#21 Have you discovered our PLUMBING TOPICS on the Ask Caleffi Blog?

Greg and Dan share commonly asked questions from the Ask Caleffi Blog.  During this episode, they will zero in on plumbing products.  You'll learn:

→ Can you install a 121Series FlowCal upside down?
→ What is the maximum flow rate of a thermostatic mixing valve?

→ What battery is used for in an electronic mixing valve/control?
→ How do you clean a balancing valve?

Watch for MORE plumbing questions in the near future.  And... thanks for tuning in!

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Transcript

00:02

[Music]

00:05

welcome to ask Caleffithe podcast that

00:08

dives into real life problems that

00:09

plumbing and hvac technicians face in

00:12

the field we're your hosts from the

00:13

kalefi tech support team i'm greg tubbs

00:16

and i'm dan ferkus welcome we look

00:18

forward to sharing some stories from our

00:20

tech calls and using our background and

00:22

expertise to make your days a little

00:24

easier

00:25

[Music]

00:29

welcome back here we are another episode

00:31

of the ask Caleffi podcast dan how you

00:34

doing today i'm doing good today greg

00:36

thanks

00:37

thank you thank you for showing up yeah

00:39

absolutely happy to

00:41

thank you everyone listening for showing

00:43

up yeah we appreciate that we so

00:45

appreciate it the uh

00:47

the response has been great

00:49

so we're gonna

00:51

do another eskalefi blog today we're

00:54

gonna we're gonna pull some more

00:55

questions from the blog and now we're

00:56

gonna we're going to talk more about

00:58

plumbing yeah yeah so we're going to

00:59

talk more about the plumbing topics you

01:01

know

01:02

like we mentioned in the past you know

01:04

we the podcast is based on our ask laffy

01:06

blog

01:08

so you can go online to our website and

01:10

access that blog anytime and read the

01:12

content there's a lot of questions and

01:14

answers you have the ability to post

01:16

questions anytime

01:18

those questions do come to us and we

01:20

will reply with an answer

01:22

you may see them show up on a future ask

01:24

podcast absolutely

01:27

so kick it off one of the most common

01:30

questions we get on the plumbing side of

01:32

things is

01:35

i am going to install this 521 upside

01:38

down can i do that

01:41

can you do that greg the answer is yes

01:44

absolutely and usually it derives from

01:46

maybe that the water is the water

01:49

temperature might be irregular well come

01:50

to find out there's something else

01:52

further down the line like

01:55

an incorrectly set water temperature on

01:58

on the water heater itself yeah well and

02:00

when you look at that i mean it can be

02:02

installed in any configuration right

02:04

that's the advantage of a thermostatic

02:06

mixing valve it has that thermostatic

02:07

cartridge in it and it reacts with you

02:10

know springs and shutters and

02:12

to mix the water so

02:15

it's not limited to having to be

02:17

installed you know vertically or

02:19

horizontally you can put that in any

02:21

application that's right

02:23

that was a pretty simple one that was a

02:25

simple one but you know what we get that

02:26

question a lot i've probably had that

02:28

twice last week yeah i've i've had it

02:30

from contractors homeowners and even

02:32

engineers will call and ask if it can be

02:34

done that way yeah well and i'm glad you

02:36

call because you know there's certain

02:38

products we have that can't be installed

02:40

in a certain application or certain

02:42

certain

02:43

configuration so we'd rather talk to you

02:46

about it ahead of time than have you go

02:47

back and have to do some re-piping or

02:49

re-plumbing or have a product failure

02:51

because of it because it's misapplied

02:53

right

02:55

what you got

02:57

oh boy

02:58

there's a lot of good ones on there it

02:59

was hard to choose but

03:02

one i get a lot is what is the maximum

03:04

flow rate of a thermostatic mixing valve

03:06

um that's that's a pretty deep question

03:08

because it varies from it does size

03:12

you know size matters here right

03:15

it does and certainly when it comes to

03:17

maximum flow rates um yeah so it really

03:20

varies you know depending on the model

03:22

and size um you look at for example our

03:25

521 mixed gal

03:27

uh maximum flow rate you know first i'll

03:30

mention you know we rate all of our

03:32

maximum flow rates based on a 20 psi

03:34

pressure drop right so that's how we cal

03:36

we calculated out to a 20 psi pressure

03:39

drop

03:40

um so you look at our 521 you know and

03:42

