dirt in heating system

hrlevy

The strainer on the water input to my hot water heater (Takagi) is getting clogged with some kind of dirt. I am having to clean it every other day. It may be coming from the inside of the old ceiling hung unit heater(the unit heater was not used for a few years). I was thinking about putting a whole house water filter in the system to trap the dirt before it gets to the hot water heater. any input..

hrlevy

clearify

I forgot to say this is a closed loop heating only system. Except for the unit heater all parts are new.

icesailor

Dirt and hot water:

If you do install a filter like a Cuno 110 or whatever number it is, you MUST use the stainless Steel filter because of the hot water. You can use standard filters for H & C, but the plastic housings will not take the hot water. I have a Noritz water heater that is picking up some sort of anaerobic iron bacteria that is making a small scale that plugs the cold water inlet filter, slowing down flow. I used the Cuno stainless filter and it works well, It traps the scale but lets the water flow. When the flow stops, a lot of the scale drops to the bottom of the canister. But you MUST use the metal housing and it isn't cheap.

Gerry Alder

Dirt separators

Don't reinvent the strainer just go with a dirt separator like dirtcal by Caleffi or spirovent also makes a good dirt separator, I prefer these over a simple wye strainer, then you could remove the tiny screen from the Takagi and be done with it.