The Epoch of the Axeman

All good now! With your help, the mystery of the drunken boiler pressure has been solved

I relieved the water pressure on the expansion tank by isolating it with valves and opening the boiler drain on the supply header. I put a tire gauge on the bottom valve of the tank to discover it has 18 pounds of air pressure in it. This is why it fluctuated. With boiler pressure under 18 pounds the water couldn't expand into the tank.

So, what I did was lower the air pressure on the tank to 14 psi. Then filled the boiler to 15 psi. Now expanding water can go into the tank.

Before a combustion call.. After combustion call... The expansion tank is now doing its job and the boiler pressure is stone sober before and after combustion calls

This combustion call only lasted 9 minutes but nothing was calling for heat during those minutes.

NICE! I'm glad it was an easy fix!

I also like those nice Winters gauges too.

-Don

Thanks Don it is a sharp looker lol

I was advised to have the fill valve and the expansion tank at the same pressure. But in light of my nubie paranoia, I think I'll leave the fill valve at 10 pounds, which is how I recieved it. My reasoning is that if a leak does occur out on the loop somewhere, it will show up on the boiler gauge.

Lightning wrote: ↑

Fri. Dec. 13, 2019 8:25 pm

Thanks Don it is a sharp looker lol

I was advised to have the fill valve and the expansion tank at the same pressure. But in light of my nubie paranoia, I think I'll leave the fill valve at 10 pounds, which is how I recieved it. My reasoning is that if a leak does occur out on the loop somewhere, it will show up on the boiler gauge.

It will show up on the floor not the gauge. The PRV will just replace anything that leaks.

coaledsweat wrote: ↑

Fri. Dec. 13, 2019 8:55 pm

It will show up on the floor not the gauge. The PRV will just replace anything that leaks.

Well, it may not show up on the floor if a leak develops out on a pex loop somewhere. In that case, the boiler gauge will fall to 10 pounds since that's where the fill valve will let water back into the system..

Ghost update - I turned down the primary pump a little bit to slow down the ghost flow in the salon. It helped somewhat, 62 degrees in there with 25 OAT.

I have some leftover 1.5 inch nipples that I want to use to build a primary/secondary intersection with that should prevent the ghost flow. If it works out, I'll send back the 100 dallar zone valve and the whole thing will be that much simpler.. The diagram is below.

I think the upsizing to 1.5 inch thru the intersection will help keep pressure even across the Ts. What's yer thoughts?

1-1/2" is no cure...Like was already stated, closely spaced tees must be in straight run of pipe...double 90s need some straight pipe distance before the first tee...mo straight, mo better...

Its seems challenging to find definitive rules about closely spaced Ts and adjacent elbows concerning the primary/secondary intersection.

It is VERY important that the closely spaced tees be no further apart than 4 times the diameter of whatever size pipe constitutes the primary/secondary loop, and it is equally important that the length of the straight pipes extending from the closely spaced tees be at least 6 times that same pipe diameter.

Watchin that fire rip never gets old lol

Lightning wrote: ↑

Sun. Dec. 15, 2019 9:54 pm

Its seems challenging to find definitive rules about closely spaced Ts and adjacent elbows concerning the primary/secondary intersection.

I have a book about it somewhere. The big things to remember are straight runs of pipe, and no more than 4 pipe diameters between the tees (max of 12").

Thanks Rob, I'll modify that design to get a decent length of straight pipe before and after the closely spaced Ts.

I did read another article about headers. It said that short and fat is better than long and skinny, imagine that so with applying that principle, upsizing to 1.5 inches for the primary section thru the intersection should also be beneficial.

Headers are not closely spaced tees.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Mon. Dec. 16, 2019 7:54 pm

Headers are not closely spaced tees.

Right, but I did read that they use those similar spacing rules stated above and are designed to help keep even pressure across the outlets by using a bigger common pipe with smaller outlets.

By keeping the headers short and generously sized, the pressure drop along the header is very low. This in combination with the very low pressure drop through the hydraulic separator (hydraulic separator is a fancy name for the primary/secondary intersection) provides good hydraulic separation of all the circulators in the system.

90s are not straight pipe...

McGiever wrote: ↑

Mon. Dec. 16, 2019 10:04 pm

90s are not straight pipe...

Uhhhh...