Weep Mizer out put 2 setting - Heat cable

[Earl Weiss]

What are you using for the "ON" temp for the heat cable if you are using output 2 on the weep mizer?

 

[Randy]

Earl be advised that the max load on the Weepmizer is only 3 amps. I wouldn’t use Output 2 to directly control a heat tape, I’d have the Weepmizer control a relay to turn On the heat tape. We set ours to come on at around 34 – 35 degrees.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Thx. I am aware. I have set at 35 degrees . Just curious if the few degree cushion was necessary.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Do you have floor heat? If so, do you have a loop in the trough? That's my setup and I've been thinking about putting the heat cable up there and either shutting down a few or all bays at night.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I have floor heat. For whatever reason the place was set up with a separate 45 gallon water heater, expansion tank, a circulating pump and 2 loops off this for trough heat. (Bays 1-2, and Bays 6-8) Still seemed to have freeze ups even with weep and anti freeze foam brush soap. Seemed to happen when we would have sudden and severe temp drop. My thinking was that cable would heat trough up more quickly and to a higher temp helping to prevent this.

 

[Randy]

Earl, if your experiencing freeze up I’d would definitely try the heat cable and set it to come on at 36 degrees, it takes a while for it to warm up. You might want to increase the tip size on your anti-freeze foam brush soap. How well insulated is your trough?

 

[Ric]

Another option may be to run hot water weep to the two (provided equipment room is in middle) outer bays. The amount of weep water can be dialed back to those bays since it will be heated. The heat generated from those lines will keep the trough nice and toasty.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Another option may be to run hot water .

I run hot water to weep.

 

[2Biz]

I have output 2 of the weep mizer come on at 32°...It controls the Floor Heat, Heat Cable in the trough, and turns on the PLC's that control winterizing all LP hoses...Load is handled through a 30a DPST Relay with (2) 120v inputs that separate the load...Heat cable runs about 7w per foot, so its really not a big energy hog...I weep cold water, never a freezeup even down to -16° ....I think the key is how well the trough is insulated. I stuff 8' long strips of insulation in the trough to take up all air space. With floor heat running AND the heat cable running, my trough stays 110°....Weep comes on at 36°... This is what works for me....

Another thing I discovered early on, was the PO had the T-stat for the weep mizer about 12" down from the ceiling inside the bay next to the ER...The temp at that spot was about 6° warmer than outside air temp. I did have a few freeze ups early on, but this was the culprit. Ever since moving the T-stat on the north wall on the outside of the building, I haven't had a freeze up since.

 

[wash4me]

I would check for air intrusion. Insulation is important to. Why remove the existing system? Just add the heat tape.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I would check for air intrusion. Insulation is important to. Why remove the existing system? Just add the heat tape.

For now existing system is remaining.

 

[2Biz]

What is the temp of your floor heat zone that goes into the trough? With this loop and heat cable, there is no need to weep Hot Water. I don't anyway....

Here is a picture of the temp sensor I have in my trough....The floor heat demand heater had kicked off although the circulator still circulates glycol through the trough...The tubing does cool it off a little till the demand heater kicks on again....Even then, the temp was 107°.....The combination Works great! Temp was 15° outside.

 

[Earl Weiss]

My system does not use the floor heat. It has a separate 45 Gallon water heater with anti freeze and a circulating pump. This is on a seperate temperature control for the pump.

 

[cantbreak80]

Earl,
After many years, the poly-iso insulation inside my trough began falling apart. The trough’s circulating warm water system failed to protect several areas – especially over bays 1 & 8. It was also not very energy efficient.

I added Winterguard Wet heat cables to the trough and wrapped all the plumbing with Reflectix radiant barrier “insulation” from Home Depot. I used two lengths of heat cable – one for bays 1-4 and one for bays 5-8.

The heat cable outlets are powered by a 10A rated relay, activated by an inexpensive, E-bay sourced temperature controller with a setpoint of 36F.

For added protection, the existed warm water loop was retained with a few modifications. Two additional remote temperature controller sensors were wired to the trough – one sensor each above bays 4 & 5. In the unlikely event that either heat cable should fail, the warm water system is automatically activated.

The temperature controller displays consistently indicate the cable heated trough temperatures of around 90F, even during “polar vortex” events.

So far, the only time the back-up system has been activated is during the pre-winter freeze protection system tests.

To answer your original question, 36F worked for me.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Upate. Last couple of days low just below zero and highs in single digits. I had found my 2 NO solenoids tied to the weep mizer, had issues and replaced them. These also feed 8 NO solenoids, one for each FB so that when FB for that bay is energized the solenoid closes stopping the weep so just the AF soap goes thru. I installed the heat cables and tied to weepmizer output 2. Had also replaced small water heater that contained AF that circulated thru a loop in the trough. No freeze ups for all 8 HP lines and all 8 FB. Amazing when stuff works the way it's supposed to. Now we need to get a tad warmer so people will be more likely to use the stuff.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Update 2 - Hasn't been above 15 for days and so far one FB froze. Too cold to figure out why.

 

[Earl Weiss]

The one FB that froze had a bad handle stopping the weep. Had only one other issue with 2 weeks where it din't get above 20 degrees and that FB issue resolved itself when it got warmer. That was goofier because weep kept working but no foam soap. May be a check valve up top froze. But by far best success with heat cable.