Watts Backflow Preventers | Water Safety

Watts Backflow Preventers | Water Safety - Backflow preventers are necessary on water loops where the water is used in a hydronic loop that heats or cools the water through a boiler or chiller system. This Watts backflow preventer is installed on a large boiler system that heats thousands of gallons of water. The hydronic loops are designed to be hermetic. However, there is always some loss of water somewhere in the system.

For safety purposes to prevent the boiler from losing all of its water, a make-up water loop is connected to the loop. The make-up water feed needs backflow preventers installed in the pipe to prevent any of the boiler or chilled water from getting back to a domestic water feed for the make-up water.

Watts Backflow Preventers | Boiler Make-up Water

The make-up water is usually fed of the domestic water which is used for drinking water and other domestic uses. The water inside the boiler or chilled water loop is usually dirty and deoxygenated. This water is not drinkable and actually causes serious illness if it made its way back to the domestic water loop for some reason. Backflow preventers prevent this from happening. Backflow preventers provide safety for domestic water sources which also feed a make-up water supply for a boiler or chilled water system.

Backflow preventers provide safety by keeping a hot or chilled water loop separated and preventing the water from these loops from getting back to the domestic water source. There have been actual documented cases where the water from chilled water or hot water boiler loop made its way back into the domestic water source because the system was not equipped with a backflow preventer and people were made ill.

Watts Backflow Preventers | The Code

This is the reason why it has been put in the Mechanical and Plumbing codes to have backflow preventers installed. Most boiler loops and chilled water loops have a lower pressure than the domestic supply for the make-up water. Cases have happened when the water main broke, the make-up feed didn’t have a backflow preventer, and the boiler or chilled water made its way to the domestic water supply. Once the pressure was restored the contaminated water was supplied to the domestic water service and people got sick. Backflow preventers prevent this from happening and keep the domestic water supply safe for everyone.

Watts Backflow Preventers

Resource: The Fundamentals of HVAC Direct Digital Control