Hydronic piping

Looking for piping suggestions... I have a handfed coal boiler in the upstairs of garage.. currently installing a axeman anderson 130 in the basement of the garage. Wanting to use the same copper lines from upstairs boiler that go underground to my house.
Does anyone see a problem with 2 circulator pumps pumping at a tee? to then send the water on its normal route to house?
Picture this.. upstairs boiler pumping from supply to the tee.. Downstairs boiler pumping from supply to the other side of tee.
then onward... thanks i have a unique setup that i hope to improve with some of you guys help. p.s. been a "lurker" for a long time... long enough to consider finding what i believe to be an ultimate boiler.. axeman anderson

About your plumbing, you must have "the point of no pressure change". With both "circulators" pushing against each other your going to have many problems including cavitation/air bubbles in the weaker flowing circulator

Which may well destroy impellers of both circulators . YOU have choose to use one boiler or the other to heat both spaces or separate the two boilers with two separate heating loops using the hand fed for heating the garage and the stoker for heating the home and a domestic hot water storage tank with an inner heating coil.

If I may I would like to suggest that you invest in a couple of very good paper back books about hot water heating.

The first is "CLASSIC HYDRONICS", the second is "PUMPING AWAY", and the third is "HOW COME".
These excellent paper back books were written by Dan Holohan. Mr. Holohan has over 5 decades experience with heating and plumbing and air conditioning for homes of all sizes and businesses and skyscrapers.

Mr. Holohan writes his books for the layperson and the journeyman plumber alike in an easy to read form and he also describes his many instances of correcting problems that journeyman plumbers have made and has also shown journeyman plumbers how to do their boiler plumbing more efficiently with pumping away from the boiler to pull the hot water through the top of the boiler steam chest with the circulator above the boiler
to remove the air bubbles more quickly and effectively and showing how installing the circulator above the boiler eliminates the need to drain the boiler to change a circulator by installing mounting flanges with ball valves to allow quick replacement of a bad circulator with minimal water loss.

Sounds like you are a candidate for a Primary loop (existing) and adding one or more secondary loops (to house).

Or you can extend your primary loop to the house and make your garage a secondary loop(s). You could then also add multiple secondary loops in the house (or garage) as zones.

I did this install at my father-in-law's place where the house was a duplex that we converted into a single house. It has hard walls (think 18" stone in the basement and full walls on each side, from early 1900's), so This is what I did.

Primary goes from boiler on one side to the second side and back. A section of secondary loops/zones is on each side. VERY efficient. (as in $80-120/month in NG, including tankless DHW and ventless fireplace).

I don't see any problem using two pumps toward each other at a tee. I'm thinking you only want to use one at a time? It will work if you put check valves in each line to keep pumps from pumping back thru the other pump.

Ok sooo.. izaharris. Thank you for your response. You had the answer I kind of thought all along yet needed someone to push me away from the idea of 2 circs pumping at each other. I thank you. I have bought dan holmans book. Great suggestion! I said I was a lurker for awhile..!!! Next.. coaliswarmx.. your suggestion sounds right on track. Run my loop of boilers together run one pump constant And a bypass in the garage loop. Then to a maybe zone valve in house to open up when there is a call for heat.. circ in garage would then run constant. I may not need to run the upstairs boiler at all just use it as a radiator of sorts...?

I’m going to put some pics up tomorrow. I don’t think my iPhone will upload pics on this forum?

dbsuz05 wrote: ↑

Wed. Dec. 18, 2019 6:24 pm

I’m going to put some pics up tomorrow. I don’t think my iPhone will upload pics on this forum?

It should, let us know if you have a problem and we'll help you through it.

You don't need to do a primary/secondary system or anything fancy like that. If you intend to use only one boiler at a time, use the Tee's but install valves so you can switch between boilers. You can make this work with one pump, I don't see a reason to have two.

-Don

I prefer two pumps, one for each boiler. That way I have 100% backup when one takes a crap..... for any reason.

Primary and Secondary loops allow zones. Zones are awesome

I have added some pictures on the next page.

That's an Axeman 130, not AHS right?

Yes it is an Axeman 130.. I thought they were basically identical and put ahs130 oops!

They do look very similar indeed. How do you tell them apart, anyway?

One has a box around it the older ones dont have a insulated box. But i think you could get a insulated box. The newer models have digital controls. But as far as the inner workings, they appear to be the same. Mine is a 1991 model.