Tekmar control systems have been in use for years now. They have been installed on both residential and commercial projects we were involved with. My understanding is that they have an outdoor reset that monitors the exterior temperature and adjust the boiler temperature to meet the heating needs. If it is cold (0 degrees) they let the boiler fire at max temperature or what ever upper limit that is set. If it is a mild day (45 degrees) that may only allow the boiler to fire to say 145 degrees and provide for a moderate heating temperature. New boilers like Buderus have the option of Logamatic controller which does a similar thing. They will make old boilers more efficient, but new boilers with these controls are even better. Apparently Buderus even makes a oil fired condensing boiler which is 91% efficient. With gas or oil boilers the lower water temperatures can only be reached with these type of boilers as condensation will occur and they are designed for this. If your boiler is good and you install a tekmar you will save money. If you need an upgrade then the new boilers will save on oil consumption, but cost a lot more to buy and install. Tekmar will also control the indirect water heater. These type of boiler controls can prioritize the hot water and fire the boiler at a much higher temperature when hot water is needed. You have a lot of choices from adding controls to your existing system, changing to a new higher efficient boiler with integrated controls, or even going up to a condensing oil boiler with integrated controls. If you are remaining in the house for years to come then maybe replacement in the long run is best. If you don't want to spend a lot of money and still want to save the Tekmar will definitely help and make the house more comfortable. I am not n HVAC contractor, but we have these systems installed on all our projects or they come with new boilers we are installing. I am sure installers can explain better than I can as to exactly how these controllers work. I have a gas fired boiler with outdoor reset built in and it worked great this winter. It is the same principle as the Tekmar and it controls a modulating condensing gas boiler.

> 1. In the house there is 1 power outlet and 1 Gas outlet (or basically a plugin point). I thought both Washer and Dryer will need their own power outlets? Do they share the power somehow if they are both electric? Although I sometimes see this arrangement in old houses, it's a violation of modern electrical code which requires separate circuits for washer and dryer. You could often get away with this setup with older machines if the dryer used gas for heating and required electricity just to run the motor to turn the drum, spin the fan, and run the mechanical and electronic components. The washers of this era were usually top-load units with big cetner agitator posts, which lacked internal water heaters and relied exclusively on a hot water feed from an external water heater (usually the house's main water tank) to provide warm or hot water to the washer. Each of these drew maybe 6 to 8 amps, allowing both to run on a single 120V/20A circuit (or more precariously on a 120V/15A circuit). But newer washers are usually front-load or high-efficiency top-load machines that draw far less water per fill, and since the residual water in the pipes leading from the often distant hot water tank will have cooled down, and hot water from the tank may not even reach the washer given how little water they draw each time, many new washers have a 1000-watt internal heater to ensure the water gets adequately hot for washing. This in addition to several hundred watts for the motor to agitate the clothes. Running a new washer and gas dryer at the same time can overload a single circuit, even if old ones didn't. 2. I keep getting asked if I am getting a "Gas" based Dryer or "Electric" dryer. Depending on either, does it mean I have to get a "Gas" based washer or "Electric" washer too i.e do both have to be the same kind? All washers are electric. Most US-market washers run on 120V/15A, and all but the cheap ones include intenal water heating which means they draw up to 12 amps or so and should have their own circuit. A few washers run on 240V/15A which allow for much faster (and hotter) water heating with 2500 watt internal heaters, made mostly by Bosch and Asko, but these are limited to 24" rather than 27" wide washers. You can dry with either electric or gas - electric is about twice as popular, but if you have gas plumbing it usually makes sense to use it since it costs less to run a gas dryer in many (but not all) areas. 