Hard piped feed + 3 pump manifold?

[mikeross]

Whats up fellas,

I wanted to get some feedback on hard pipe feed lines but mainly on building a manifold for 3 1800gph pumps.

I currently am running 3 1800gph danner pumps. Each pump has its own check valve and feedline going to each bucket. 3 separate feed lines going into the room from one rez.

I always wondered if I would have issues running only 1 main feed line going into the room via a manifold connected to 3 pumps. I would also have some ball valves in place for quick drainage of the system.

My feed line tee's at each bucket and reduces down to 1/2". I would like insight on how big I need to make the main pvc feed line. Currently have a 3/4" main that reduces at each bucket to 1/2".

To me it seems that 1" pvc pipe with 5400gph running through it might not be big enough. I would love some numbers here fellas. I know some of you are running these types of manifolds. I swear I saw a pic here few months back.

Lastly is it bad to incorporate the discharged water from the chiller into the manifold so instead of chilled water going back in my res it first needs to run through all buckets. Is this a bad idea? I don't see why it shouldn't work?

Thanks

 

[TrichromeFan]

Mike,
If it were me, I would run 3 separate feeds. I have a 1.25" on one 1800 for feed. If you are going to combine the feeds into one, you would need to triple the flow of the pipe. That means if you have a 1" for one, you would need a 2" for triple the volume. To dump the chiller water into the manifold would be tricky. You have the pressure in the manifold from the 1800's that you are trying to shoot into. I would just cycle it into the rez on it's own plumbing.

 

[noone88]

This is the chart I go by:

http://flexpvc.com/WaterFlowBasedOnPipeSize.shtml

IMO it's not worth it considering the gain from it would be negligible. You would have go upsize to at least 1.5" and then downsize to feed your tubs.

 

[canaguy27]

for a client, we did hard pvc to 10 buckets for feed and drain. 5 on one 1800 and 5 on another. after the 1" check valve, it is 1/2 feed the rest of the way. then unisealed into bucket. works well so far.

 

[Mr.Sputnik]

How many buckets are you running? why do you have 3 pumps, one 1800gph pump should be good for 8-10 tubs. 1" hard PVC reduced to 1/2" feed on one 1800gph danner works great for 8-10 tubs. Split the feed up accordingly. Don't try and force positive pressure against positive pressure, the 3 danner pumps could reverse the flow through your chiller and break your chiller pump, or stall the water flow and blow out your chiller. Feed the positive outlet from the chiller into a neutral or negative flow area (the res in lamens terms).

 

[mikeross]

How many buckets are you running? why do you have 3 pumps, one 1800gph pump should be good for 8-10 tubs. 1" hard PVC reduced to 1/2" feed on one 1800gph danner works great for 8-10 tubs. Split the feed up accordingly. Don't try and force positive pressure against positive pressure, the 3 danner pumps could reverse the flow through your chiller and break your chiller pump, or stall the water flow and blow out your chiller. Feed the positive outlet from the chiller into a neutral or negative flow area (the res in lamens terms).

14 buckets, 385gph running through each bucket... I personally like the amount of flow in each bucket. Many members on here are running even higher GPH numbers.

I am going to hard pipe everything but run separate lines for each pump. Only going to make a manifold for one pump to aid in the draining of my res.