Not full flow Air Separator

John Cox

I am looking to adding a 2" air separator in a bypass configuration to an existing 3" line. This will allow some of the water to go through the air separator. Will this be effective? NOte, adding a 3" directly is not possible.

Brad White_9

Any microbubble resorber

filter, strainer, etc. in a bypass configuration will work. It will just take longer to do a full job.

Keep in mind:

1) You will need some main-line restriction to get nearly any flow through it. Hard to convince flow in a 3" pipe that going through a 2" device with a scrub-brush is going to be fun.

2) I suggest you pipe it across supply and return unless it is a condensing boiler. Otherwise assure a good bit of pressure difference in parallel with the device.

3) The presumption of using any device in a bypass arrangement is that the rate of contaminants being introduced (air for a separator, dirt for a strainer or filter) is less than the through-put of the device. In other words, don't expect to deaerate a system with ongoing leaks.