What air seperator is the Best?

Bestway_Dave

Just about every manufacture has an air separator now. They all say theirs is the best. There is Spirovent, Taco, Honeywell, Caleffi, Watts just to name the popular ones. Has anyone ever seen a comparison of these to see which one is actually better? We're probably splitting hairs, but it would be nice to see a performance test to see if they perform as good as the manufactures claim.

Mark Eatherton

They all work the same in the end...

You can only remove so much oxygen from H2O. It's a matter of how FAST it gets it to zero. MBR's (Micro bubble resorbers) get it there faster than conventional air scoops, but as I said, the ALL get it to the same degree of airlessness.



For me and my money, a good ol' air scoop with the expansion tank connection on the bottom works great.



Many MBR's were introduced to address what was perceived as an "air problem". In reality, the alleged problem has more to do with the pumps location in relationship to the expansion tank. If the pump is moving water AWAY from the expansion tank connection, the air problem is not a "problem."



Will an MBR alleviate the conditions associated with this "problem"? Absolutely, but the problem will be back a the beginning of every heating season, whereas if you are pumping away from the PONPC, it self clears. Even with a scoop.



I think it is Weil/Mclain who incorporates an air separator into their boiler that works fantastic.



If you have non oxygen barrier tube in your system, you will need to use only non ferrous products, which sends you back to needing an MBR, because, to my knowledge, no one makes a bronze scoop.



HTH



ME



ME

hot_rod

micro bubble

are the tough ones to collect, catch and eliminate. Here are a couple pictures to explain how microbubble resorbers work. There are many brands, same principle, features vary a bit and longevity under all water or fluid conditions is an important consideration.



The older ramp style eliminators work well when installed properly, flow velocity, etc needs to be considered. They do have limitations regarding the micro bubble elimination.



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Jean-David Beyer

I cannot imagine an outfit like Consumers' Union running the tests.

But who would do this? Some university department of civil engineering? Or some well-equipped wall poster?



I am not a professional, and I have a small Taco Series Series 4900 that, of course, they claim to be the best. They even say the "Tests carried out at the Delft Technical University have unequivocally proved that 4900 Air Separators remove all micro-bubbles from 15 microns and up. This is three times better than comparable Air Separators!" Of course, this raises the question of just which other separators they tested, and what they mean by "comparable." My guess is that it is pretty good, but from looking at what I would call a comparable SpiroVent separator, I would not expect a lot of difference. I could be wrong, needless to say.



BUT it seems to me it has taken from September until now to get the last little bits of air out. Part of the reason for this is that the maximum temperature of the water from the boiler that goes through the separator is 135F, and I do not know if it has ever hit that (I doubt it). It is in the main secondary loop of a P/S system, just before it goes to the two heating zones. The pipe and separator are 1 1/4" and the flow rate is probably between 2.7 gpm and about 10 gpm depending on which circulators are running. This corresponds to flow rates of 0.66 feet per minute and 2.45 feet per minute through the separater. This is well below their specification that the flow rate should not exceed 5 feet per minute.



They reason I say it took this long is that there cannot have been a lot of free air in the system when the contractor installed it. They seemed pretty careful about purging the system. The circulator to the downstairs zone never makes any noise, and you can barely hear it if you are next to it. The circulator to the upstairs zone makes a slight noise that could be small air bubbles. It does not usually make this noise anymore, but it used to do it most of the time. There was never so much air that the upstairs did not get heat. After a while the noise would go away, only to return if it got colder outside and the water temperature increased. After each increase, the noise returned only to slowly disappear. Now in mid February it hardly ever makes a noise anymore.



Trouble is, I have nothing to compare it to. I wonder if a professional here has the time and interest to run a test to actually compare various separators. Thinking about it, it would be fairly difficult to design the experiment to control for different supply water temperatures and dissolved air content in the water used to fill the system, to run constant temperature water through the separators and the same speeds, etc., to make for a valid experiment.

REX

2"pipe

Make your owne works thew best, 30" 2" pipe reduced to 3/8 with a valve......every 3 months you open valve with hose conected to let air out. This way no special fittings or air bleeder to get cloged. I got one in my house

hot_rod

some differences

every manufacturer highlights their unique-ness. Here is one example. I suspect most manufacturers test the competitors to see where improvements can be made.Not to forget operator error, of course. Sizing, proper placement i.e. plumb and level on some brands, flow rates through the device, clean fluid, etc. hr

daveb149

Henry's Law

Very good SCIENTIFIC data on air and dirt in solution. Google it and learn the principle behind the issue at hand. Many, many new players in this arena since the SPIROVENT first came out over 20 years ago-before then it was air scoop all the time.

Read the theory, then decide.

Personally, I like Spirovednt for air, and don't forget about the mod/con boilers! They need dirt seps: Spirotrap is a great insurance policy for that!

Steve Ebels_3

I like

For my money I like the Taco Vortec series and Spirovent. I did not have good luck at all with the 4900 series Taco's that we tried and wound up taking both out and replacing one with a Vortec and the other with a Spirovent. No issues with either system since.  We took the 4900's apart to see if they were gunked up with sludge, excess flux or other junk and they were both clean. They are now residing in the scrap barrel in the shop. Probably should send 'em back to Taco...........



For commercial I don't think that you can beat the old B&G Rolairtrol separators. We have put in a few of them on really nasty systems and those baby's will do the trick. They are big and not cheap but nothing works as well as that design on a large system.

Ron Jr._3

For what it's worth .......

If speed of venting air is any consideration ..........



We've used 4 different brands in the past few years . The B+G EAS Jr. vents air faster than the other 3 . Very easy to pull the vent to clean and comes with a vent cap . The Spirovent vents air very fast too , but it can be a pain to pull apart to get to the guts . And I'd like to see a vent cap on it in case a homeonwer need to shut it till we get back there . We used the Taco Vortec a few times . Vents slower than the others but it has an easily changeable 3/4 air can on top . By far the slowest venting is the Honeywell Supervent . Although it's very easy to pull it apart and has a vent cap .



I'd love to see more manufacturers make a vertical air eliminator . Space is a premium .......  

Unknown

Fast is best

I have used several brands with great success. I am not sure how you 'field' test for speed, but I am convinced that the old-fashioned air scoop was designed for old-fashioned high temperature low velocity boilers. If you can get back to replace the vent every year or two, your all set. I stopped using them when I first saw a Spirovent demonstration over 20 years ago...time is money.

Spirovents are serviced by spinning the top off with a couple of good wrenches, but the Honeywell takes the cake for easy and inexpensive parts replacement so far, but I have a new Calleffi in the truck just waiting for a new home!

I would never design or install a radiant floor heating system without a micro-bubble air eliminator.