What's the deal on wye fittings in a hydronic system. And 1" copper baseboard?

PhilDavid

Just thought I'd throw this out there. I was in a house today, 2 floors 1 Tstat that had 1" copper baseboard. In 12 years I've never seen 1" copper baseboard. The system had 3 split loops, nothing complicated but, there were wyes instead of tees for the splits. All 1" brass wyes sweat into copper. It's definitely an old system but are some guys still using wyes instead of tees? If so why? Just very curious

Hilly

The only time I see 1" in residential is when somebody talks about their system and explains... "Uncle John worked with the school board and that's why we have these industrial radiators" It's be an encased wall hung fin tube convector. They had 1" piping so guys would run 1" piping. But there was always a story about where they came from... and always free. Or when you go to change a hot water tank and it's all done in stainless and a guy tells you his dad put it in 15 years ago, he was a pipefitter on the rigs.

nate379

I don't know about baseboard but all of my heating system is 1.25" copper until it goes into the floor (radiant). Heats a 1400sq ft house and a 625sq ft garage.

The fitting on the left or the right is a "wyes"?

PhilDavid

The double wye connects two returns and the wye on the right of that connects the 3rd return loop. The supply main splits into three loops with wyes

PhilDavid

Maybe the old timers used wyes instead of tees to reduce friction loss?

nate379

I would call those capital Y and lower case y. Why call it a "wye" when it's a Y? Do you call a T a tea?

hot_rod

A T is a tee.
Nibco " Northern Indiana Brass Company" still makes some of those unusual fittings, on the left that is called a double elbow or double ell.

Danny Scully

@nate379, you're kidding right?

Robert O'Connor_12

I used to always use wyes on steam boiler installs at the Hartford loop junction.
I like Y's!
Capitol, or lower case...

Robert O'Connor/NJ