Pipe sizes and amount of water they hold

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Dave T

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Mar 28, 2008
299
Dansville NY
I am buying 8 way boiler chemicals from a local plumbing supply place and I am wondering how much I need for the whole system.
What I am looking for is how much water is held in my pipes per foot or other ratio, 3/4", 1" , 1 1/4",and 1 1/2" pipes are found in my system. Dave
 
It's a pretty easy math problem - to roughly approximate the volume of the pipe just multiply inside diameter by 3.14 and then mulptiply that number by the length. Be sure to use the same units for all measurements (inches, feet). When you get your final number it will be cubic inches or cubic feet. Convert that to gallons. Problem solved...
 
Thanks for the quick response could you give me an example say 10' of 1 1/2 pipe? 1.5x3.14x120"=565.2 how is this converted to gallons?
 
My table for copper pipe (from Siegenthaler) says .02685gals/ft. for 3/4" pipe, .0454gals/ft. for 1",.06804gals/ft. for 1-1/4. Black iron would be a little different but that should give you a good estimate.
 
1 gallon = 231 cubic inches.
 
Ok so 37.5' of 3/4 is very close to one gallon of water..
22' of 1" is close to one gallon of water..
15' of 1 1/4" is close to one gallon..
Thanks for the numbers.. Dave
 
3.14 multiplied by the diameter gives the circumferance of the pipe. Multiply this by the length and you get the inner surface area of the pipe, not the volume. To get the volume you need to take half the diameter, square that, then multiply by 3.14, then by the length. A 1" diameter pipe would be:
0.5 * 0.5 * 3.14 * 12" = 9.42 cubic inches per foot.
 
I have approx 505' of 3/4 pipe and baseboard if I divide that by 35 I get approx 15 gals of water..So if I round up to 20 gals I would be safe,let me know if the estimated numbers sound wrong to anybody.. BTW one quart of 8 way boiler chemical treats 10 gallons of water..Dave
 
Free75 is sooooo right. It was too early this morning when I posted my reply. I was using circumference, not area. Nice. At least some smarter folks replied to you....
 
LOL even in the middle of the day I could not have come up with any proper numbers for these formulas Thanks to everybody that responded even if the numbers lie sometimes, pies are round?? How do I get one of those into my square boiler maybe one pice at a time is the answer, or square pie tins for easier loading into my EKO 60 apple boiler..Dave
 
I have approx 505’ of 3/4 pipe and baseboard if I divide that by 35 I get approx 15 gals of water..So if I round up to 20 gals I would be safe,let me know if the estimated numbers sound wrong to anybody.

0.75 / 2 x 0.75 / 2 x 3.14 x 12 x 505 / 1728 = 1.55 cu ft x 7.48 = 11.59 gallons.
 
Judging by your avatar I'd be willing to bet you will have no problem getting the round pie into your square boiler. If you can shoehorn an EKO 60 down a set of stairs like that I think you can do just about anything!
 
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