Eureka Fitting

Dave Stroman

Here is a photo of a Eureka fitting I ran across a few years ago. For those of you who do not know what it is, it is a sort of diverter tee that you see in monoflow heating systems, except it is for gravity systems.

Well, the home owners are ready to replace the old gravity boiler and I am trying to decide how I should pipe it up and pump it. I am afraid if I simply pump the water into the old main, it will turbulate the water to the point where the hot water will not stratify to the top of the pipe and the eureka fitting will not do their job.

Mark Eatherton once explained a way that he thought would work, but had never put it to the test. He is what he said-

You take a piece of 3" copper about 3' or 4' long. Mount it verticaly and bring the system return in the bottom and the supply out the top. In the middle of this 3" pipe, you install 2 closely spaced tees, say a couple of 3" x 1 1/2" tees. With a small pump, like a 005, you pump the boiler supply water in the top tee and the boiler return out the bottom tee. This should create a column of hot water and start the gravity process.

Sounds like it should work. Has anyone tried it? Or do I get to be the first test rat?

Dave Stroman

Steamhead (in transit)

What I'd do

is use a VERY small circulator on the system loop, maybe a B&G NRF-9 depending on how big the system is. Pump the water slowly and it should mimic the gravity flow. Of course you'd use primary-secondary to tie everything together.....

"Steamhead"



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