Hi all,

I've posted before about this. I have an indirect solar water heater in
my basement, it appears to be basically a Rheem electric water heater
fitted with a coil of copper tubing around the tank which has an
antifreeze fluid circulated through it by means of an electric pump.
It's toast. It's 20 years old, rusty, and leaking. I've searched
online and it appears that the only product currently available is one
single model of tank (from various suppliers) which runs about $1000.

Question: Could I simply purchase a new electric tank of approximately
the same size, disassemble it, reuse the existing copper coil, and
reassemble? There appears to be no issues with the antifreeze/heat
exchange fluid piping, but the water tank itself is done for. I realize
that if I were to do this that there would be no warranty, but for the
$700 plus price difference, I could live with that.

Does this seem feasible, and has anyone done this before?

thanks,

nate

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On Jun 14, 6:33?pm, Nate Nagel wrote:
Hi all,

I've posted before about this. I have an indirect solar water heater in
my basement, it appears to be basically a Rheem electric water heater
fitted with a coil of copper tubing around the tank which has an
antifreeze fluid circulated through it by means of an electric pump.
It's toast. It's 20 years old, rusty, and leaking. I've searched
online and it appears that the only product currently available is one
single model of tank (from various suppliers) which runs about $1000.

Question: Could I simply purchase a new electric tank of approximately
the same size, disassemble it, reuse the existing copper coil, and
reassemble? There appears to be no issues with the antifreeze/heat
exchange fluid piping, but the water tank itself is done for. I realize
that if I were to do this that there would be no warranty, but for the
$700 plus price difference, I could live with that.

Does this seem feasible, and has anyone done this before?

thanks,

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.http://members.cox.net/njnagel

how will you get the copper coil inside the tank?

wrote:
On Jun 14, 6:33?pm, Nate Nagel wrote:

Hi all,

I've posted before about this. I have an indirect solar water heater in
my basement, it appears to be basically a Rheem electric water heater
fitted with a coil of copper tubing around the tank which has an
antifreeze fluid circulated through it by means of an electric pump.
It's toast. It's 20 years old, rusty, and leaking. I've searched
online and it appears that the only product currently available is one
single model of tank (from various suppliers) which runs about $1000.

Question: Could I simply purchase a new electric tank of approximately
the same size, disassemble it, reuse the existing copper coil, and
reassemble? There appears to be no issues with the antifreeze/heat
exchange fluid piping, but the water tank itself is done for. I realize
that if I were to do this that there would be no warranty, but for the
$700 plus price difference, I could live with that.

Does this seem feasible, and has anyone done this before?

thanks,

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.http://members.cox.net/njnagel


how will you get the copper coil inside the tank?


As I understand it, it's not actually inside the tank, but wrapped
around the tank but inside the outer sheetmetal shell in a long spiral.
Of course, I can't state this with 100% certainty as I haven't removed
it and cut it apart yet.

As an aside, but a related one - how does one "charge" the heat transfer
fluid? It appears to be pressurized to about 20 PSI.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:33:27 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

Hi all,

I've posted before about this. I have an indirect solar water heater in
my basement,

If it's in the basement, it must really be indirect.

I tried having a hydrogen fusion reaction in my basement, and it made
even my first floor too hot to live in.

it appears to be basically a Rheem electric water heater
fitted with a coil of copper tubing around the tank which has an

A standard water heater, with 2 inches of insulation between the tank
and the outside, where the copper coil is? If that's it, I would
think it heats the basement a lot mor than the water.

antifreeze fluid circulated through it by means of an electric pump.
It's toast. It's 20 years old, rusty, and leaking. I've searched
online and it appears that the only product currently available is one
single model of tank (from various suppliers) which runs about $1000.

Could you post a url for that, so we have a better idea of what you
are talking about?

Question: Could I simply purchase a new electric tank of approximately
the same size, disassemble it,

In what way are you going to disassemble it? Take off the top and
slide the coils down where the insulation is now? Maybe, although you
wouldn't have much insulation then for that part of the tank.

reuse the existing copper coil, and
reassemble? There appears to be no issues with the antifreeze/heat
exchange fluid piping, but the water tank itself is done for. I realize
that if I were to do this that there would be no warranty, but for the
$700 plus price difference, I could live with that.

Does this seem feasible, and has anyone done this before?

thanks,

nate

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:30:19 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:


As I understand it, it's not actually inside the tank, but wrapped
around the tank but inside the outer sheetmetal shell in a long spiral.
Of course, I can't state this with 100% certainty as I haven't removed
it and cut it apart yet.

As an aside, but a related one - how does one "charge" the heat transfer
fluid? It appears to be pressurized to about 20 PSI.

Is that because the pump is running?

Other than that, I think there is no way to pressurize antifreeze
(which would only expand a tiny bit), but if you make everything real
hot, you can pressurize the air in the tubing, like in a car's cooling
system. I don't see any advantage to it being pressurized since I
don't think it reaches the boiling point. The purpose of pressuring
the car's cooling system is to raise the boiling point. At any rate,
if it's sealed, the pressure will increase as the temp goes up.

nate

mm wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:30:19 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:


As I understand it, it's not actually inside the tank, but wrapped
around the tank but inside the outer sheetmetal shell in a long spiral.
Of course, I can't state this with 100% certainty as I haven't removed
it and cut it apart yet.

As an aside, but a related one - how does one "charge" the heat transfer
fluid? It appears to be pressurized to about 20 PSI.


Is that because the pump is running?

Other than that, I think there is no way to pressurize antifreeze
(which would only expand a tiny bit), but if you make everything real
hot, you can pressurize the air in the tubing, like in a car's cooling
system. I don't see any advantage to it being pressurized since I
don't think it reaches the boiling point. The purpose of pressuring
the car's cooling system is to raise the boiling point. At any rate,
if it's sealed, the pressure will increase as the temp goes up.


nate



There's a small expansion tank teed off one of the lines, and there is a
pressure gauge showing 20 psi on it at all times, pump running or no.

to reply to your other post, here's pretty much what I have:

http://www.thermomax.com/indirecttank.htm

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:49:31 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:


There's a small expansion tank teed off one of the lines, and there is a
pressure gauge showing 20 psi on it at all times, pump running or no.

to reply to your other post, here's pretty much what I have:


If the collectors are 2 stories up plus the rafters that is about
right for gravity alone

Nope, collector is cantilevered off of the deck. It used to be on the
roof but the PO decided not to put it back up there when he had a metal
roof installed.

nate

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replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
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"Nate Nagel" wrote in message
...
mm wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:30:19 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:


As I understand it, it's not actually inside the tank, but wrapped around
the tank but inside the outer sheetmetal shell in a long spiral. Of
course, I can't state this with 100% certainty as I haven't removed it
and cut it apart yet.

As an aside, but a related one - how does one "charge" the heat transfer
fluid? It appears to be pressurized to about 20 PSI.


Is that because the pump is running?

Other than that, I think there is no way to pressurize antifreeze
(which would only expand a tiny bit), but if you make everything real
hot, you can pressurize the air in the tubing, like in a car's cooling
system. I don't see any advantage to it being pressurized since I
don't think it reaches the boiling point. The purpose of pressuring
the car's cooling system is to raise the boiling point. At any rate,
if it's sealed, the pressure will increase as the temp goes up.


nate



There's a small expansion tank teed off one of the lines, and there is a
pressure gauge showing 20 psi on it at all times, pump running or no.

to reply to your other post, here's pretty much what I have:

http://www.thermomax.com/indirecttank.htm

nate

Pressure gauge might simply be wrong - they don't last forever. Have you
tried the old tapping on the guage faceplate trick to see if it changes?