Hope I was able to help you on your project! If so you should check out the sales acmetools.pxf.io/9gRWRy on Milwaukee, Dewalt, Makita, & more at ACME tools. They're a fantastic family owned company and many times have the very best tool prices out there. By using my affiliate link you're helping me keep making this content for free! If you think I earned a tip (even $5 helps!) you can send that here: www.paypal.com/paypalme/bensahlstrom Also check out one of my favorite tools on Amazon: amzn.to/4cCaqik You guys are awesome. As an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I just wanted to say that I am one of the top rated radiant design boiler installers in western Colorado, (not tooting my horn by any means) and this probably the best video I have seen!!! I have been doing boilers for 30 years, been to hundreds of hours of manufacturer schooling, and installed boilers integrated with geothermal, radiant staple up, slab on grade, radiant staple down with gypcrete, and warm board installations. I have done small boilers up to 2 million btu boilers. Very nice Job guys!!! I love Rinnai as a tankless, but use Weil McLain or Lochinvar for my high effeciency and combi boilers, but everyone has their favorites. I have recently become an instructor for a college in Grand Junction, CO., and am using this video to show one of my classes how this works! Its long, but accurate, informative, and interresting. Keep it up guys!!!
I'm not a builder nor even close to being a tradesman. Soldier by trade...not used to building but tearing and blowing stuff up. Splendid video, explanation and show & tell. It makes me much more comfortable to have this installed in my next build.
I have no plans of ever getting this done (I can only wish), but for some reason I find it so satisfying just to watch and in no way am I bored due to the length. Glad I find your page because your prior video I watched was how to wire a new circuit which was exactly what I needed. Thank You for your videos.
What a perfect example of what happens when you take pride in your work. Everybody knows that guy (those guys) that don't give a flip about what they do at the workplace, imagine them doing work like this. Ya right. That looks insanely good, like a work of art. You sound young, I thought that kind of workmanship was long gone.
MILWAUKEE! It’s a pleasure to watch your work and listen to your commentary. The end result is exceptional and you should be very proud of your attention to detail. I’m now retired, but I can tell you without patting myself on the back that you remind me of me in that area. my wife says it’s my German blood. Lol God bless you my friend you’ll go far.
Channel Locks…always have been, always will be. I really liked the long video/full install format. Someone mentioned that it’s a bit of a pain to scroll chapter on a phone, which it is. But having access to a full install AND be able scroll chapters…pros outweigh the cons. Great content
Euro fella here, I have a 160m2 (1780sq ft) living area. UFH and design temp -7,2c. Brick house built post WW2 (1952) when the area i live in was given to Netherlands (German again now). Cavity wall insulation, mostly dual and some triple pane windows. Roof still needs to be done. Heating it with a 12kw air-water heatpump (vaillant arotherm plus) and the whole system pushes the water on just 1 large internal pump that can move 2m3 of water per hour. Indoors temp is 20c (68F). Pinched the supply upstairs on the manifolds as you showed so its alway 15-16c (59f) in the upstairs area. Bathroom is the only solenoid managed area, mornings and evenings its 21, rest of the day its a setback to 18c. My heatpump runs weather compensated so it automaticly adjusts the the supply temp. Once a day, by using a diverter valve, it heats a 300 liter cilinder for domestic hot water which i‘ve put on a circulation pipe that runs 6.30am-9.00am and 5.30pm-7.30pm so near instant hot water at the tap/shower. The thing i love about my system, was the ease of install for a non-plumber like me. The large main runs and technical room i planned in copper (press), the rest in pex(pressfit). Ended up making it all in pex due too the low temps it sees. Max temp for heating is 32c and domestic hot water is 55c And i agree sharkbite‘s only use should be emergencies, and even then copper/steel press is usually just as fast and gives a permanent repair.
as a mechanical engineer, I did 1 installation my self. Ofcourse designed everythign in Solidworks, and had such faith, that even pre-drilled the mounting holes. Everyting fitted great, didnt cut twice anything, and even did some funky 45-degree to to 45 degree turns, instead of 2 90s when I had to go up and right. Every time i see it, I get some satisfaction
MILWAUKEE Just wrapping up my own 3 zone installation; heading to filling the system. Your effort certainly gave me some new insights and I am appreciative. Cheers!
