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Why use steel?!

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alangeoffrey
alangeoffrey Member Posts: 9
edited February 2021 in Pipe Deterioration
Hello all,

I am building a system currently and I’m questioning why I am putting a steel low loss header into my system that has a stainless hx and stainless indirect served only by pex and copper. 

Spirovent makes a nice brass LLH, but Caleffi and Calefaftio have mild steel, the inside of the Calefactio already shows some orange it’s not coated. Not sure if Caleffi does the inside

I am used to never mixing wildly dissimilar metals like stainless and steel, why would these two reputable companies offer steel? The oxygen barrier and removal in the closed system makes it ok? A lot have caveats about water ph but our water is chlorinated as well, just seems like penny wise pound foolish, since these steel ones are cheaper. 

Any thoughts? I don’t want to lower the life of top of the line stainless indirect and boiler for saving a few hundred bucks on a LLH. But then again the pumps are cast iron...


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  • kcopp
    kcopp Member Posts: 4,432
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    Cost. Plain and simple.
    It is a closed loop heating system. You will fill it one time and the O2 should be pretty much done.
    Little or no galvanic action.
    You can fill w/ de-ionized water and that would be best.

    STEVEusaPAmattmia2Canucker
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,523
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    @alangeoffrey

    Cut some steel pipe out of a 70 or 80 year old hot water system. You will find the inside of the pipe is basically brand new as long as they system has had no leaks or excessive makeup water
    Robert_25alangeoffrey
  • alangeoffrey
    alangeoffrey Member Posts: 9
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    EBEBRATT-Ed said:
    @alangeoffrey Cut some steel pipe out of a 70 or 80 year old hot water system. You will find the inside of the pipe is basically brand new as long as they system has had no leaks or excessive makeup water
    A lot of variables in that. I’m more concerned with carbon steel and stainless equipment. I agree with , can only be price. Best practice IMO would be copper brass and stainless in the system. 
  • Canucker
    Canucker Member Posts: 722
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    alangeoffrey said:


    EBEBRATT-Ed said:

    @alangeoffrey

    Cut some steel pipe out of a 70 or 80 year old hot water system. You will find the inside of the pipe is basically brand new as long as they system has had no leaks or excessive makeup water

    A lot of variables in that. I’m more concerned with carbon steel and stainless equipment. I agree with , can only be price. Best practice IMO would be copper brass and stainless in the system. 

    Is it an open system? If it is, you're right about the dissimilar metals. If it's a closed system, once the oxygen is out of the water, there won't be any problems unless it's leaking. Best practices also include not going to a higher spec than necessary for your jobs. That's wasted effort unless the customer wants it
    You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick two

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