To purge or Not to purge, That is the Question

There are several YouTube videos that explain how to get air out of your baseboard heating loops. Some of them are very helpful. The problem is that many homeowners do not quite understand that purging only works properly on a series loop. For those with series-loop systems, that video may be all they need.

But what about the people with baseboard radiators that are connected to a one-pipe MonoFlo® Tee system? There are a lot of those systems out there, and purging seldom gets all the air out of every radiator. I have often thought that an animation would help explain this difference.

In this first animation, there is a series-loop system with no tee fittings, so the water can only flow in one direction and push the air out of the piping. There are no choices to make as to which path offers the least resistance. There is only one path.

This second animation uses MonoFlo® tees to direct water to the radiators. When there is air in the radiators, the force of the water purging the main pipe will clear the air from the main loop, but the tee branches do not have sufficient pressure or force to move the air from the radiators above the main loop. This can leave air trapped in the radiators.

The correct way to remove that trapped air is to vent each individual radiator. That is why each radiator must have a vent to allow the air to escape from the high points of the baseboard radiator.

Let me know what you think!

I plan on adding an audio explanation later.