Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: ffbare on October 05, 2014, 11:17:42 PM
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So for a better part of the night I have been trying to get air out of my system. I was able to get alot out. Now my heated changer on the top is cool to the touch. I'm hoping that in the morning the air will be pushed out. If not after work I guess I will be adding a second bleader one already on the highest point of the supply. My girlfriend has lost hope in me. Haha
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Is it pressurized as in a regular boiler setup or are you non pressurized all the way to your water to air exchanger?
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Non pressurized and I'm going crazy i caint for the life of me see to be able to get the air out of my 18 x 18 water to air heat exchanger. It's mounted horizontal I just put in two bleeder valves on both return and supply. Thank god I have a bypass on it. I don't know what to do. Water coming in is 180 degrees and water coming out is Luke warm.
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Did you try open and closing the valve on the return? This makes a pressure spike that helps flush air out.
If you don't have enough water moving for that then there is probably air before the pump. If that is the case, if you have a drain valve after the pump, open it and drain a few gallons as fast as possible. You need to get a decent flow of water to the pump so it can start moving water and pull the air through.
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Hey rsi yeah I have been monkeying around with this for hours I even had to fill my boiler up with more water I have been going through gallons just to make sure. I have maybe 80 feet of pex 1 inch in the house. Maybe 30 feet of 1 inch copper a few 90s in the copper. 20 plate exchanger and a 18 x 18 in the furnace. I added two more bleeder in the highest spot in the supply and return which I'm glad I did. I have my bumblebee an full speed 16 gpm I think
It's just so irritating knowing I have air. Thanks
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If it says it is running at 16 gpm then it probably has air in it.
How big are your bleeders? You need to dump water through it fast if it is air in the pump.
If it won't make too much of a mess, you might have to loosen the flange on the outlet of the pump and let water out.
Did the pump have a check valve in it? If so, did you remove it? That could be making the problem worse.
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I even sweated on ball valves with drains on them at the inlet and outlet of the hx so I can bleed them out. I think I may have most of the air out I hope so I have to be up in 5 hours for work. Thanks guys please feel free to give me any ideas or advise thanks again
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Rsi I'm pretty sure I'm air free in my loop it's just the heat exchanger that has air, I'm only saying this because with it bypassed it stays hot in my supply and return. Thanks
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Rsi yes I did remember to remove the check valve, thanks for that one. I am leaving my pump on high I hope I can bleed out some air in the morning I caint be the only guy who has this problem. I didn't see an up side or down side for the exchanger does that have anything to do with it?
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Rsi yes I did remember to remove the check valve, thanks for that one. I am leaving my pump on high I hope I can bleed out some air in the morning I caint be the only guy who has this problem. I didn't see an up side or down side for the exchanger does that have anything to do with it?
The only thing I could think of is I take it your heat exchanger is mounted vertically? Is the supply hooked to the top or bottom? Maybe if the supply is at the top it can't push all the air to the bottom of the exchanger and on out?
First time I filled mine I had to loosen the flanges on the pump to get all the air out (pump in the basement), next boiler I build the pumps will be at the boiler to ensure a good flow of water to the pump.
I'm out of ideals, hope you can get it figured out without to much frustration.
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My exchanger is horizontal just on top of my ac coil. It's seems to be pumping water just fine I have 3 valves plumbed to it so I can bypass the hx when I bypass the hx completely I get very hot water in both supply and return I had it run like this for maybe 30 min just to make sure it didn't have air in it ( I kept bleeding it till I had none left which took hours) after I started running through my hx I was able to bleed out some air but it doesn't get the top tube warm or hot. The water I was able to bleed out was cool to the touch not warm or hot I had it bleeding for maybe 10 min. I was able to bleed it because I put ball valves with drains on both sides of the hx. Thanks guys
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ffbare, if your heat exchanger is mounted horizontally you should have no problem pushing the air through, I have a thought, did you mount the circ horizontally (motor up or down), they need to be either mounted vertically or the motor needs to be horizontal and not vertical, if the motor is vertical it is very difficult to get all the air out of the circ. Post a picture of your setup please!
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ffbare, I feel your pain
Struggled to get heating system up and going last fall, STUPID CHECK VALVE!!! Once i fgured everythign was plumbed right I started up the system; I thought I had a plugged FPXE, cause like you I was gettign 180F into it and it was cold to the touch. After some investigating I just realized that i was dumping way oo much heat out to my radiant slab and that everythign was good I was just pulling HUGE BTUs, 1/2 to 1 hour later everything seemed to be up to temperaure and I could feel some heat in the FPXE
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Slim it's mounted horizontal. Ok update from this morning. I was able to bleed more air out my furnace fan was on all night it went from 64 at night 12 am to about 67 at 4 45 am I was able to bleed more air out before work just a little more the heat exchanger feels warmer. I asked my girlfriend to let me know the temp before she leaves for work. She Said it was like 74 so I know that bleeding helped big time. So when I get home again I will bleed some more. Thanks guys I will post pics real soon.
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Mines mounted horizontal as well, once I actually had water to the pump, air was never a problem. Maybe the bumble bee is just a touch small for the application?
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Ok guys quick update I had my pump running full speed I believe 16 gpm I came home and my fire was out just coals left I didn't load it because I kinda wanted to get a feel for wood consumption I won't do that again my water was just under 100 degrees to my understanding that hard on the stove. Ok long story short I believe I have all the air out, my next project will be to mount my old thermostat to turn my furnace blower on and off, no more just running the fan on 24/7 the girl said it got too hot. Thanks again everyone I will have more questions soon.
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If the pump says it is doing 16gpm then the flow meter isn't working right. It can't pump that much even without any head pressure. Are you sure it isn't airlocked?
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RsI water is moving for sure I kept playing with my return shutoff valve more air came out. I am pretty confident that all air is out of my system, both supply and return lines are extremely hot to the touch. I set my pump to delta t it's the taco bumblebee after I did that the readout displayed 6.7 gpm. My house is a very comfortable 76 degrees, I'm going to keep my blower on just to see how hot it will get. I am working on my second thermostat now to hook up to the blower. Thanks rsI
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I don't know how yours is plumbed but on mine I just have to close the return line for 10-20 seconds while the pump is running open back up and most of the air comes out.