Cooling line Plumbing

[Dave Y]

I am setting up a liquid ring pump and I need some advice on laying out a cooling loop. I want to lay out a loop of pipe on the ground and have it run through a radiator. But I am not positive on the order everthing should be plumbed. Any one ever put a system like this together?

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

I don't have mine run through a radiator, but I ran an extra long cooling line and run it through an area where there is a spring, running the line through the springwater. I figure it should keep it cool. For your setup, I would probably run through the radiator first. There will probably be days late in the season that the air temp is in the 50's maybe 60's and the ground temp may still be lower. I would try to keep the cooling line shaded too.

[Amber Gold]

Dave, on the ground or in the ground? I don't think on the ground would be very effective for cooling. I would just stick with the storage tank and radiator w/ fan for cooling. If you do that your loop goes, tank, radiator, pump, tank.

[Dave Y]

Josh, I was planning on burying the line. But not untill this summer when the ground is thawed. I plan on burying the line in snow for now and insulting it with straw for this season.

[sapman]

Dave, I think the line will melt a path right through the snow pretty fast. I know mine did last year. Fortunately, I'm right next to a swamp, so I laid it on ice, which melted through before too long, too. By the end of last season, I had about 270' of 1" 100psi pipe, with maybe 100-130' in the water. It worked pretty well, but the return water was still mildly warm to the touch at times. I was still maintaining 23-24" at the pump, and there may have been other issues with the pump going on.

Tim

[jrthe3]

dave how close will you be to that creek couldn't you run a line threw the creek

[KenWP]

What would happen if you guys used copper tube instead of plastic for the cooling line. It would cool a lot faster as the plastic has some insulation value. You could get away with shorter lines then.

[sapman]

Probably would work good, Ken. Probably need a loan to get it, though! Seriously, though, copper with fins would be great, except that the fins crumple easily.

Tim

[Dave Y]

jrth3
I am over 100yrds from the creek. There is a small spring about 75 ft from the pump. but I am some what higher and am not sure what this pump will push.

[Gary R]

What about a used refrigerator? You could put a manifold of finned copper inside. Should be able to get one for less than $100. You have 220VAC going to the pump. Could you tap off 120VAC to run it?

[bigtreemaple]

I plan to set up a similar type LR pump near a stream. My plan was to run a plastic line upstream until I could get a siphon started and then let the cold stream water siphon into a old syrup barrell that serves as the water tank. The barrell will overflow onto the ground. Do you guys think that idea will work?

[KenWP]

What about a used refrigerator? You could put a manifold of finned copper inside. Should be able to get one for less than $100. You have 220VAC going to the pump. Could you tap off 120VAC to run it?

Easy to tap oof 110 off of 220 equipment. They do it all the time to run lights and such on the control panels. Has to be a way to not have to run so much plastic pipe that dosn't actully cool it much anyways.

[sapman]

bigtree, I think that will work well. You could just connect a small line to the small inlet port on the pump, as I understand it, too. I would do this, but worry about getting everything drained sufficiently whenever it freezes.

Tim

[Amber Gold]

On my pump, the small inlet port is meant for water under pressure...I don't know if the pressure is needed to get it into the pump head and if that's the case I don't know if the stream would provide enough pressure .

[bigtreemaple]

On my pump, the small inlet port is meant for water under pressure...I don't know if the pressure is needed to get it into the pump head and if that's the case I don't know if the stream would provide enough pressure .

Josh, The guy I talked to at the factory told me that as long as the supply tank was above the pump and had goog gravity flow, then the pump would suck it's own water needs. Draining when cold will be essential. I am curious rto see how much air pressure comes out of the return line with the return water, I hope it doesn't blow water everywhere.