that valve is good to about 14 gallons

03:45

per minute at a 20 psi pressure drop

03:47

yeah any more than that and you're gonna

03:49

be

03:51

you're gonna experience some noise some

03:52

screaming of the valve right how much

03:54

velocity through it one thing to look at

03:56

you know when you pick a mixing valve

03:58

too is the cv rating right you know the

04:00

cv rating will

04:02

you know

04:03

determine how many gallons per minute

04:05

it's going to be able to flow at a 1 psi

04:07

pressure drop so you look you look at

04:09

our 521 that's rated at 3cv

04:12

you know you look at our 520 angle mix

04:15

um we've got a couple different sizes in

04:17

the 520 yeah we have two cv

04:20

you know which that's going to handle

04:22

out to about nine gallons per minute

04:24

nine gallons a minute and that'll be the

04:26

half inch and three quarter inch sizes

04:28

right and that that valve works perfect

04:30

in any basic residential application

04:33

yeah yeah it really does you know our

04:35

tankless that's really good with the

04:36

tankless application or tankless coil

04:39

it's excellent with that

04:40

we got a larger body a 3.5 cv body

04:43

that'll go up to about 16 gpm sure and

04:46

that's

04:47

great for the bigger houses uh with

04:49

bigger tank style water heater yep

04:52

usually running a research because that

04:53

valve does have a minimum it's not huge

04:56

but right it does have a minimum yeah um

04:58

and it's great for doing larger in-floor

05:01

heating applications too yeah it really

05:03

is you get you know that little higher

05:04

that higher flow rate you know 16

05:06

gallons per minute at a 20 psi pressure

05:08

drop you got to also figure that you

05:11

know because it has a higher cv you know

05:13

if you have a project that

05:15

you know is 10 gallons per minute well

05:17

the 521 is going to fit that application

05:20

but the 520 in the larger body is going

05:24

to have a lower pressure drop at that 10

05:25

gpm absolutely might be a better

05:28

selection

05:29

for that project right

05:31

and then we have our mixed gal plus

05:34

that is going to be one inch an inch and

05:36

a quarter

05:38

option that's going to go up to 40

05:40

gallons per minute or an inch and a half

05:42

or two inch model that's going to go up

05:43

to 70 gallons per minute right that's

05:45

the 5231 series high flow mixing valve

05:49

yeah

05:50

um so yeah i mean there we've got a you

05:52

know a lot of different options when it

05:54

comes to maximum flow capabilities of

05:58

thermostatic mixing valves you know

06:00

another topic we're not going to go into

06:02

really now but you got to also look at

06:03

the minimums on those when you're

06:05

selecting them so that that's a good

06:07

opportunity to call us yeah minimums and

06:10

maximums are very important and i had a

06:12

guy yesterday messaging me hey

06:15

i want to use an inch and a half valve

06:17

all right do you know what your maximum

06:19

you know flow requirement would be worst

06:20

case scenario with that particular

06:22

building

06:23

no i'm gonna have to get back to you

06:25

yeah please do because i don't want you

06:27

to put too big or too small

06:29

right you know too big of a valve why

06:31

why have to make up so much minimum

06:33

especially if you don't have a research

06:35

size for that minimum right so yeah

06:37

another rabbit hole we could keep

06:38

jumping down we could but no that's a

06:40

good

06:41

good opportunity to call us and we'll

06:43

ask the right questions and help direct

06:44

you to picking a model that's going to

06:46

be a good fit for your project yes

06:49

so another big question we get is more

06:51

on the electronic mixing valve the legio

06:54

mix and what is the battery used for in

06:57

an electronic mixing valve control why

06:59

is it there why why do you have it well

07:02

it's their important part yeah it is an

07:04

important part so if with our with our

07:06

valve with our control if it loses power

07:08

for whatever reason

07:10

that

07:11

that battery will help retain the

07:13

settings the date and the time and all

07:14

the settings in that control yeah so

07:16

it's going to hold the memory in that

07:18

control how long will that hold that for

07:20

72 hours oh wait a minute

07:24

the 15 days

07:26

15 days it'll hold for 15 days

07:30

if it loses power

07:32

now

07:33

the other question we get i know it's

07:35

kind of a second question too yeah

07:37

that's good to talk about yeah

07:39

um

07:41

we get the question well

07:44

i'm getting the battery alarm

07:47

why is that

07:48

