Installing a boiler feed valve question
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Installing a boiler feed valve question
Thinking of adding a boiler feed valve on my system. My piping has a shutoff valve followed by a backflow preventer and then another shutoff valve.
I know I need to install it after the backflow preventer but should I install it before or after the last shutoff valve.
I know I need to install it after the backflow preventer but should I install it before or after the last shutoff valve.
#2
I know I need to install it after the backflow preventer but should I install it before or after the last shutoff valve.
Before installing any new valves on the water feed line, FLUSH THE LINE UNDER FULL FLOW by rigging up a hose connection to the line and turning it on FULL BLAST to loosen the 'crud' that builds up in little used piping from domestic to boiler.
I like to add a 'flush valve' ahead of the valves for this purpose:
Drain/flush valve on the right. I hook hose to it periodically and flush a few gallons out. I'm on a private well and not chlorinated, so I have more than one reason to flush that 10' line between the boiler and the main line... don't want no creepy crawlies breeding in a plumbing 'dead end'.
The next item to the left of the drain is a 'WYE strainer' which now has a small valve on it for periodic flushing of the screen inside of it.
So, in order from the domestic to the boiler:
domestic->ball valve->drain/flush->wye strainer->backflow prev->reducing valve->ball valve->boiler
You don't really see the last ball valve in the picture because it's incorporated in the Watts RBFF expansion tank fitting (which is a real neat deal which AFAIK I invented and Watts owes me royalty checks for!) Since you don't have the RBFF, substitute a ball valve.
One other use for that drain ahead of the feed chain ... notice that the RBFF also has a drain on it, just behind the gauge. If my feed valve ever gets plugged or I want a FAST flush, I can connect a wash machine hose between the two and bypass the feed chain.