Hi There

We have a 1200 sq ft down and 1000 sq ft up home of conventional construction completed in 2003.

We went for hydronic  heat in the slab with radiators along the exterior wall upstairs.

To save space, be super efficient etc we choose the high end German make Buderus. We got a Logano G124 and a Logulux L stacking unit. The top houses the pilot and the bottom a coil unit with the gylcol and the hot water for the house.

We live in Alberta and can have cold winters and gentle chinooks so our temperature can fluctuate wildly.

Our well water was checked and deemed good but alkaline and full of things including iron that make for spotty window, fixtures etc.

Anyways, the very same day that the guys came out and had put in the glycol I noticed really horrible nail polish remover like smell coming out of our kitchen tap! It looked fine but smelt awful and not always.

Long Story short, with an independent lab test we found that we had hydrocarbons in our water-xylene and tolulene and far over the Canadian Drinking Water standards. These were not there before the Glycol addition.The hydrocarbons were much higher in the hot water than the cold and in the water running through the slab than anything that ran upstairs to the bathroom.

We had a 4 yr old and a 9 month old baby at the time. This was very scary to me, as the stay at home mum, thinking I was poisoning our kids just by letting them play in the tub or by giving them country water to drink.

There was one company which advertised (and still does) as a rust busting/country water solution. They also said they could remove the hydrocarbons with their equipment. Cha ching another $7 000 down the toilet.

No one ever admitted wrong doing, Buderus had no recalls nor were any coil leaks ever found. We worried, checked rechecked the water and eventually the hydrocarbons disappeared.

However, in the meantime, the glycol was disappearing from  the boiler.  Over the last 10 years we have had the conbraco unit put in the proper place (initial install was backwards), we have replaced the boiler’s anoid rod a couple times, drained and refilled the system to check if indeed there is a leak (presumably in the pex pipe in the floor) and added pipes and shut offs to make the draining and pressurizing easier, replaced the thermocouple as often as 3times a yr.etc.

The Buderus boilers are much more costly than a furnace, only a few companies are willing to work on them and if every year we spend $400- $1000 to do work on the thing I really can not say that it is more efficient a system. Time is money and we have spent a lot of both because of these various issues.

Also, as one of the legs of the radiator pipe upstairs is in a crawl space but above an unheated patio there has been major condensation and freezing (when we get cold temperatures like -20 C) on the OSB in that crawl space. The space is about 6 feet deep by 9 feet long. It has the one copper pipe with glycol coming through it. We have pipe insulation around the copper pipe and a 3 sides wooden box that just sits like an upsides down “U” above the pipe to protect it from being damaged. And to make it less heated. There is a light and lightswitch. The space is insulated but not ventilated. It is in our son’s room but used as storage/infrequently.

Our Axiom System Feeder (latest addition Feb 2012 over $1000) needs to be topped up. It has gone from the initial 13 litres glycol mix to less than 9.

I seriously wonder given all these issues and the on going heat in an unheated space also now causing a bow in the OSB sheeting on the interior roof and moldy spots on the floor, if instead of getting a guy in to top up the Axiom if we should be looking at another system or 2 for heat and water?

I think we might live here another 5-10 yrs till the kids go off to post secondary school. Then we would sell. I wouldn’t want to hand over these problems to another but at the same time my husband isn’t ever happy about spending yet more money on house issues.

Is it fixable somehow? I remind you we are not handy in these areas.We have had reputable companies all along the way and look at the headaches and disasters we have had.

Do we rerun the 3 ft of  line that is in the sort of unheated space and put it inside the adjacent heated room/ son’s bedroom and make that storage space no longer accessible? Do we remove the insulation and check for mold/leaks/something else and replace it or add some sort of air exchange? Should we remove the old fir panel door that was fit to the space and make it an insulated wall like the rest of the wall on that side? Would you totally add insulation to the space or take it away?

What kind of contractors would do such a job? The roofers, who originally installed the shingles, did come and look at it but said it was not their problem. They recommended building a 2^nd box to further insulate the original one that goes over the copper heating pipe. Seems mickey mouse to me. Maybe I should leave it till summer or even longer but that really won’t likely help anything.

If I ever built again, not bloody likely, I would go forced air all the way and never do heat in the floor or on the walls.  Also, if a company seems too good to be true they probably are. That much I have learnt.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Handynotsomuch