Water Heaters - indirect water heater is too hot

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fixitron
06-26-08, 05:01 AM
50 gal. Bradford-White 5 yr. old indirect water heater is heated by 5 yr. old oil-fired boiler using circulator/check valve. It is all piped correctly. Electric water heater style surface mounted thermostat, located at bottom of tank, is set at lowest setting. The steel of the tank next to the thermostat is not hot to the touch and reads 117 degrees using an infrared thermometer. The water out of the tap is at 140 degrees.
It turns out that the person that installed the boiler did not connect the TT terminals of the boiler control to the Taco zone control panel, but instead shorted them out with a short piece of wire. The boiler has been running on high limit since it was installed, although I don't believe that it is related to the problem.
(BTW, the thermostat was replaced before the actual temperature of the tank was checked.)

The question is how the bottom of the tank could be cool and the top of the tank very hot.

plumbingods
06-26-08, 06:14 AM
Pictures of the piping would be a great help here. Post them on a site like photobucket.com and then post a link to get to them here. The more pictures the better. Close ups and distance shots.

Right now the only thing I can think of is a bad control, A bad flow-check valve, a bad zone valve or possibly a dip tube, depending on the piping.

Need more info.