Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Grunfos Pump

Denny Reardon
Denny Reardon Member Posts: 2
in THE MAIN WALL
What your opinion on useing a Gundfos UP-15 Brute, 3 speed Cast Iron pump on a STEAM System for a hot water loop of baseboard. Will it take the heat and do i have to worry about any corosive promlems.

Comments

  • Brad White
    Brad White Member Posts: 2,399
    Direct steam is an open system

    and as such, I would use a bronze circulator. The brand is up to you but Taco or Grundfos would work just fine. But unless you are using an intermediate heat exchanger (which needs a bronze circulator for below-waterline use anyway), go with a bronze circulator. Iron will not hold up over time.
    "If you do not know the answer, say, "I do not know the answer", and you will be correct!"



    -Ernie White, my Dad
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    don't do it...

    The free radical oxides (rust) will lock up any wet rotor pump within a year. Use a good old (mostly) all american 3 piece circulator like a Bell and Gossett series 100.

    Been there, done that, have the scars to prove it :-)

    ME
  • Denny Reardon
    Denny Reardon Member Posts: 2
    Grundfos

    I totaly agree with you about Not useing a Cast Iron pump. However I was told that a Grundfos UP-15 (cast iron) will work fine. The problem is I cant find the proof.
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,405
    Grundfos has a line of cast stainless circs

    onn the market now. a bit ledd $$s then bronze. Great looking also.

    hot rod
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • Brad White
    Brad White Member Posts: 2,399
    Actually, Mark E. has an excellent point

    not just the material (which I focussed on) but the style. Mark's suggestion to not use a wet-rotor (water-lubricated) circulator regardless of material, is advice to keep.

    Stick with bronze and use a coupled-motor circulator for longest life.

    Thanks, Mark.
    "If you do not know the answer, say, "I do not know the answer", and you will be correct!"



    -Ernie White, my Dad
  • Ken_40
    Ken_40 Member Posts: 1,320
    The problem is not so much

    the material the pump is made of, but the manner in which wet rotor pumps are made The seal is designed to allow water into the circ. body. Given the very tight tolerances between the rotor and the stator/field - any "crumb" larger than a grain of sea slat has the potential to end up between the motor rotor and stator - seizing said rotor in the process.

    A 3-piece pump, made of brass, in an extremely clean and well maintained steamer might last 10+ years.

    You'd be lucky to get more than one year out of a wet rotor pump. I'd use a S-100 or Taco equivelant and do it right.

    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    i have used many Taco bronze circs in that application,..

    and many B&G ....unless the system is well maintained bronze circs can fritz out ...i thought i had it all down until i had an almost immediate call back one year on a wet rotor...

    just to reinforce the whys and wherefores on this topic.

    it is not so much the circ, as the conditional is in the system :)
This discussion has been closed.

Categories