Bogieblog

Local Agway Changings Coming

Achilles Agway, is being sold to Minnesota based Runnings. Agway is a farm and garden franchise and a local family owns 6 of them (Keene, Milford, Peterborough, Hillsboro, Walpole and Brattleboro, VT). This is not to be confused with Agway franchise holdings by other entities (such as Osborne's Agway in Concord). The Hillsboro Agway has been a go-to place for my gardening, wild bird feeding and select pet needs since moving to this area way back in the late 90's.

This could be a good thing if Runnings puts some money into it and expands the offerings. But, it could also be disappointing if they don't do anything and just get rid of the local staff. Guess we'll find out.

New Temporary Flooring in Heater Room

I buckled down on Sunday to get the linoleum installed where the boiler and water heater used to reside. One would think it is an easy process, just cut to shape and lay it down. I'm sure it is easy for those used to working with it, but for me, not so much. 

See, linoleum need to be cut smaller than the area being covered, but not too much smaller. It needs room to expand and shrink (depending on temperature), but also should be covered by trim piece  at the wall edges. Add to that the lack of anyplace to work with the sheet besides the room it was being laid in, and it was a series of folding the linoleum to create room for making the cut, cutting, then seeing how close it is.

Deciding that I would lay the linoleum so it was more pleasing to the eye than if I just scabbed in a piece, I removed the trim piece at the wall, cut down the old linoleum piece, then cut and installed the "new" linoleum. I also had to cut a new trim piece at the wall by the safe (first pic).

Never thought to get a picture of the covered floor before moving the shelves over to their new resting home, but here is the final result. Note that I did place a transition piece over the edges of the two separate sections.

I should really go thru those shelves and get rid of stuff I don't use anymore. Take that big box on the bottom - that is filled with bottles and screw tops that I used when I made real vanilla and sent it as Christmas gifts. And the next shelf up has the stereo I bought and installed in the 2004 Explorer (I de-installed it before trading in on the 2014 Explorer).  There are several bird feeders that I should find new homes for also.

I hate that the town swap shop closed at the beginning of Covid, and has not reopened. All the stuff on there is still good stuff (and the bottles are unused) but I don't really want to deal with putting them on CL, FBM or even on my town's FB page. Maybe I'll find someone holding a garage sale in a couple of months and just give them the stuff. They could make a few bucks and I could gain some room.

Basement Floor Patching

When we last left the comb-boiler install, and resulting de-installation of the old boiler and water heater, I mentioned that I needed to patch in to match the raised flooring that went around the old appliances. At hte bottom of the picture, you can see the square concrete where the water heater was. Not as easily seen is the 2x4 section where the old boiler was under the buckets and stuff in the lower left hand corner (in front of the chimney).

I still have a bunch of the material that raises the flooring off the cement (to keep any moisture off the plywood, so patched that in. I also had a piece of plywood that was suitable for where the water heater was. But I did not have plywood pieces that were large enough for where the boiler was. So I made a trip to HD, where they sell 2x4 plywood (I didn't need a full sheet). Yesterday I cut that piece in.

Didn't want to patch in the "temporary" linoleum, especially since it was curling at the edges anyway. (temporary meaning I put a cheap scrap of linoleum down to protect both the wood and feet from splinters until I put down a more permanent solution)

As luck would have it, years ago I had bought a remnant of linoleum off of FB, thinking it would be big enough for the bathroom. You can see it rolled up next to the chimney in that top picture (wrapped with green painter's tape). Unfortunately, it was not quite large enough, so I rolled it up and it has patiently waited for me to find a use for it. So, I unrolled it and let it "rest" all day yesterday and overnight. Even the area that was cut by the previous owners is nearly perfect to fit in the gap between the chimney and the safe.

So hopefully today I will get to cutting both the old and new linoleum. But I'm undecided whether to lay it in that orientation or turn it so it goes all the way to the wall next to the safe. But then I would have to remove the baseboard over there, and I'm not keen on doing more work than strictly necessary for a temporary fix. I just want the flooring covered so I can move the shelves over there. I really don't care how it looks since it would still have some of the dark linoleum showing over by the pellet stove. BUT, if I did so, then I could install a floor transition piece over the two edges to keep them from curling, and make it look a bit neater.

