Radiant Heat Water??

[Mufrat62]

I am going to be starting up my radiant heat system in my shed in the next couple of weeks. I am using a Hydro Shark boiler from Menards and the anti- freeze/water mixed at 50/50. Out on the farm our water is fairly hard and leaves the calcium build up in our hot water heater that causes premature failure on the electric element at the bottom.

I am wondering if I would be better to use water from the City source but it is treated where ours is not. It is a smaller system so to haul the required amount from the City would not be that difficult.
We live outside of Brandon, Manitoba hence I am using the anti-freeze in case of a hydro outage.
Your thoughts?

 

[Rich H.]

The I sheet for the hydro shark boiler states use city water + the antifreeze. At least, mine does. The I sheet explains what antifreeze to use, also.

Myself I think it's a good idea to do it the way the paperwork says in an attempt to avoid problems later on. Using the wrong fluid might void the warranty, but the warranty might not be all that great anyway...

 

[Fastback]

I used no water, just RV antifreeze.

 

[anthony666]

I am going to be starting up my radiant heat system in my shed in the next couple of weeks. I am using a Hydro Shark boiler from Menards and the anti- freeze/water mixed at 50/50. Out on the farm our water is fairly hard and leaves the calcium build up in our hot water heater that causes premature failure on the electric element at the bottom.

I am wondering if I would be better to use water from the City source but it is treated where ours is not. It is a smaller system so to haul the required amount from the City would not be that difficult.
We live outside of Brandon, Manitoba hence I am using the anti-freeze in case of a hydro outage.
Your thoughts?

sounds like a tiny system, for what it costs a few jugs of distilled water instead of your well water would be a great investment and save you a bunch of problems with scaling down the road .. calcium buildup in your system will act like insulation making your water heater work overtime to satisfy your heat load .. i have a hard time seeing into my fish tank with my well water

 

[koditten]

My 800 sq/ft shop took 9 gallons of water/rv antifreeze.

 

[jvitez]

Load up on distilled water. Our geothermal system was filled with distilled water and boiler treatment (anti rust). They hauled it all in by 5 gallon water cooler type jugs. Do it once, do it right.

 

[Ron Lombardo]

If you buy Propylene Glycol and use a 33% mixer you can get down to below 0 degrees. If you have ahrd water condition I would fill the rest with distilled water. Seeing your in Canada where temps go below 0 degrees ... you can look up on internet the scale to get you below 0. A tool called a refractometer is how you measure the % of glycol and the temp of which before the mixture will feeze.

The glycol has a rust inhibitor already in it. In this day and age I would assume most of the system is pex or plastic?

Make sure you install some sort of backflow preventor on the make up water feeder so in acse the system exceeds the pressure coming in you dont end up drinking glycol.

Ron