Inline Expansion Tank

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

This is the first time I've seen an expansion tank piped in series with the main supply to the house.

Laars boiler, Grundfos pump on the main supply - pumping towards the x-tank - and B&G pumps on 3 returns. The owner (now deceased) built the house and installed the radiant system. He was a math professor at a local university.

The mixing valves are now bypassed and disconnected from their controls.

The current owner (son of the original guy) said that his father used solder without antimony, believing that antimony would deteriorate the copper and start to leak. Hard to understand since most solder in those days was 50/50 tin/lead.

Jamie Hall

Is this a well water supply?

mattmia2

i feel like this was a we knew something 30 years before we built this thing so we did it that way sort of thing. i think those 100 series circulators were pretty obsolete by the time this was built.

leonz

Seeing that automatic air vent in the corner is a bad sign.

An open to air saddle tank with a tube sight gauge for water level would work well for this system.

HVACNUT

What are those things (not in use) between the wye strainers?

Looks like a very tight location. Plus the water heater. Have fun changing the PRV if needed.

ScottSecor

I did a Google search for Sarcotherm. I thought those mixing valves looked familiar. Heating Help came up, with a brochure of a nearly identical unit, dated 1943. I am not sure how to link that page. Cool stuff.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

@Jamie Hall City water.

Apart from disconnecting the mixing valves, the system has been untouched for 70 years. I was impressed.

mattmia2

Did those mixing valves use some sort of electromechanical control? That Laars isn't 70 years old?