Preheater- last comments before I hand off to my plumber?

[BoarsNest]

Here's my preheater. The plumber is soldering it tomorrow. Any last pointers before I drop it off? I have a 3/4" feed line with 1/2" tubes coming off the tees. I figure that should give me about 44 feet of copper under the hood. I am going to put unions on each end of the inlet and outlet tubes to the tube running outside the hood.

6885

[jmayerl]

Looks like it will work good. Why don't you solder it yourself, shouldn't take very long.

[BoarsNest]

My buddy is contractor and he said his plumber will do it since we are running out of time.

[HyeOnMaple]

Is there any gap between your tees? If not, it could be a bit difficult to solder one fitting then the next. A regular plumber might not have a problem with this, but, I've done over a thousand ftgs, and it would present me with a challenge. Maybe drop a dime (make a call) and ask the plumber if this is an issue before you drop it off.

[DonMcJr]

I'm a plumber and I was thinking of doing this for my Half-Pint... But then I remebered how much I had to skim the Foam off and the preheater would be in the way.

So...I think I may still try it but only have the Copper Follow my Pan Dividers...

[BoarsNest]

Is there any gap between your tees? If not, it could be a bit difficult to solder one fitting then the next. A regular plumber might not have a problem with this, but, I've done over a thousand ftgs, and it would present me with a challenge. Maybe drop a dime (make a call) and ask the plumber if this is an issue before you drop it off.

I have 1/4" between the tees. I suppose he could spread it a little more if he had too. I'll find out tomorrow. Thanks

[HyeOnMaple]

Fabulous, I'm sure you'll be happy with the addition.

[dtorrey13]

I am building a preheater pretty similar to your design. I have changed it at least 5 times as to how I want to make it....What are you using for a drip tray? I was thinking of taking a leftover piece of aluminum roofing and cutting slots out where there is no copper above it and having it run off into trough at one end and then the trough runs over the side of the pans into a bucket. I thought about wiring the roofing directly onto the pipes to hold it in place. Anyone have experience with a similar idea?

[wiam]

I have seen V's cut from roofing and wired under individual pipes

[BoarsNest]

I must confess, I am cheating. I work in sheet metal so I have access to stainless and tig welders. I am going to have two trays that each run under each side (4 tubes per side). These will dump into a v trough on the end and that is going to feed into my hood trough. I hope to have that done next week and I will post pictures.

[flying squirrel maple]

I must confess, I am cheating. I work in sheet metal so I have access to stainless and tig welders. I am going to have two trays that each run under each side (4 tubes per side). These will dump into a v trough on the end and that is going to feed into my hood trough. I hope to have that done next week and I will post pictures.

We just had a hood made for our 2x5 flue pan not sure how to attach preheater to the hood? We are using aluminum angle under each tube section should we let it rest on the Channel of the hood or have it bolted to the hood???? Any help is appreciated.

[Brian]

I would add a drain in the lower end to drain it so it would not freeze. Nice idea because it makes it so it don't matter which side the feed tank is on vs the float box.

[BoarsNest]

Here's the update on my preheater. It worked great other than a few little tweaks for next time. Sap got up to around 175 but I had a couple of what appeared to be airlocks or dirty filter. No major problems other than a few solder leaks. I love the hot water coming out of the hood. Here are some updated pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boarsnest/sets/72157632907241725/