MILWAUKEE That video was awesome! Great to see that boy getting a head start on earning a decent living one day. I hope his Grandad is around to see you doing great work as well.
MILWAUKEE! Great video as always! As a fellow Believer in Jesus Christ, I so greatly appreciate your content and Spirit-filled manner in presenting work videos! As a pastor of a small, rural church, I have been greatly assisted by your content on many occasions as I work on our building projects, and serve different folks within our congregation and community. In fact, one of your videos this past summer (full panel replacement) came in answer to prayer as I was helping my father-in-law (a missionary to Mexico) work on replacing his panel here in the States. I wasn't confident with dealing with shared neutrals, and you addressed it and answered my questions as if you were here working with me! While I hope you benefit financially from taking the time to record, edit and post your videos, I want you to know that you have been a blessing to me personally, and to our ministry in New Hampshire! God bless you, Brother!
That's so awesome! I am very thankful for the unique opportunity of being able to help people for a living and pray that I am able to be a witness for Him even on simple things like repairing miscellaneous things. Keep up the good work in New Hampshire!!!
As a 1st year HAVC student & apprentice in Canada I have to say that, This right here is Great a refresher. Love your content as it is very helpful, as to others this may be a whole lot of mystic work mumbo jumbo but it is quite simple when you break it down to brass tacks. It truly a pleasure to watch you work and listen to your commentary almost like a podcast/ Yet I find it interesting as some of your Gas and Building Codes are some similar and some are different. Koodos, and you have my subscription for more content
MILWAUKEE - I just completed the same project on my new house. 3 zones, one for the basement floor and 2 in the living areas. I used mixing valves to regulate the temperature of the in each manifold/zone. the living area is standard wood framed with the tubing between the plywood using the same aluminum plates you stapled to the bottom of the floor. For domestic hot water I installed a heat exchanger in the primary heat loop. Using a flow switch I turn on a pump that sends heated water thru the exchanger to heat the domestic hot water.
Ben . . . this is the radiant heat installation video I've been waiting for! Thank you and I love the long format. I have a 2 level barn with attached garage that I will be installing RH inot this summer. The detail you provided has filled in spaces left out of the many other videos I've watched and will be a huge help to me. You rock buddy!
MILWAUKEE Great video. Thanks for making it. Been thinking about adding radiant heat to my downstairs for a long time and this (plus your previous video on the topic) seems to have covered much of what I'll need to know. This is probably the longest RU-vid video I've ever watched and I enjoyed it. Can't explore all the nerdy details without taking the time. Thanks again!
MILWAUKEE You really do nice work. Perhaps the most amazing thing is gluing all that PVC and not having any purple primer showing!! No matter how careful I am, I always manage to have some primer showing. Of course, I’m no professional.
Fun job! One comment - I found that placing a ball valve before the expansion tank. This makes replacing the expansion tank very quick and easy. They do "go bad" over time so being able to change it without losing much water is nice.
@@SureRon The expansion tank isn't a safety device so it can be isolated. Once a system is running, or after it's been turned off for a few hours, the water is no longer expanding or contracting so the expansion tank isn't doing anything.
Thanks to Josh and your young apprentice, Oly! I can’t believe that I watched the whole 2:55 but I found it fascinating. I really appreciate your workmanship and attention to detail.
MILWAUKEE! When I saw the Menard's run, I had to figure out where you are. Good to see a fellow MN tradesman on here. Thanks for a quality walkthrough.
You are a bad man Ben l thoroughly enjoyed watching you work and l admire your work even more, you absolutely rock!!!. Here l am looking for a video about my mini split ac unit, stumbled across your video and l could not stop watching. It was even more fun watching you teaching your son, which reminded me of my dad I. He he always had me either watching or helping him work and as a result I'm very handy today with DIY projects, saving myself tons of money and feeling very accomplished when I'm finished. Keep up the great work man I'm a huge fan 😃👏👏👏
MILWAUKEE - Keen to do something like this in the UK. Currently sitting in my house with clunky radiators and old gas boiler! 😁 Looking out at the snow! 😁
Loved the content, but Please break it up into 45 minute or so blocks, the information in the "Show More" section was verry helpfull great job on that.
