Eko 40 piping problem

[hayrack]

I just got my Eko 40 on line Sunday and just started heating my 1000 gallon propane tank tonight. I am plumbed very close to nofossils simplest pressurized storage. I supply of the top of wood and tee into my existing supply manifold out the other end to the tank. The return comes out of the tank and through my existing return manifold and back to the wood boiler. I can bypass my oil boiler by closing one ball valve. The problem ls in my supply manifold. It has flowchecks not zone valves. The return manifold has circ pumps for each zone. As the laddomat pumps hot supply water through the supply manifold on the way to the tank it also pushes open all 6 of my flowchecks and puts constant heat to all zones. Once I realized this and closed the ball valves to each zone the tank really started heating up much faster.

Does anyone have an idea how to correct this without replacing all my flowchecks with zone valves or automags? I don't want to lay out $500 for zone valves if I don't need to.

Thanks, Eric

 

[Gooserider]

Not completely sure I follow your description, it's definitely a case of layout drawings being helpful, but...

Would it make sense to put the tank input before your supply manifold instead of after it, and then have a mixing valve or a motorized valve to control how much water got sent to the tank vs. how much went to the supply manifold?

Alternatively, is one of your manifolds the type that can support adding those little zone actuators that can be used to control the flow valve on some manifold styles?

Gooserider

 

[hayrack]

I think I may of figured out what is going on. It looks like I had air in the system so hot supply had nowhere to go and pushed the flow checks open. I think I will install a spirovent in the line to the tank to help prevent future air problems.

 

[hayrack]

I tried heating my tank again tonight and I am still pushing hot supply past my flow checks when zones are not calling. My flow checks are 12" horizontal off the supply manifold. If I put them more like 18" to 24" from my supply manifold will this be far enough away to keep them from opening while my Laddomat is pumping to the tank? I find that if I turn my Laddomat pump down to low speed they are less likely to open. I put it back on high speed and they open right back up.

 

[stee6043]

Can you get by with low speed without having your boiler go into idle? That might be an easy solution....

 

[EricV]

Do you have coils in your tank? There may be enough resistance in the coils to force the water up your zones, being the path with least resistance. I put one zone valve and 1 circ between the tank and the zones so when the house is not calling the water is forced through my coils, the path with the most resistance. Just a thought.

 

[hayrack]

Stee6043 I have my pump set on the middle speed for the last two fires and I don't seem to be experiencing any more ghost flow. The tank seems to be charging fine also. Maybe it had something to do with all that cold return water from heating the tank for the first time. I had an old Memco wood boiler before the Eko with a taco 007 constantly circulating water by the supply manifold and never had any ghost flow. If I can get by with the middle setting all may be well.

 

[traprocks]

If you have any valves on your heating zones you can throttle them down to increase the resistance through them. You can throttle them to a deltaT of 20 - 25 degree F and still have enough flow when calling.

 

[hayrack]

I do have ball valves and did throttle them closed about half way and it seemed to slow the ghost flow. I have found that my system works best on the middle pump speed with no ghost. This goes against the laddomat manual for my size boiler, but it seems to work for me.