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Drill & tap circulator

NYplumber
NYplumber Member Posts: 503
Howdy,

Has anyone ever drilled a conventional wet rotor circulator for a pressure gauge? I have an underperforming snowmelt system im trying to get up to par for a customer. So far i fixed a few odds and ends. The current circulator a 0012 seems like it may not have the head requirement the system calls for. There are valves on either end of the pump so removing the pump to drill and tap should not be a big deal. This will eliminate having to drain and purge the rather large residential system if i choose to install a gauge in the feed piping. There is a boiler drain before the pump that can be used for suction pressure.

Another option which i want to shy away from is a saddle valve.

Input welcome.
:NYplumber:

Comments

  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
    edited February 2016
    Obviously the closer to the pump the more accurate the pressure readings.

    As for a closed system, and I know others will disagree. In my mind If you are pumping tword the x tank with a psi gauge on suction side of circ. You know the system psi. The circ can not add pressure to the ponc so the suction gauge reading subtracted from system psi would be the system head.

    If you are pumping away from PONPC. Then the gauge would have to be on the discharge side as close as possible to the circ. Since you can not take pressure down at the PONPC then the difference from system psi, and gauge reading would be system head.

    Of course this is provided that the system lends its self to the PONPC, the circ, and a point for a pressure gauge of a 0-30 psi variety to be in close proximity to each other.

    I do understand however the most accurate is to install petes plugs on either side of the circ with one psi gauge, and valves to isolate, and take pressure readings on each side of the circ with same gauge.

    I think to find out if a circ is wildly undersized, or oversized the above method will get you pretty good results with out going through drilling, and tapping the circ. I did this with my own system, with psi gauge about 2' from the circ, and the psi reading is identical to the painfully long form of calculating developed pipe lengths, and sizes. Both heads were the same.


  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
    You are going to need glycol concentration levels to make the appropriate adjustment to the pressure/flow readings.

    It might be easier to get the boiler btu input, adjusted for efficiency with an analyzer, and measure the delta-t to get a fairly accurate picture of flow rates and system performance.

    I've done that before. The results aren't lab quality, but usually good enough to ascertain the performance problem in a system.
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    Are there drain valves you might be able to re-purpose? Haven't tried these yet, but they're nicer than the makeshift ones I've been using.
  • 4Johnpipe
    4Johnpipe Member Posts: 480
    As was mentioned install purge isolation flanges with drains and use the gauges on the link from @SWEI...
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  • NYplumber
    NYplumber Member Posts: 503
    Im already repurposing the drain on the suction sude of the circulator.

    I have to stay within the two pump ball valves so i dont have to drain down the entire system.

    Glycol percentage is known through the use of a refractometer.
    :NYplumber: