sediment in radiant system

Al Corelli_2

Sounds like a case of "missing oxygen barrier" to me.

That, or maybe an air leak.

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[Deleted User]

SEDIMENT IN RADIENT SYSTEM

All I have a Weil Mclain Ultra 155 with a radient system. I have pex tubing in the basement floor and onix tubing(staple up in the 1st and 2nd floors). I have 8 zones with taco 007 pumps and a 60 gal boilermate for domestic water. I am getting a large amount of sediment in the system which has even plugged my return pipe in the boiler. i have installed an 1-1/4 strainer valve on the supply side and have been blowing off the valve daily (and getting sedimen out) since october or so I have gotten 1 - 1.5 quarts of solid out of the system. I just had the water checked for metals and nothing out of the normal range there. I am going to now have the particles tested to see if I can detirmine what it is. Has anyone ran across a problem like this before or have any ideas where it coming from or what it is?
thanks
Mike

Dave Larsen_11

1.5 quarts

Check out what those solids are made of and you'll have your answer.

Weezbo

a strainer is a good thing.

so is flushing the entire system .

when you add a known quality of water ,it reduces the guess work.

gate off the water to the boiler. get about 200 gallons of a known quality of water, flush the system with some TSP dont forget to check the stainer of the water inlets fast fill.same thing on your back flow preventer...exercise the relief valve,

use the boiler drain valve to evacuate the boiler,...check each zone when you flush the system with air into a white bucket...

make certain that you take the plug out of the spirovent and remove the captive air tank any sediments collecting there could cause you problems further down the line...

open the fire chamber and take a real good look for any white or grey encrustations...



don't neglect to take the circs off and check the pump bodies for build ups on both intake and discharge of the circ.
once you have the thing up and running again gate off all the zones and crank the heat up on the boiler. turn it off and re check the now clean combustion chamber for any sign of water ..remove the stack from the draw band back and see if you can see any condensate vapor leaving the boiler ....

after the thing cools way way down...look everywhere for some sign of a leak around the boiler. then check each zone one at a time....if there is air in one of the zones or lots of dirt when you power purge that zone ... re fill the zone keep it gated and pump 50 psi into it. Leave the test gage on it for an hour...

my guess is that you have either a fairly severe leak in the boiler or field,you have a non barrier pipe,your water isn't going through a filter before ending up in the boiler,& or your water quality is lot worse than you were informed , (on any condensate lines on a condensing boiler you should clean everything in that piping as well... just thought i 'd throw the idea out there).

..if so, you are going to need to get a second opinion.

*~/:)

Man ,... i type slow )

[Deleted User]

Strainer good thing

weezbo
I have purged the system countless times. the sediment seems to be in the boiler area and has not gone into the tubing. if ther is a leak in the system it has to be in the bsmnt floor as the onix is staple up in the 1st and 2nd floor.
I removed the burner cover plate and there was a bit if white scale which I did remove most of. there does not apear to be any leaks at the boiler that I could see. I have had several people look at the system and have not come up with any good answers. FYI This is only a 3 yr old system

Weezbo

ok. think about this as an experinment...

Where are your known controls and where are the variables?

if by introducing lots of water from the existing water supply it does not help...perhaps it adds TO the problem, making the results askew.

you understand how that works?

think like a scientist *~?:) always questioning always looking for the known observations and systematically eliminating factors that are not relevant to the equation.

when you introduce an unknown it has to have a control .

kpc_12

its ending up....

in the boiler because that is the slowest velocity point. Is there just water in the system? any glycol? How old is the onix? What temp is the staple up running at? What do you have for a circ on the onix loop? Some type of erosin is happening....At this point you need to flush the system (again) add a good cleaner (could be a Rhomar product) run for a few hours , flush again and add a good conditioner...I would call rhoumar products and run thsis by them ...very knowledgeable.

[Deleted User]

ok weezbo an kpc..... I'm with you on the unknown water.... I am on city water and talked to people in that field and they claim the water is in the "normal" range. also I had a gentleman who does water testing in boiler systems check it also and all is ok. but.... im not ruling anything out at this time.. I'm running from 120-140 water throught the system which was new construction just over 3 years ago. I have ran a cleaner through two different times with no apparent change and then I put a conditioner in as well. My next step is to have the solids analized to find out what exactly is in the system. Thanks for all the input!!! this is a real challenge

Drew_2

Sediment

Mike
If I'm not mistaken the Ultra 155 has an aluminum heat exchanger. If this is true, DO NOT use TSP to clean it until you have gotten an Ok from the manufacturer. Also watch what cleaners you use with aluminum. I've run tests on various cleaners and found that some of the best with metals other than aluminum will turn aluminum into Swiss cheese in very short order. Could your problem be caused by the cleaners that were used?