heat exchanger cut-away comparisons

Don Blumenthal

Hello again, Mr. Dan Holohan-

I would very much like to help raise money for finding a cure for breast cancer.....My kid-sister, Judy died from it after 2 1/2 years of chemo. Perhaps $50-75 per unit sold (WaterHotter) would be appropriate. I don't know how this is done, but I'm more than anxious to contribute here. Please let me know. You have all the resources in place to streamline the flow into a cure. If you think this may have some everlasting merit, please respond here or give me a call: 702.327.3189

Don Blumenthal - Inventor/ 4th generation plumber

http://www.waterhotter.com

hr

I have been

undoing some 15 year old solar DHW systems on some apartments. Leaks in some of the panels and a reroofing project dealt the final blow this workhorse system, unfortunatly.

However the old panels, 30 some, have been sold and will be reused. I scored 3 of the nice 4X10's for my own place.

Anyways, here are two of the HXs used on the project. The copper shell/ tube was connected on the solar panel loop. A heat transfer oil was used in the panels and these double wall exchangers pumped through several storage tanks.

The flat plate was a back up connected, on the A side, to a gas fired boiler. It too, circulated through the storage for DHW needs on days the sun didn't shine. They both say the same water for the same period of time. I don't believe either were ever serviced.

The FP was pretty slow flowing when I ran a hose through the B side. I pumped a strong Hercules Sizzle acid through it for an hour to try to descale it. Flow improved, but still not great. I thought I could clean and reuse these FPs for home and shop projects. It may be a bit late, however.

So I cut both the TS and FP open to compare HX surfaces. The copper coil (id)was pretty much scale free, the FP was pretty tightly packed with hard water crud.

If you use FPs in hard water conditions, be sure to provide a means to periodically flush and clean them. I suppose this is true for any style of HX, but the FP's seem more sensitive.

Keep this concept in mind when presented with an open loop combo dhw/ radiant system. Fresh, hard, oxygenated water is not a good heat transfer fluid.

hot rod

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Mark Eatherton1

Wow...

A pictures worth a million words eh...

Thanks for sharing HR. Wonder why the difference in scale accumulation. How hot was the boiler running for back up.

How hot was the solar runing?

Lime scale accumulation is directly proportionate to operating temperatures.

Looks like a good application for a magnetic water conditioner:-)

Go easy on me boys... It's not a life an death situation here...

ME