3. Since I am only seeing 1 socket for Electric and 1 for Gas, is it typical that people buy Electric washers and Gas dryers? Is it non-conventional to buy both Electric? Both are common, though electric dryers outsell gas about 2 to 1. Most electric dryers need 208V or 240V, 30A power, which uses a much larger plug and outlets than the more familiar 120V outlets. Smaller (24") dryers usually require only 240V/15A power, although they're often fitted with 30A plugs anyway so they'll fit common American dryer outlets and have internal 15 amp fusing. The afformentioned 240V/15A washers are usually paired with a 240V/15A dryer, and are designed so they can attach to each other and both be powered from the same 240V/30A wall outlet. There are a few small 120V electric dryers available too, but they're slow and not popular. You couldn't plug these into the same circuit as any washer and run them both at the same time. 4. Is there anything I should understand in terms of pros/cons of Gas based dryers vs Electricity based dryers? I am looking to buy one of the newer Samsung washer/dryers which tend to have energy efficiency built in. The reason I ask is because Electricity is a whole lot cheaper than gas in this area but I wanted to understand my options... I am also told that the Electric dryers will take up more 'amps' in the house so to get an air conditioner installed (and based on other things in the house that suck up the amps), I should probably take a gas dryer. Does this sound reasonable? This is probably a whole different post regarding air conditioning for a different forum so I'll leave it at this. Gas dryers cost somewhat more than their electric counterparts and have a worse reliability record, but they usually cost less to run in most areas. If gas costs more where you live, you may be better off with an electric dryer, although it seems you'd need a new circuit and outlet installed to use one from what you describe so you have to weigh the relative costs of each. As for chewing up the available amperage in your house, that's an issue only if you have an old house whose main electrical service has never been upgraded and you have only, say, 60 amps available rather then the 200A typical in a new house. But you'll have to reallocate circuits and outlets in many cases to optimise what's available if you stick with the old power panel, which may entail rewiring part of the house, at which point you'd be better of upgrading the service and panel first. You could also save power elsewhere by ditching the incandescent light bulbs for LEDs or at least fluorescent/CFL bulbs, using a gas stove, furnace, and water heater, and more efficient air conditioning. But code often still requires, say, an individual circuit for lighting even though you're only drawing 3 amps if every light in the house is turned on. This post was edited by lee676 on Thu, Oct 2, 14 at 13:08

OK, I have an issue that does not allow me to purchase without over researching a product. So I did consider a few brands. I really like Miele, and they do have a larger unit. Nothing like the size of these, but I don't think you need something as big as these Samsung units to wash a comforter. Although I keep going back to Miele, the issue of their warranty and the lack of local people to sell and service the units takes them out of the running. I did look into Asko, but the small size and the bad reviews (over many years) makes them just an interesting read. I had a hard time deciding between LG and Samsung. I chose Samsung because of their Diamond drum technology. Although I was unable to find out much about it, it was similar to the honeycomb drum idea of Miele. That really closed the deal for me. I really felt that more manufacturers should have put more into their drum designs and make that information available. Sadly, only two lines have taken drum technology seriously and serious enough to flaunt it to the public. I ended up with the largest Samsung units because of the steam and the internet connectivity. (And frankly the deal I got.) I was hoping that if there was a problem, Samsung could just hook into the machine and tell me what is wrong. I'm not sure they can do that, but they can certainly update the units over the wireless. I would say that I was also impressed with the anti vibration technology. I wish they had explained the difference between the regular antivibration and the upgraded antivibration of these units. I imagine it is some computer sensing thing. I was also impressed with the warranty on the motors and the 2 year warranty. Oh, I just registered my units and got an additional 3 months warranty for registering. Thanks Samsung. I would add an extra year on my own by purchasing with Amex and eliminating the purchase of extended warranty. I looked into Speed Queen because they are American. Solid units but lack the modern technology and efficiency I was looking for. Rough sturdy brutes was all I could imagine from what I could find out about these products. I think the companies do themselves a disservice by not putting out all the information they can on their products. This is one case and point. I went as far as looking into purchasing commercial units, but