This was a great video! I chose to watch this over something on Netflix even. I put my system in back in 2015 and watching this reminded me of that. I really appreciated your narration and education and also your attention to detail. I also was very deliberate on which direction I was soldering my fittings to make sure the pretty side was out. I've tried to record myself doing projects and it just doesn't go this well so nice work with that as well. Definitely gained a new subscriber here!
Amazing video. Thanks so much for posting this content. So useful to be able to see everything from start to finish with all the detail and the list of tools and products.
Also, personally I wouldn't have put the T on the exhaust, since the exhaust is going down, some of that exhaust is going into the intake, which can dirty up the flame sensor, and cause ignition faults, that condensed gas is acidic.
MILWAUKEE tools are great, love that pex crimper you have. We're building a house and Im going todo the radiant system, thanks so much for the detailed video!
Milwaukee, Ok Ben you sir are a rockstar. We're just about to install an outdoor boiler system to our heating system here at the Cay and I think I may need to go back and redo our local "professionals " work. Excellent info and editing, job well done. Mark from Mannisto Cay.
37:00 I have that exact furnace you mentioned and I had to replace the secondary condenser a few years ago. The unit was about 15yrs old when it failed. It breathes external air. The guy who sold me the parts was surprised it had lasted that long.
Regarding the pro press and push to connect fittings i have to say that both are plenty good enough. When first starting to renovate our house we soldered every connection. It is a slow work but it is certainly the strongest connection. The draw back is connecting in to existing pipes since wet pipes are really annoying to solder. When we swapped to pvc covered aluminum pipes out of convenience to go up to under the roof (we made a living space up there and just didn't want to bother with all the bends) we had to use push to connect fittings. Not a single one has leaked so far (around 5 years) and as long as you debur the pipes befor pushing them in to the fitting they won't leak. In commercial settings (plumbers etc) pro press is pretty much exclusively used here in germany now. It's just cheaper for the custumer since it's way quicker. At first i was skeptic about these methods but after using them and seeing them perform just as good i don't see a reason outside of special occasions to keep using solder joints
I did a similar thing for running electricity when I was 15. My garage only had 1 3-gang outlet box, and one for the door opener. I had some wire, so I went in the attic , ran my wire, then poked it through the ceiling and got an extension cord repair end (bit more safe then your thingy) and just used it as an outlet.
Milwaukee, it’s perfectly normal to get a slight rise in a hydronic system after fire is applied. Even though you have purged all the free air from the system there still is dissolved air in the fluid which will separate or degas over time. Great job and the system looks great. The valve with bleeding port @ the expansion tank is also recommended because those tanks need to be replaced over time as well have to be checked annually for their initial pressure setting. God Bless.
Highest appreciation for this video's content depth and pure passion. Loved it My previous home in Ohio had a Lockinvar 199 BTU NG boiler that fed baseboards and basement radiators. Couldn't have loved it more for the 5 years I had it. $100 gas bills for the boiler and ancient hot water heater. Current house is forced air and I desperately want to retrofit with a Boiler and in floor heat where possible. How has the Boiler brand you went with been treating you? Basic hot water functionality working out well? Maintenance is minimal we hope? Cost to operate is normal? If I do this retrofit I don't have a problem spending $5,000 on a Lockinvar, but it seems that there are a ton of $3,000 brands that'll due nicely. What a wonderful video you built here.
I'm glad you got value from the video! Units have been working flawlessly. I did get one callback that the hot water wasn't working, but they had just accidentally turned it off. The push of a button brought it back to life. I really like Rinnai, and I definitely would go with them again.
No idea how I found you, and I live in a house where this is totally impossible to recreate.... So why the hell am I watching 2 hours of this? Sweet video man. Love long content that's informative, and makes me feel like I could complete this job when I build my custom house.
