Taco pump w/IFC

digger_2

Will the taco pump w/IFC prevent themal circulation as well as reverse flow ?

Jean-David Beyer

My guess is NO.

The IFC is just a small check valve with a weak spring in it to hold it closed. So it works fine to prevent reverse flow. But the spring is very weak, so it would prevent only the slightest thermal circulation.



In my system, for downstairs, the plumbing circuits drop over 5 feet to get down from the near-boiler piping into the slab, and then rise 5 feet to get up to the near boiler piping to return the cooled water to the boiler. So there should be no thermal circulation there when heating the upstairs. And the system came on for the first time this morning and I could feel no circulation in the downstairs zone when heating just the upstairs.



When heating just the downstairs, there is a reduction in pressure in the near-boiler piping that discourages flow to the upstairs. And this morning, I could feel no flow to the upstairs when heating just the downstairs.



When heating domestic hot water with indirect water heater, there did need to be a regular Flow-Check valve in there so that hot water did not get into the heating circuits.

hot_rod

you can

get reverse flow up the return side also, both sides should be checked especially nif they are tapped off the top of a header.



I think that check has a 1/2 psi pop. That should handle most if not all migration on that side of the loop.