Flue Pan Drain Valve

[Amber Gold]

My evap. came with undersized drains, so I want to upsize them so I can drain the flue pan more quickly. Should I replace the valves with ball valves or gate valves? My thought with ball valves, is they'll hold a bit of liquid inside the ball that will freeze. Gate valves don't have that problem, but then, I've had gate valves split when sap froze on one side of it. Which type do they normally come with?

Thanks

[kiteflyingeek]

My flue pan didn't come with drain valve. But the float box had one -- it is a ball valve.

--andrew

[Russell Lampron]

My evaporator came with a ball valve. I haven't had any problems with the valve freezing but I have never drained my flue pan when the temps have dipped below zero either.

[maple flats]

My evaporator has 3 drain ball valves, flue and 2 for float box. I have not had freezing issues yet (3 yrs.)

[brookledge]

A lot will depend on how the manifold that conects each of the flues together and what size hole is in each flue. If that is not a restriction then you definately can upsize the ball valve. Also check your ball valve. There are different types of ball valves. A full port type will be oversized so that there is no restriction at the ball. Whereas a standard valve that is cheaper will have a smaller opening. For example a standard 1" ball valve will have 1" threads but the diameter through the valve may only be 3/4". A full port will be full size all the way through. If none of that is your problem just upsizing your pipe as close to the manifold might help since there will be less friction loss in abigger pipe size
Keith

[Amber Gold]

Thanks for the input. Ball valve it is. The threads on the flue pan are 1", but the previous owner used a 3/4" valve on one side and 1/2" on the other. Guessing this is what they had kicking around. It takes forever to drain, so the bigger valves will speed things up.