Mono flow tee vs. non-mono flow for multiple toe kick heaters!

Dfio24

We have used beacon Morris toe-kick heaters for years with no problems. We generally hook them up in the loop using 3/4 by 1/2 90's and never have had issues. Usually it's one or two heaters. We also know that beacon Morris recommends using mono flow tees but we have never done it that way. We have spoken to a few friends, actually two brothers that are both master plumbers. One brother swears by mono flow the other swears against it. And again my father has been installing these heaters for years with out mono flow, never an issue. Now we have come across a job that is a little different then normal. It is a wing if a house that has a huge open kitchen/dining room/ living room it's has 30' ceilings and is surrounded by many sliding glass doors and windows. Making it hard to get the amount of heat required for this space to be done in baseboard. So the lay out is two zones. 1 zone that has 4 toe kick heaters and the 2nd zone has 2 toe kicks and about 20' of high output baseboard. We are wondering if anyone has opinions on using mono flow tees or doing it how we have done it for years and what your reason would be? Or are we overthinking this situation? Any comments would be appreciated!

remodel

to mono flow or not to mono flow

This is probably a separate zone?

Few things:

1) delta t drop through each unit if its in series and each units actual heat out put

2) heat output of each downstream unit and the baseboard

3) air problems, maybe not since there in series..there's a lot of hydraulic loss in those kickers

4) maybe home run is better or reverse return or is this strictly a series loop

5) guys on the board will have a lot more input to come I am sure

6) if it is its own zone (i.e. mini zone) any short cycling considerations

icesailor

Toe Kicks:

I've done similar things like that.

If it were me, I would do the 4 as a true reverse return and not use the Mono-Flows. As far as the other two, I might use Mono-flows done as a true "One Pipe" with a set of Mono-flows for each toe kick. If it is all one connected room, I'd probably do it as one zone with a true reverse return.

Have you ever seen the Smith's Environmental in-floor units? They are really quality and stand alone as a complete unit. Unlike Beacon Morris which is a toe kick in an added box. It is also my understanding that Beacon Morris no longer makes Toe-Kick units. Or, that's what my wholesaler said. The Smith's units are really, really nice. Especially their floor unit. It has a grate that is really rugged and isn't some tin POS.

I put in 3 for an anal designer architect. So anal that he could put a sewer treatment plant to shame. He loved the floor units. That was after rejecting every other type of heat emitter I could find. They also make some really fine looking AND QUIET cabinet fan coil units.

I have no connection to them in any way, but I was really impressed with them.

I think that they also make a HO baseboard that is way above normal (#80) High Output baseboard.

But from my experience, the conditions you describe, fan coils are the way to go because the fans will circulate the hot air to the ceilings and cold air off the floor. They also come with low temperature internal thermostats so that if you use ODR, the fans will run.

http://smithsenvironmental.com/



http://smithsenvironmental.com/html/floorkit.html