Spirovent Jr. maintenance in Hot Water Heating System

mgotch1

My 1-1/2" Spriovent jr. needed a new inner core. The new one came with a factory installed plastic plug in 1 end of it. Why? The original core has no plug in it. Some Factory modification? Do I remove it and throw it away or leave it? If so, does the plugged end go up or down? ...Thanks in advance...Mike

hot_rod

What happened to the core that it needs to be replaced? Got a picture?

mgotch1

I installed entire System 12 years ago. I'm a retired Boiler engineer with 30+ years. 5 zones. It has worked perfect all the time. Nice,Quiet flow....Great even heat!
Late last winter started to hear bubbles. Pulled head & bench tested. Float valve sticking. Flushed with cleaner 'till operating properly. Noticed that core element had lost about 5% of itself. I flipped it over and have been using it all winter. Nice and quiet, but needed to be replaced. In retrospect, I probably didn't flush out the system properly 12 yrs. ago.
The supplier sent me the wrong Spirovent Jr. core twice before they got it right. All of them had a plastic plug in only one end of the core tube. Thus, my question. Why? Trash or up or down installation?......Thanks for the assistance

hot_rod

I don't know about the parts, contact a factory rep or Spiro directly

I believe it is a plated copper media. If it is dissolving you have aggressive water or oxygen getting in

Is it a radiant systdm? Non barrier tube?

mgotch1

Bob "hot rod" Rohr,
I did ask a Factory Rep. about the plug. He said that Spirovent did an efficiency modification to their Inner Core to their air elimination vent valves. They observed that flow could bypass the element thru the core tube. So, they installed a simple plastic plug in one end. It doesn't matter if the plug is up or down. Either way, bypass flow is eliminated. Thought that you might be interested to this information for future use.
About my system, it is Hot Water Baseboard Heat. 5 zones. My core obviously was damaged, although slightly but by not cleaning the entire system after installation. Lots of acid via sweat joints/flux etc.....entirely my own fault. It did work very well and very quietly for 12 yrs, before I noticed the "bubble" noise.
I do treat my closed system with an oxygen scavenger/metal passivator, to minimize corrosion and the need for mechanical oxygen removal.

hot_rod

Sounds like you have a good plan.
That is a very good product.
Failures are most often traced to fluid quality. Modern mixed metal systems present even more corrosion potential.

This is one I installed and the non barrier tube destroyed and pin holed copper, brass and steel within 12 years. Higher temperature systems can see failures within a couple years. Plain water, it was flushed and cleaned.