Make up water

don_9

don_9

confuse

I have herd many say,that once the system is fill and purge that they turn the valve off at the prv.I have work on a few 6 gallon waterheater that had no make up water and we
kept going back every other month filling and purging,Then
we got fed up and pipe in make up water and the problem went away.I always thought that you need to keep the valve on at all time to handle the minor losses,pump seals,air vents,evaporation.Am I missing somthing? Or is this another
dumb question from a airhead.

Big Ed

Water Leak

Don, the problem did not go away , there is a leak some where in that system.....

The idea of shutting down the feed valve is mainly for safety concerns, but also say there is a slab leak , the constant fresh make up water will rot out a heating system in no-time....... Standing from a contract service point of view , I understand why you feel it's best to leave it on.....

don_9

Waterleak

No,that was the first thing we checked for.Pressure test
held for days.Thanks Big ED

kevin

it had to.......

go some where??? was it a hydrostatic test? Would the inincreace in temp. cause the system to open up "hot" and leak and then not leak when cold? what is the system temp. when running? How big is the system? ie # of feet of tubing? what type of tubing are we talking about? I am interested because I am in the process of doing this same thing in a slab w/ a gas water heater, 575' of 1/2" Wirsbo tubing. I will put a LWCO on the system for sure but I want answers before I go much further. Thanks kpc

hr

Once all the air

is purged out you should be able to shut off the fill and not lose pressure. You could have a tiny pin hole leak that takes days to bleed dowm. Also check the air purger vent opening. These can seepenough to drop pressure over a period of time. Often times a small seep at the vent will evaporate on the warm piping and you may never realize it leaks.

The pressure just cannot drop without an explanation. I have dozens of small and large systems that don't even have fill systems connected to them. I fill them with a garden hose run and purge for a day then give them a shot of corossion inhibitor with O2 scavangers to handle any remaining O2, label the system and let er rip.

I much prefer a lwc to a fill valve and backflow preventor to maintain.

Keep sleuthing, something isn't right there

hot rod

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John@Reliable

Read the fine print!

Most Pressure reduce valves(automatic fill) state once system is at proper psi valve should be turned off.I guess they don't want valve to feed in case of break in system like yours is doing or system running out of water due to being clogged? and boiler cracks. Sounds like the lawyers were involved!Thats why they don't call it a Automatic fill valve.

don_9

Ok guys

I hear you,Kevin yes we test at 50 lbs,60 feet of pex tubing
single element waterheater,120 design temp.May be we did not get all the air out,how would you know? the water run clear you assume it all out,but is it?With lower water temp and lower pressure keep the air in the solution?these are the same set up in two different houses,heater and vent up high dropping down into bathrooms,maybe the static pressure in the lower part of the system making it hard to get the air out,I don't know.But there no longer a problem since
we add the prv.May I add its been years with no calls
other then yearly check.Sorry guys ,I don't have the right answer.But if you guy say you don't need the feed after all the air is remove,then I would have to believe,it was an air problem all along.Thanks again