I have just changed my Geothermal pump to a new one after 26 years of service .After reconnecting the glycol/water filled vertical ground loop ,I find that there is much air in the line .As it is an irritating gurgling noise upon start up I would like to take the air out and add more fluid to make up for it .Any feed back would be appreciated and I can send a picture of the valve system that is installed if that could help . There is 2 shut off valves with a garden hose attachment in between the 2 valves and this on both lines , one in and one out .This is in between the 2 pumps (push-pull ) and the geo pump furnace.
A picture would be worth a thousand words. Ideally, you'd like a purge cart with enough flow and pressure to push through the entire system. Lacking that, it may not be necessary. Since you hear gurgling in the system, it seem the installed pumps are pushing air and water around the system. It sounds like you have two drain valves that can each be isolated with shutoffs. I'd think you could create your own deaerating tank with something like below. A couple feet of 4" PVC pipe with a Y cleanout. Two hose bibs on either end and a cap at the top of the Y. Connect a pair of washing machine hoses to the system drain valves and the homemade pipe-tank. You can fill this with water or some antifreeze mix. 50% cheap vodka if an alochol system, or 20% "Sierra" brand antifreeze if a propylene glycol system. Run the unit and ensure the level in your pipe-tank doesn't drop too low while running. The fluid coming in the top will lose entrained gasses as it falls into your tank setup. You may want to think about a 3rd hose bib valve so you can pressurize your system. In the past, I'd created a pressurization system with some hose barb fittings and a hand pump garden weed sprayer. You could put that where I have "Clean out cap" indicated below. As long as you can isolate valves and ensure proper sequence for valve management and pressure maintenance/relief, this may be a solution.
From your picture, it looks like you have a black line that says "circ pumps" running up and out of the picture, so the pumps are somewhere not in the unit and outside this picture. Starting to get a little tricky, but if you I'd figure out how to run the circulator pumps without running the heat pumps. Shut off both bottom red shit off valves in your picture and have your loop circulate out one garden hose attachment, then into the top of the deaerator, out the bottom of deaerator and then back in through the other garden hose connector. The other alternative would be to add another shutoff and garden hose on one side of your line so you could add the deaerator tank in line with the system.
Yes both small circ pumps , are not in the picture and are closer to the ceiling . I can put the heatpump in auxiliary heat and connect the circ pumps directly so the heat pump will not be in the circulation circuit. I am an electrician so I can do this easily. Now what you call the deaerator ? is that the picture you drew with the 4 inch pipe with the Y fitting ? Another question so I am clear on the procedure , do I fill the deaerator completely with the glycol/water solution ? even the Y section so there is no air in same .I assume that I would run the recirc pumps until there is no air left in the loop. Any suggestions as to when or how I would know that the job was done ? Thank you for your help and patience.
Yes, I am calling my Y PVC pipe assembly the deaerator tank. It doesn't need to be full of fluid, but you want to be sure fluid is going in the top and out the bottom so you don't push any air in the tank out into the system. I'd run it 30 minutes at least. Maybe an hour. Just listen for noise to stop gurgling at your pumps.. Assume your loop may have 100 gallons total and you pump maybe 10 GPM. You want to circulate the full loop a couple times. If you have the tank half full or so, just mark level so you can close valves later in the process and see how much fluid went down in the tank to have an idea how much air came out of the loop.
Hi mtrentw.I finally removed the air from my system using a pail of glycol/water combined ,using a small pump ,pumping the liquid into the return line of the loop through the water hose bib and opening the other bib of the return line ever so slightly back into the pail .By circulating the system for 24 hours ,the air was completely gone. I now notice that one of my GRUNDFOS pumps is leaking and will have to change my recirc pumps altogether .I have ordered a QT flow center to replace same as I like the concept .Our climate will fluctuate considerably from winter to summer and create expansion/contractions in the loop . -31 F in winter to 95 F in summer .The QT system will adjust automatically and I can top up for losses if any.Last summer was terribly hot ,more often than not ( unusual ) ,we used the heat pump AC a lot. Thanks again for your help in solving my issues with the air lock in my loop.
