What if You could make a bladder tank?

[aka.bugle]

Thinking about dropping a 34 gallon tractor inner tube thru the 4" port of my top 500gal tank... Why not? http://www.michelin-agricultural-tyres.co.uk/Learn-share/Ballasting-tyres

 

[ewdudley]

Sounds good as a concept but need to investigate if rubber can hold up to the temperature. Maybe use the port for a DHW coil and build something separate for expansion.

 

[jebatty]

Some OWB's use an innertube as the expansion vessel.

 

[BoilerMan]

If you make your own "expansion tank" I'd not put the innertube in the top port of the tank exposing it to high water temps for prolonged times. If you put it in a dedicated expansion tank which was piped into the system with some larger diameter pipe (for cooling) it could work. The key is finding out what material the innertube is made of. If you can find one that is made of EPDM you may be ok. Also I'd be concerned about water-rot of the rubber.

TS

 

[woodsmaster]

It would be neat to try. I have a non bladder tank and it seems to be working perfect now that I raised it up off the floor and added a line from the micro bubbler to the top of the tank.