well one you gotta remember to turn the

07:50

battery switch on which right probably

07:52

fifty percent of the guys that call in

07:54

looking for it don't know what's there

07:55

yeah it's right in on the back side of

07:57

the control below the battery it's in a

07:59

little horizontal configuration it's a

08:01

blue switch blue with the white toggle

08:03

yep battery on or off it comes factory

08:06

in the off position just remember to

08:07

turn that on when you commission the

08:09

valve you got it and

08:11

it will take 72 hours to charge so if

08:14

it's been sitting in storage somewhere

08:16

you know if you if you picked it up from

08:18

a parts house and

08:19

put it in

08:21

we don't know how long it's it's been

08:22

sitting there

08:23

so it takes up to 72 hours to fully

08:26

charge but typically within a day

08:30

that battery alarm light will go off

08:32

yeah generally greg's right you know

08:34

you'll turn it on and you'll get that

08:35

battery alarm and

08:37

um that we get a call on that a lot and

08:40

it's like okay just give it 24 hours

08:42

generally within 24 hours you'll see

08:44

that go off within 72 hours that battery

08:46

will be fully charged in the event of a

08:48

power loss you're going to be

08:50

have that battery back up for 70

08:54

cold crack again for 15 days there you

08:57

go yes

08:59

15 days so it has no bearing on the

09:01

control working yeah that's important it

09:03

doesn't perform any operation of that

09:06

control no so there you have it that's

09:09

the whole story with the valve or the

09:12

battery in the mixing valve

09:14

what do you got next um how do you clean

09:17

a balancing valve and this was specific

09:19

to the 132 series our quick setter or

09:22

quick setter plus that's another long

09:23

and lengthy one that we get um there's

09:26

actually a video on yeah on this blog

09:29

post so if you you know we're going to

09:31

talk about it you guys can certainly go

09:32

to the ask lefty blog and look it up

09:34

yourself there's going to be a video on

09:36

how to do it as well yeah

09:38

but essentially you know

09:40

that's the valve that you can manually

09:42

balance by pulling the pin

09:45

and for you guys that aren't familiar

09:46

with it pulling the pin and using like a

09:48

3 8 inch wrench you can change the flow

09:50

rate correct um you don't need any

09:53

pressure differential tool or any

09:54

additional tools like the ppt ports on

09:56

it it's

09:57

it's right there on the flow meter you

09:59

pull the pin you make the adjustment

10:01

when you're done you drop the pin and

10:03

then that flow meter then quits showing

10:05

flow because you're disrupting the flow

10:08

pattern through it right but so let's

10:10

say you have it installed and you come

10:12

back and you want to check your flow and

10:13

you pull that pin

10:14

and the ball doesn't rise up

10:17

well there are some magnets in there you

10:19

know there are some moving parts in

10:21

there so

10:22

you know it may be that some debris got

10:23

into the bypass port

10:26

i mean you may need to disassemble that

10:27

and flush it out there's a series of

10:29

steps on how to do that on the ask blog

10:33

it's very simple there's two little

10:34

allen screws you can

10:36

back out to pull the flow meter out we

10:38

sell replacement flow meters if you

10:40

can't get it flushed out and you need to

10:42

you can also remove that pin

10:45

um yeah pull pin you'll move that and

10:47

clean the magnet off at the end and

10:49

put it back together so and there's step

10:51

by step instructions on the ask lefty

10:53

blog and the video there to support it

10:56

absolutely

10:58

well what else can we talk about

11:01

we could probably keep going couldn't

11:02

yeah we could keep going there's

11:04

probably a

11:06

500 questions on the ask lefty blog yeah

11:09

at least well

11:10

i think for now though

11:12

we're going to stick to the four four or

11:14

so at a time and and dive down a few

11:15

rabbit holes yeah so jump on there and

11:17

help us add some content yeah go and

11:19

check that ask lefty blog out and don't

11:21

be afraid to post questions when you

11:23

have them and you may hear your question

11:25

read on a future podcast absolutely well

11:28

thanks for joining us thanks guys

11:31

thank you for tuning in if you ever need

11:34

help please feel free to contact our

11:36

tech support team anytime at

11:38

techsupport.us

11:40

caleffi.com

11:42

or call us during our business hours at

11:45

7 30 a.m to 4 30 p.m

11:48

central time

11:50

at 414-238-2360

11:56