix with hot boiler water. If too far apart, the water takes the path of least resistance and you are sending cool water back into the hot vessel.

There is a book or two out there that is worth the read. Pumping Away by Dan Holohan. It will show you the correct way to set up your system. There are other books, but this is a must read. You can find this and others at this link.

www.heatinghelp.com/products/Hot-Water-H...for-hydronic-systems

Good luck.

Bronson wrote:


There is no chance that this diagram will ever function better than "poor" or not at all.

Pictures like this by a manufacturer are unforgivable

Good job NOGAS

Bronson, do you have a picture of your setup? I have a feeling you don't have the domestic hot water coil, so you made another loop with another top and bottom port on the boiler? Just currious what you set up looks like. If you don't or can't get a picture, can you describe where and what your zones look like?

Nogas, Thanks for the advice. I ordered the book you recomended. I have attached a couple of pics of my set up. Hopefully I can explain my setup a little better. On each of the top ports of the boiler there is a pump for each loop. One loop goes directly to the heat exchanger in my furnace and returns to the lower port on the opposite side of the boiler.The pump on this loop runs continuosly. The other loop goes to my sidearm at my water heater the through my garage heater and back to the lower port on the opposite side of the boiler. This pump is turned on about once a day or when I want to run my garage heater.

Can you draw out on paper what you got for plumbing, it is hard to tell from a few close up pics where every line goes to and returns. Then scan the paper, and post on here. Somehow we need to see a complete drawing of what you have there......

In the pic of the boiler, the top right line (Red pump) goes to an expansion tank with an air scoop then to the heat exchanger in the furnace. From there it returns directly to the lower left port on the bottom of the boiler. That is the complete circuit. The top left line on the boiler (green pump) goes directly thru the sidearm on my water heater and then thru my garage heater and back to bottom right port of boiler. I will attempt to make a drawing this evening and submit. Thanks for the help.

What controls these pumps? So you are not using a primary loop that runs all the time, and then secondary loops that are controlled by thermostats, for the various loads?

That is what is sounds like to me too. That is where the problem lies.

Here is a drawing of my system. The pump to the furnace runs continuous. The pump for the side arm and garage heater I turn on manually as needed....a pain.