Plumbing shop infloor loop off of buffer tank

[huffdawg]

Will be finished piping my shop infloor loop in a hour or so . My buffer tank is at 185 °F ,the circ. pump is pulling from the radiant manifold . before the manifold on the supply side I have a mixing valve . and the hot side of the mixing valve comes from the buffer.

My question is when I have it all piped can I just open the valves and let it fill itself. Then plug in the circ pump.

Thats the grundfoss circ pump for the infloor.
Yes I know the boiler circ. strainer is upsidedown. :lol:

 

[nate379]

I don't know how your setup is exactly, but on my setup I have boiler valves in several places to where I can thread on a garden hose.

When I flushed out my system a few weeks ago, I made a female-female garden hose and filled it from my water main.

 

[huffdawg]

Ive found the valves and hose bib fittings on the manifold. that should work. :red:

 

[Gasifier]

Sounds like things are going pretty well. And you are moving along nicely. How was your eggnog?

 

[jebatty]

If you can, shut-off the manifold from your system, fill the loops from a 5 gallon bucket using a small water pump, not a circulator, and pump water at high speed with the pump, one loop at a time, with the water emptying back into the bucket, adding water as necessary. Keep pumping each loop until all air has cleared, then shut-off that loop and do the same with all the others. Alternatively, pump all loops at once and keep pumping until no more air. At that point your loops will be full, turn-on the manifold, and all should be good.

 

[huffdawg]

Sounds like things are going pretty well. And you are moving along nicely. How was your eggnog?

The eggnog sucked cause my kids drank it all, had to settle with a cool crisp Kokanee.

 

[huffdawg]

If you can, shut-off the manifold from your system, fill the loops from a 5 gallon bucket using a small water pump, not a circulator, and pump water at high speed with the pump, one loop at a time, with the water emptying back into the bucket, adding water as necessary. Keep pumping each loop until all air has cleared, then shut-off that loop and do the same with all the others. Alternatively, pump all loops at once and keep pumping until no more air. At that point your loops will be full, turn-on the manifold, and all should be good.

Thanx Jebatty,followed your instructions but used a water hose. Sent a little warm water to the slab ,was working good . Shut it down till this morning and will see how long it takes to warm up. Everything is manual no controller yet. just me.

Huff

 

[huffdawg]

Had to replumb the infloor loop today because I plumbed in the mixing valve the wrong way . I had the circ. pulling from the B port instead of the AB port.
I guess ya learn real good when you make mistakes . :lol:
Floor has 110 °F water going in and 82 °F coming out .

Should I run the cic. on high speed to try and purge air or will it work itself out eventually.

Huff

 

[jebatty]

Are you able to determine that all loops have flow, no air locks? If so, then I would guess that eventually any small air entrapments might work clear, but on the other hand flow through these loops usually is pretty slow and maybe not, or other small air bubbles gradually will move and collect in a slightly high spot and reduce or block future flow in one or more loops. Worst case, try it and see, so long as there is at least some flow in the loops, but if no flow then purge.

I have 6 loops of 1/2" pex in my floor, and two loops have less flow than the others, even after adjusting the valves for each loop. That is, I have 0.5 gpm in 4 loops and about 0.25 gpm in 2 loops. This summer I plan to flush those two loops with high pressure water to see if air or something else is reducing flow. Or maybe the loop balancing flow meters are not accurate, or a loop valve is not working properly?. My floor sensor is set at 61F, mixing valve at 100F, and typical delta-T is 25-30F.

 

[huffdawg]

Are you able to determine that all loops have flow, no air locks? If so, then I would guess that eventually any small air entrapments might work clear, but on the other hand flow through these loops usually is pretty slow and maybe not, or other small air bubbles gradually will move and collect in a slightly high spot and reduce or block future flow in one or more loops. Worst case, try it and see, so long as there is at least some flow in the loops, but if no flow then purge.

I have 6 loops of 1/2" pex in my floor, and two loops have less flow than the others, even after adjusting the valves for each loop. That is, I have 0.5 gpm in 4 loops and about 0.25 gpm in 2 loops. This summer I plan to flush those two loops with high pressure water to see if air or something else is reducing flow. Or maybe the loop balancing flow meters are not accurate, or a loop valve is not working properly?. My floor sensor is set at 61F, mixing valve at 100F, and typical delta-T is 25-30F.

I have 4 - 220' loops . With the grundfos 15-58 in 2 speed I was getting 1.25 GPM. in each loop according to the flow meters on the radiant manifold. The 2nd. manifold pic. is 1st speed
There is a funny whistling sound at the manifold.

Huff