While I laid the ground work for the hydronic heat system when designing the general layout of the barn. I didn't spend time researching which boiler to buy when I ever get to installing the above ground parts. These include the zoning, manifold, boiler, pump, piping and plumbing.
By the time I started to research the boiler to purchase I already have the positive experience of the LG mini split heat pump. I found out they make a series of air to water heat exchanger they name Therma V R32 Monobloc. They use the next gen refrigerant R32 that is more efficient than the R410A commonly used in the US. However my research suggest they don't import them into North America nor any time soon. All leading Asian mini split manufactures have long been making air to water heat pumps for hydronic heating and cooling. But none are being imported into this continent (Canada included).
I found two US brands but I deem both dissatisfactory. One is close and appears to be made in Poland and with very few installation to date. Since my hydronic heat is designed to be secondary to my LG heat pump I decided to go ahead with a propane based boiler and hence I chose the Laars FT 199. Today I discovered it is actually made in S Korea by Kiturami despite it is a US brand owned by Bradford White. For most they will be rather bummed to find this out, but for me a Korean designed and built product would have been my preference had I knew beforehand. More about how I discover the boiler is made in S Korea below.
I planned to mount the system feeder pump on the plywood wall panel so I fabricated four of these metal sleeves out of leftover 1/4" copper pipe to protect the rubber grummets
they are perfect for the inner diameter of the grummets and the wood screws
these are the single ear clamps that I like to use to secure some pipes and hoses
I also opened up the boiler so to change the gas orifice from natural gas to propane and set the DIP switch to let the boiler know
With the boiler cover removed I took ample photographs for posterity. Having the detail photos will be very useful should something goes wrong and I can narrow down the potential cause just by examining the design and layout, and components inside.
as I was choosing the circulation pump I looked at both Grundfos and Taco, and I soon decided against Grundfos as I inferred they exaggerate their specs
not surprised at all to see this built in primary loop pump made in China
I change the orifice to propane and set the toggle switch. I took in all the parts, design, and layout of the boiler and I was very pleased of what I saw, being a very cost effective design. I noticed the firetube burner's Korean writing as well as what suggest to be a Japanese brand of Kiturami. At the time I didn't think much of it as in our global economy I expect the boiler to be built with parts from different country.
Later on I decided to look up the company that builds the firetube heat exchanger. It is Kiturami Co. Ltd in Korea, which is what I expected. However what is most shocking is they have a whole series of boilers that look exactly like the Laars FT series. Needless to say, the chance is the Mascott are really Kiturami built in S Korea and Laars just branded for US market.
I am happy it is made in S Korea.
the identical lines of boilers at Kiturami Co. Ltd in S Korea
the control board
the built in water pressure gauge
I am very familiar the common architecture of these hydronic boilers so it didn't take me long to size up the design and the components, and who makes them and from where.
this gas pipe is removed to change the orifice from natural gas to propane
natural gas (left) and propane (right)
propane has almost 2.5x BTU over natural gas
this night the outside temperature dipped to as low as -8F in the morning
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