Heating system blowing up if I don't use antifreeze?

[mloupagu]

Ok, so I put a pellet stove in, heats my small cape first floor (where stove is) and even the 2nd floor. My son put his bedroom in the finished basement which is on the same heating zone as the room where the pellet stove is. I called my plumber to see what I could do about getting a zone down in the basement. He said that it was important that I put antifreeze in my heating system or else it might blow up. Said he has seen this so many times where people put in pellet or wood stoves thinking they never have to run their heating system and the heating system blows.

Anyone have any thoughts on this??

 

[rap69ri]

Search the forum for a unit called ThermGuard. This will circulate your water so your pipes don't freeze.

 

[steam man]

Wood stoves can cause problems in heating systems where the zones that have potential problems, i.e. outside the main heating envelope can have problems and burst pipes in a severe freeze if the zone never runs. I have one zone that is a problem if the garage door is left open and it gets below zero. If the zone in question is in a finished basement and especially if your son is there, there should be enough heat to keep pipes from freezing. I would just watch the outside temps. If it gets to a severe old snap, consider running your system at those times. I don't think antifreeze is warranted if you didn't have pipe freezing problems before.

Mike

 

[imacman]

As Rap said above, if you want to run the burner for a few minutes every once in a while just to keep the water moving and put a little bit of heat into them, the ThermGuard that I recently purchased and installed is just the ticket. Do a search for it. You can vary the burn time from 1 to 96 minutes, and also set it to turn on at 15 min. increments (up to 24 hours).

Check this site: www.bearmountaindesign.com

The owner and inventor (John) is on this site once in a while ...his Hearth.com "name" is Bridgerman

 

[kast]

Just bought one today, cant wait to install it. I have a few rooms (pantry etc..) that are totally cut off from heat, plus zone one of two thermostat is in the same room as the stove so the pipes for zone one are not going to see hot water for the winter!

 

[imacman]

Kast, did you locate the post w/ the discount code so you get the 10% discount and free shipping?

 

[kast]

No! I know I freaking read that after I placed my order

 

[bridgerman]

Ok, so I put a pellet stove in, heats my small cape first floor (where stove is) and even the 2nd floor. My son put his bedroom in the finished basement which is on the same heating zone as the room where the pellet stove is. I called my plumber to see what I could do about getting a zone down in the basement. He said that it was important that I put antifreeze in my heating system or else it might blow up. Said he has seen this so many times where people put in pellet or wood stoves thinking they never have to run their heating system and the heating system blows.

Anyone have any thoughts on this??

Hi Mloupagu,
John Walsh here....you don't need antifreeze, you just need a ThermGuard. As mentioned earlier in this thread, you can set it to pump a little hot water through you pipes periodically. You can also turn it off with a switch on the front when the weather is more fair. That is what I do. When the wind if blowing and it is -10 outside here in Montana, all my zones are protected by ThermGuard. When it gets into the 20s, I shut them all off. You can synchronize all the zones to come on at the same time by simply turning all the ThermGuards on about the same time. They keep track of time by counting the 60 cycles in the AC voltage coming out of the thermostat. Of course, if a zone actually comes on and calls for heat, that will mess up the synchronization because the ThermGuard on that zone will start timing again after the thermostat in that zone is up to temperature. If your thermostats are turned off, the ThermGuards will stay in sync indefinitely.

Cheers,
John