where to change from iron to copper

Bob Vennerbeck

I am slooowly retrofitting central heating in a tiny, two apartment building (to replace gas-on-gas stoves, which replaced coal fires in open grates....) - we added Slant-fin baseboard when apts were empty, and are now setting up an HB Smith cast-iron boiler. For various reasons, there's no real hurry on this job, and I'm enjoying the luxury of taking the time to make this as well laid-out and plumbed-up as I possibly can. I've been absorbing a lot of great ideas from "Pumping Away" and Dan (and you-alls!) other writings, while learning to understand why this stuff works, as opposed to 'just being able to make it work'.

My question for today: what concerns and constraints should govern where to change over to copper piping from the threaded iron pipe on the boiler? In the past I've always gone straight to copper from whatever iron stubs were delivered on the boiler, but now I'm wondering if that is economically, technically and aesthetically the best choice, and how the rest of you make those choices.

Thanks!

Vbob

Michal

no real speacial traits

there realy are no special places to start with copper. I like to go black iron to a point where i know it will not be supporting anything like circulators, or a air scoop. You can go directly from the boiler. However You should use dielectric unions to stop galvanic action from happening.

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

iorn

use black iorn for the riser and to support the expansion tank and circ pumps, it is stronger than copper and using iorn it will act as a sacrifical element, because it is softer than the boiler and pumps, the harmful minerals in the water will attack the iorn first. Bob

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George_10

What steps have you taken to clean and treat

this system?

You can protect the system and maintain design efficiency with the proper "TLC". The payback is lower fuel bills, less down time and fewer repairs.

If you would like, give me a call at 800-543-5975. We specialize in doing just that for new and existing systems.

Free technical assistance is our way of helping our clients understand what can and should be done in this area.

Joe_30

Use brass couplings between your iron near-boiler piping and the copper runs. Forget dielectric unions. They can leak over time.[My opinion fom lurking here.] A couple of feet of iron piping at the boiler can support the weight of various components. You could use a rack made of store bought pierced angle steel screwed into the wall to carry the weight, as an option.

Al Gregory

I use iron on the main of hot water jobs to support the air scoop and flo check, On steam I use it on the header and will use copper on the return,