Ben - 1) awesome work showing the big picture. 2) the tubing should be in the middle of the slab, not resting on the insulation. If the slab is 4”, the tube depth should be 2” depth, resulting in 1/3 more heat loss thru the upper concrete surface into the living space and away from the dirt - giving the best effective energy placement.
I always love trolling want to be plumbers on RU-vid but.. Your work is next level my man. I personally like to put automatic air bleeder valves every segment to allow for smooth operation…
MILWAUKEE + 55 more minutes.. LOL Thanks for taking the time to record and sharing all this info. I'm looking to heat a barn floor on a new build and that is why I watched this video. I was wondering if there is any way that one can pour the concrete, with radiant floor heating, in stages or sections; as one can afford to buy the insulation, tubing, and concrete. I've bookmarked this so I can refer back to it again. Thanks again. Tony
I had two condensing boilers that went too low fire which would not heat the building during high wind condition. The cause was the exhaust gases were being sucked into the air intake. The boilers were in service for seven years before this happened. While servicing the boils trying to find out what was causing the boilers to be in low fire found that the heat exchangers were both corrode to the point that the manufacturer replaced them at no cost. They had me separate the pipes , exhaust 8 ft above the intake, it has been over 8 years since then and the heat exchangers are fine.In my opinion your pipes are too close and this was why you had a code flash, the heat exchangers were aluminum. The boiler room was on the side of the main building so the pipes were in a l corner. The elbow on the exhaust should be turned up or taken off.
MILWAUKEE You’re amazing, my fellow Minnesotan! I learn so much from you and I so appreciate you. Great videos. You are worth a long video. It’s like watching an awesome television program about DIY except better since it’s you. Thank you so much. Your work and content contain so much pride in craftsmanship, not to mention love for your family. Beautiful job, Ben. Quick question- do you have to worry about dissimilar metals and a reaction with copper going into the stainless manifolds? And way to go Josh! Loved what you did.
Thanks for the tip! No, it's not a concern mainly since the heat transfer fluid will reach a neutral PH unlike a potable water system. It's very normal to go from brass, to copper, to black iron, stainless steel, and so on for boilers.
MILWAUKEE...I like the explanation on a lot of the details. Curious how much difference it would be to add insulation in between the floor joist of the 2nd floor? Appreciate all the effort you put into filming all this and the 200+ hours spent on editing.
I use a step bit to deburr. Funny thing about copper pipe. My dad built our house about 1953 all copper. About the mid 80s we started getting leaks. Turns out made in USA was rolled into the pipe, but the I in made in USA was to deep and the turbidity wore it off from the inside. Battery pex crimpers are worth their weight in gold.
At 32:00, besides the length of the unit's life- consider that all the in-home air that is used for combustion is necessarily replace by air infiltration from the exterior.
Milwaukee lol. Love your videos bud!!! Wish you were my neighbor, I am about to drill the holes and start doing my own system here in jersey! This is definitely going to help. Thanks.
I love the video and the presentation. Your pride shines. Thank You. I dont understand how most of hydronic guys are Ok with wide pipe spacing and the primary / secondary piping at the boilers. This system although pretty and well put together is far from perfect. For the money and effort, why dont we bring it up a notch. Its not campatale to a true low temeprture design that is compatible to heat pumps. Lots of things that should be so much bettter. This is not state of the art or an evolution of new design metadology. IT IS better than most.
Nice job! The long format works well thanks to very efficient editing. Moves along at the right speed. On a side note, which screen recording, video editing software are you using? Thanks.
I am a Commercial Heating technician. Those tankless boilers are very finicky and break down constantly. The company I work for does a local Church with this kind of system. The boilers get replaced every couple of years. By contrast a flexible tube boiler lasts for decades.
“Channel Locks” is definitely olde skool. I think the Knipex tools should be called “Nipex” as the K is silent like the P in bath lol 😉🤣😂 I actually call all those tools “water pump pliers” 🙂
How I wish I have half the knowledge you have. You're a jack of all trades. You work looks so clean. Also, it's kind of embarrassing for those electricians to leave the workplace like that when you left it spotless smh. MILWAUKEE