Decisions, decisions, decision.

Always Look Up the Warranty

Prior to having the combi boiler installed, I got a couple of quotes. One was for a highly pricesd, well thought out brand (I never heard of it until I started looking it up). Then there was the HTP that I accepted, which was more mid priced and reviews were more moderate (not bad, just moderate - but better than other brands that one would usually think of as high quality, much less those found at DIY stores. Anyway, what I was really interested in was the warranty. If the difference was enough, then I may have gone with the higher priced option. Note, that price was not my my concern, it was a combination of lifespan, reliability, parts availability (a German brand parts may not be available right off the bat) and experience of installation company.

One of the companies that gave me a quote did not at first give me a model number to look up (just the brand), so I requested and received that info (I'll call this Model 1). The company that I went with, as a matter of course, gave me the model number (Model 2).

So I looked it up and Model 1, on the general info page, states a limited lifetime warranty. But when I looked up the spec sheet - that warranty was on the pressure tank for 10 years, then a reducing amount up to 15 years. For the rest of it, it was a 5 year warranty. So, "lifetime" means what they consider the lifetime of the system, not the the whole time it is in the residence. Oh, and you must register it, hook it up to wifi and activate thier app within 60 days of installation to get that.

For Model #2, the general info page states a 15 year limited warranty. But you have to register for the free extended coverage, within 6 months of installation (otherwise it is 5 years). Once registered, then the warranty is pretty much the same as the "lifetime" warranty as Model 1.

So Sunday I got online and registered the unit (oh by the way, it has to be installed by a company, not self-installed), and Monday morning I had confirmation that they had accepted my warranty extension.

So always check into the warranty and understand what "lifetime" means to a company. In just looking at phrasing, it would look like Model 1 has a way better warranty than Unit 2, but that is not the case. Also look for any other requirements like registration timeframe, where model 1 was more restrictive than model 2.

New High Efficiency Combi-Boiler

So in the post about my water heater woes, the unit had quit working again last Sunday (see comments). My normal heating and plumbing company is not open on weekends and their emergency voicemail box was full, so I called my propane company. I had the thought that maybe the regulator from the propane tanks was going wonky. If not, at least their tech could also trouble shoot the water heater itself. The tech quickly established that the tank regulator was fine. After replacing the POF, the water heater still would not stay lit. The only other possible part to replace is $700-800 - which I declined. For a 2009 vintage water heater, doubling what I had already spent was not worth it.

That afternoon, I called my heating maintenance company and asked them to send someone out for a quote to replace the unit. I also contacted another local place. Both those places sent someone out on Monday (which was a PTO day for me, so worked out well).  I had been thinking about replacing my boiler and HWH this summer (the boiler is over 30 years old). I was also thinking going to 1 unit to handle both jobs (thus free up floor space, would be good too. So I started discussing how to replace both units with the heating techs. Once those discussions were done, and I received the quotes, I chose to go with a Condensing wall-hung Combination Boiler.

I accepted the quote from my regular heating maintenance company and Wednesday morning they came out to do the deed. This was great timing with the arctic weather pattern due to arrive, in which I would need the boiler to circulate water in the forced hot water pipes to keep them from freezing.

The old units take up a lot of space

And look at the spaghetti piping

Bye-bye old units

New combi boiler with neat piping. There are two PVC pipes at the top; one is for combustion air (this is a propane unit) and one for the exhaust. The box on the floor is to get rid of condensate. I'll get a small shelf later to neaten up that. Oh, and it plugs into the 110 outlet that the pellet stove is on. If needed, I can plug into a power pack or generator if there is an extended power outage.

And here is all the space I gained. Okay, so some of that will be taken up by the shelving unit that the new unit displaced, but still, it is opened up quite a bit

Now I have to fill in the raised flooring where the old boiler and water heater were. Then I can move the shelving unit in where the boiler used to sit (where the bucket is on the left.

Yesterday afternoon, with the outside temps plummeting and the wind howling (it was bowing my garage door in and creating all kinds of heat loss), I set up so the boiler can circulate the FHW. The main floor pellet stove is doing the heavy lifting for heating, while the boiler turns on every once in a while to circulate water so the pipes in the garage don't freeze.