Radiant heat valves

[fuelie74]

Last year I installed infloor heat in my shop, had a problem with the pressure relief valve not sealing but once replaced everything worked great most of the winter. Early spring I started to notice a few leaks at some valves. I addressed this by saying it can wait till fall I have better things to do and now fall is here. Anyways all of my leaks at at the body seam of valves in the system. The two worst are my purge tees hooking the primary loop to the secondary loops. So are they really needed or would I be better off replacing them with tees and being done with it. One other valve looks to be starting to leak at the seem. Is it common to have this much trouble with valves? The other valve starting is a flush port tee valve on the return of my first zone. What about using the O - ring seal push together fittings for easy service or are they asking for trouble to?


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[LS6 Tommy]

Did they only start leaking after the system went cold for the year? If so, I'd fire it up & get everything up to temp to see if they "heal up". one of my zone valves used to have a REALLY slow drip in the summer that would go away once that zone called for heat.

Tommy

 

[fuelie74]

No they started near the end of heating season and I decided not to worry about till after the season was over.

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[truckman5000]

If those are webston valves. Ive had problems with them.

 

[fuelie74]

Yes they are webstone valves. So is there a different brand that would be better?

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[anthony666]

anything is better than webstone .. that stuff is chinese garbage

 

[fuelie74]

Is there any good reason to have the purge tee valves over just tee'S?

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[anthony666]

nope .. ditch them and purge from the connections at the bottom of the boiler

also while you have the system open, clean out that y strainer

 

[Ron Lombardo]

Relocate the expansion tank ... SPIROVENT tells you the location you have it piped to is for sediment drain. I'll bet the expansion tank has sediment in it not allowing for expansion to take place properly in the system and its over pressuring and spitting out of the relief valve.

 

[anthony666]

technically that's true .. lately i've been putting expansion tanks on wirsbo pex that you can sorta see through off that port and looping the pex like a trap once it's flooded

 

[fuelie74]

Thanks for the help on this one guys I just got my parts this week and started redoing it tonight. How and where should the expansion tank go then if the why I have it is wrong?

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[anthony666]

bring a copper line down off that port, tee off of that horizontally for your expansion tank .. continue the vertical leg and put a sediment drain valve at the bottom (aka a faucet) .. the air eliminator is like a big wide part of a river where flow slows and stuff drops out of suspension, it can fall all the way into your expansion tank and possibly damage the bladder inside

 

[brewchief]

I've pulled dozens of expansion tanks off mounted to the bottom of spirovents or air scoops and have yet to find much in the way of sediment, I've done 3 boiler replacements in the past few weeks and have 2 more sitting in ghe shop to go and they will all get an expansion tank on the bottom of the air eliminator.

 

[anthony666]

i agree, its ridiculous .. but the last couple of warranty jobs i did tech support wanted photos emailed of the entire set up and this is the kind of worse case scenario **** we have to start building systems to avoid if we want to make a claim and not get blamed for a poor install .. get used to installing a lot more y strainers and magnetic separators, and if you havent already, put a filter system on your flush cart