I'm doing my own Geothermal install in Connecticut. I'm preparing to flush and charge my vertical closed loop system, and all total the system should hold about 70 gal.. Based on what I've read I will need about 15 gal. of Propylene Glycol to put in the system. Should I be using Inhibited or does it matter? What do you think the best price I should be able to buy this product for when purchasing 15 gal?
Thanks, Paul

Try this. Be sure to read the section on "Antifreeze Selection"

http://www.climatemaster.com/downloads/97B0015N01.pdf

Well, I got 85 views and one response.(Read the Manual).Thanks for the Read, and thanks for all the professional advise.
Paul

A good price is whatever you can pay for it. Unless you have a distributor relationship, you will probably pay 8-$15/gal As far as quantity and inhibitor, that depends on your water quality that you are putting into the pipes. Quantity depends on what temperature protection you are looking for. I think the lack of answers may come from the fact that we/designers spend a lot of time/dollars investing in our education and experience and if you are looking for free advice, that may be hard to come by. If you are looking to pay a consultant a fee for some better advice, you will most likely get better responses. You get what you pay for....

Posted By pjc57 on 02 Nov 2010 10:50 AM
Well, I got 85 views and one response.(Read the Manual).Thanks for the Read, and thanks for all the professional advise.
Paul

No reason for for being cynical here. Hydron manual: "Propylene Glycol: Non-toxic, non-corrosive, mid to high price, poor heat transfer, high viscosity when cold, and can introduce micro air bubbles when adding to the system. It has also been known to form a “slime-type” coating inside the pipe. Food grade glycol is recommended because some of the other types have certain inhibitors that react poorly with geothermal systems. A 25% brine solution is a minimum required by glycol manufacturers, so that bacteria does not start to form." 21% (15/70) only gives you protection down to about 20 degrees F, don't know much about your system (load calculation etc). What the minimum EWT you have designed your loop for? We protect down to 15 degrees F, which would mean you must be between 25-28%. In addition, some of the products for example "Cyrotek 100" do not contain 100% Glycol, but more like 60-65%. The rest are inhibitors which do not give you protection. So watch out for te exact content. One of many reasons we are using methanol now.

That's the kind of info I was expecting from this forum. Thank You Sincerely, Paul

Posted By pjc57 on 02 Nov 2010 09:54 PM
That's the kind of info I was expecting from this forum.

Amazingly, that's exactly "the kind of info" you'd find in the manual.

...what a maroon!

Looby

Note that some sites absolutely prohibit help for DIYers, others require payment. The original question requires fairly specific knowledge of closed loop geo with freeze protection using PG.

Moreover merely titling a thread "Propylene Glycol" doesn't give much of a clue as to the actual question. Ironically, that may trigger more views than a more specific subject. It is almost certainly better to have a few accurate replies than many ill-informed responses.

Complaining about the speed and quality of free advice is quite poor form - a bit like complaining about the inconvenience of cashing a winning lottery ticket.

Amen... The job can be awesome, if it would not sometimes be for the customer.

Some customers are better suited for your competitor(s). Let someone else die on their hill (Metaphor shamelessly nicked from Joe)

The trick is identifying that particular flavor of customer early enough in the process, before you go all in.

That is the art! I never lost money (or grey hairs) on a job I did not do.