I am really an HVAC/R guy. I have worked on geothermal units for many years - but almost all were single and dual well fresh water systems. We changed out a ClimateMaster for a Bosch about three years ago. Open the loop valves, bled the air off the hose bibb e installed with the connecting piping and it ran well ever since. Recently: no cooling. My helper went out and found the unit cycling on the HP control. He suspected water flow and so purged the system with street water (with a garden / washing machine hose from the water heater drain to the lower hose bibb) - as if it were a residential baseboard / boiler heating system? Because that's what he typically works on. So now all the Environal went into the sump pump pit and after getting no air out of the system he discovered the circulator pump was bad. (power but no amps) I matched a Taco pump curve to the previous Grundfoss pump's curve and installed the Taco. System gauge shows 9 lbs, only water out the high air bleed bibb, pump runs and pulls about 50% of FLA - but there is still apparently no flow. What is visible inside the basement is what appears to be 1 1/4" HTPE pipe. It exists as just above the basement floor level - about 4' below grade. The field loop is said to be horizontal although no one knows of what configuration. The elderly farmer neighbor says he thinks he remembers long lengths of horizontal black pipe in trenches. In NJ I would expect the field loop to be well below the 4' frost-line. Which would mean (to my mind's eye) that the field loop is lower than the basement floor, the wall perforations are above the basement floor, the pump and valves are above the wall perforations. So . . . . I have to picture that no air could be trapped anyway - wouldn't it just rise to the highest point? Which would seem to be the air bleed hose bibb in the basement. I am a refrigeration guy - not a geo field loop guy and certainly not a well-guy. Can someone please suggest me in the right direction? <g> The new pump runs but doesn't pump - how can that be? <g> CJ -------
System is prolly air locked. It needs to be purged with scouring velocity flow to get it right. You can call millpond mechanical in port republic, or talk to Dan at Callahan well drilling for more localized help. Eric
Wow; Millpond is still around? I used to get FHP units from them. I forget the owners name but a really nice guy. I thought Millpond had gone out of existence - no? Gary! His name was Gary! <g> Anyway - a great guy. CJ --------
Thanks! I know Dan - we get him to do well pump replacements. I was sorry to learn about Gary but yes; I've now verified Mike is still running Millpond Mechanical. But they sold their purge cart and got out of that end of it. I think she told me they sold it to whoever took over for Sodden Heating - but I'm not positive on that point. Anyway I called Dan and he's going to take care of the field side of it for me. Thanks again - almost all the geo we do is fresh water geo - from wells but it didn't occur to me to call my well guy about fixing a field loop issue. <g> CJ --------
Thanks for having me. I am really an industrial refrigeration guy who eventually didn't like to travel. So doing non-mainstream HVAC/R jobs was a natural fit and allowed me to stay local. When I got started with water-source heat pumps they were rare and exotic and nobody wold work on them. Apparently. The first residential one I ever saw (it was in Medford NJ) was apparently built there in the basement - on a rack with a control panel. Like industrial chillers were all built-in-place back in the 1950's? But now I see 'geothermal' on every third service truck it seems. <g> CJ ------- in a