when all is said and done, I felt that the Samsung units were a better deal. Service and warranty work is much different for commercial than on consumer models. Here is a really cool washing machine I found that I really wanted to get. I have a friend in CA who used to own Laundry Mats. He said, "That's a commercial unit. What do you need a commercial unit for?" Well, it looks so cool and is so well engineered etc. It was too much of a machine for my needs, but I really would have loved to have one. The Crossover Washer. (http://www.laundrylux.com/crossover.html) The world's first small chassis washer engineered to commercial laundry standards for your business needs. I think for the person who wants to have what no one else has, these units would be an interesting choice. Here is some more information on the Crossover: 3 Engineered to be superior to all competitors 3 15,000 cycle machine life design 3 3 OPL liquid chemical injection ports and signals 3 3 compartment soap drawer 3 4 professional wash programs + 2 cycle options 3 Field adjustable water levels 3 Top quality SKF bearings in heavy duty assembly 3 3 seals with 5 lips 3 Professional grade 8-point suspension 3 Pump-drain standard 3 Solid steel counter-weights�no concrete 3 Energy Star compliant The costs were about 2,000 a piece or less from what I remember. Stunningly beautiful beasts these are. They are made I believe by LaundryLux. I also looked at Miele Little Giants. Just amazing little laundry units, but way out of my price range for what I want to spend. I think these are made for people with yachts. These are also stunningly beautiful. The bottom line is I spent months looking at units. For me, with the space that I had and the money I wanted to spend, I settled on the Samsung. I had to use my Samsung units again tonight as the baby had an "out of diaper" experience. Not something for the faint of heart. Loved I could go and select sanitize on the computer screen and choose extra rinses and steams and prewashes and super hots etc. If they had nuclear radiation I would have chosen that too, but as of now, it is not an option on my units. I got a 3 hour cycle and trust me that is exactly what the job called for. I think I'm very happy right now with what I purchased. Look, as long as the darn units stay working without needing service etc, anything you buy will be fine. Again, I'm not happy about having to stand on a stool to see the dryer screens, but it really is not a big problem. The anti vibration on these really works great and the noise level is very good. The calming music the machines play to signal the end of the cycle is still OK with me and I'm not ready to beat the machine to death if it plays that tune one more time. Just if anyone wants to see how these machines do on a soiled white one piece baby garment, here is how it just came out of the washer. I don't think I can believe how clean and white this is. You cannot see where the mess was. I have had experience in the past with my other machine where the white clothing was stained yellow after such an incident. All I used was about 1/4 of the recommended amount of ECOS plus natural liquid from Sam's and a tiny amount of delft liquid softener. No bleach. I did hit it with some Oxy prewash spray before putting it in. Look, I have a laundry upstairs that I am doing. I decided to make it a "sound proof" room because of my experience with my old front loader. It was loud! Probably had gotten worse over the years because the bearings were going. So I double sheet rocked with green glue and put heavy clay on the backs of the electrical boxes. I put in a sound proof floor which I am waiting to tile right now. Well, I did all this because of my fear of the noise I would get from the front load machines. I think had I placed these Samsung units upstairs, the sound proofing would have been overkill. I'm hoping the GE unit I have for upstairs will be as quiet. I bet most of the better machines will be quiet. I think that the other companies caught up with Meile and have incorporated many of the concepts and bring these machines at a value price. Will they last the 20 years Miele says theirs will? I don't know, but these machines have a longer warranty then Miele and they can be found everywhere. This means that your chance of getting service should be good.

I have one year old a GE profile Double Oven range converted to propane. Lately smell gas and I detected a small leak on the input flex hose to the end of range (bottom valve); [flexible gas connector from the gas shutoff valve to the range] What shall I use? I perfectly understand that I can use rather than yellow tape Gas dope as "RectorSeal", LocTite's anaerobic or Permatex formagasket #2. Which one is greatly available and where can I buy from? I don't want to spend $65 for a problem I detected myself without any technician from Sears or so. I am living in Hamden , Connecticut.