Am I being dense?
New place. Forefront pipe in the middle is inbound city water. Came down to hook up a hose to circulate the air out, but.…isn't the hose hookup and shut-off reversed in this picture? There was a tag with a company on the shut-off so I must be missing something, right?
No shut-offs or hook-ups on the returns.
Comments
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looks like you have 2 zones pumping into the boilers. The two green hose bibs are the drains. The pipe coming out of the top is boiler out.
I see the domestic supply coming down from top with pressure reducer at top right. I assume the shutoff valve for supply is off screen.What type of emitters do you have? Baseboard?
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a few more pictures from different angles would be helpful. :)
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Yes the shut off valves and the drains are reversed. The shut off valve should be below the drain. You can't purge the way it is
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Grrrr. Thanks for confirming, I appreciate it.
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Couldn't you purge through the pumps? Reverse the normal purge routine?
Miss Hall's School service mechanic, greenhouse manager, teacher, dog walker and designated driver
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Are these mono flo loops? No bleeders on the emitters?
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What’s on the other side of that creepy looking door? Is that where you hide all the trolls?
No you can’t. Water will take the path of least resistance and run in the pump outlet up to the purge valve. A centrifugal pump is unlike a positive displacement pump. There is a path for the water to travel backwards through the pump. Closing those valves above the purge valves will prevent water from going from the feed that enters the system just under the circulator pumps from going the long way around thru the radiators and purging the loops.
The only thing those valves are good for is for swapping out a bad calculator pump. The flo-check on the supply and that valve on the return will keep the water in the radiators when you drain the boiler to replace anything between the flo-check and the return. Boiler gauge, relief valve, circulator pumps, and the like can all be serviced with the water in the radiators staying put. Not a fan of that design. Looks more like a mistake than an intentional design.
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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Have someone install new shutoff valves below the green handled return drains. Leave the old red ones in as redundant. Purge zones.
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or replace green valves with these reversible ported shutoff valves….
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Webstone-80613-3-4-Press-Full-Port-Ball-Valve-w-Drain-Reversible-Handle
Red ones doesn’t hurt as @psb75 pointed out but removing may be cleaner.
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Other side of that door is a bilco door. House was built in 1850, my floor joists are trees cut in half with the bark still on. Lots of old cool stuff. Lots of previous owner not cool stuff.
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I have a personal policy that any new valve I install will be a ball valve unless there is a good reason not to. Thanks for the tip on the reversible.
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I'm not smart enough to know what mono flow is, but yes I can bleed from the emmiters, I'm just trying understanding what I have (and what I don't) on this new-to-me system.
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If you look at the piping there are about 4 different ways to pipe a hot water system
- Series loop. The supply come out of the boiler and goes only to one radiator. It comes out the other end of the rad and goes to the next ans so on until it gets back to the boiler. All the rads are in series. It usually is used in smaller homes like a 5 room ranch
2. Monoflow the supply leaves the boiler and circles the basement in a loop and returns to the boiler (you could have 2 loops) The supply and return to each radiator tees into the same main pipe and uses special tees. This system was popular in the 40s, 50s and early 60s
3. Direct return. The supply main leaves the boiler and runs around the house. A supply pipe for each rad tees off the main. The main stops at the last radiator. Then you have the return main that leaves the return from the boiler it runs around the house and tees off to the return on each rad.
4. Reverse return is similar to direct return except the first rad connected to the supply is the last rad connected to the return
Post a few pics.
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