Help with Taco Twin Tee

[Clarkbug]

Hi All.

So after this past cold snap of a weekend, Im pretty sure that I dont like how my system got piped up. Rather than have a discussion with my installer again, I just want to figure out what Im going to do, get all of the parts in one place, and ask him to just come put it together. I would consider doing it myself, but I know Ill screw something up on the day before its supposed to free and end up with no heat in my house.

At any rate, my nice hot water from the Varm is currently mixing with the cold return water from the house before it heads out to the house again. Pretty poor way to try and heat things, and really limits what my fintube will throw on those cold mornings.

I have looked around, and some folks have used the Taco Twin Tee as a way to set up a primary/secondary loop, instead of the closely spaced tees. In my case, I think that it might be ideal, since I dont have a lot of space to work with. The issue I see is that the fitting is 1 1/2", but the "secondary" ports are only 3/4". Im just wondering what crazy-ness I need to do to connect 1 1/4" pipes to those ports. Really Im wanting to know what types of clearances I have so I can get the appropriate nipples, reducers, etc. here ahead of time, instead of asking someone else to do it.

Anyone have any close up shots or good info on the clearances for these things? Or another alternative to this fitting?

 

[huffdawg]

You could use reducing bushings or reducing couplings. Or you can also get tee's that reduce also. What is your system plumbed with copper or black iron

 

[huffdawg]

I looked at your install pics. Looks like all copper . Its very easy to make your own closely spaced tee's and I don't think the take a whole lot of space. If your in a hurry use copper unions. do you have a pic. of where youwant to install this tee.

For that load match tee. you will need copper adapters . copper to mip (male iron pipe thread)
HD

 

[REFire]

I Used 1 1/4" Taco Twin Tee in this application with 3/4" take off.

 

[Clarkbug]

Huffdawg,

Ill post a pic and a schematic of what Im thinking of doing. My piping near the boiler is a mix of copper and iron pipe, thanks to the previous owner and his desire to tinker. Based on what I have seen for the formula for closely spaced tees, I dont think I have the straight run that I need for it. Searching here on Hearth, I see that you can install one of the Taco units right next to an elbow if you wanted to.

REFire, thanks for the pic. It looks like it would be pretty tight to extend that out to 1 1/4" right away... I might need to get it in front of me to figure it out.

Ill post some pics and diagrams as soon as I have time to pull them together.

Much thanks for the posts gents!

 

[pybyr]

I used TwinTees on a system where most of my piping is 1.25 inch copper. All the checking I did indicated that if I stepped the secondary ports back to 1.25 right away, the small/ short restriction wouldn't be of great consequence. So I put 3/4 thread to 3/4 male copper fittings into the twin tee, then adapters straight to 1.25. Not a lot of extra breathing room right at those points, but it did fit. Seems to work fine. Good luck

 

[pybyr]

PS- it seems to me that one could "replicate" a Twin tee with a bunch of loose fittings- basically instead of having "closely spaced tees" one after another, you could split the primary flow, have a pair of tees side by side for the "takeoff" to the secondary, then rejoin the flow after the tees. You'd probably have substantially more flow resistance in this arrangement than in a twin tee or the traditional closely spaced tees, as you'd be forcing the water around a series of corners to split before the parallel tees and then rejoin after them. So it'd be possible but I leave it to others (Heaterman? hr?) whether it'd actually be advisable...