Hydronic Piping, Pumps & Plant Renewal
Chilled, hot and condenser water piping, pump and header replacement, variable-flow conversions and valve packages.
Hydronic systems fail slowly and expensively: corroded headers, leaking control valves, seized balancing valves, worn pump seals and impellers, air that never gets purged, and three-way valves quietly mixing supply and return. The result is a plant running full-out to satisfy zones that never get enough flow.
CMI renews hydronic systems end to end — chilled water, heating hot water, condenser water, glycol and process loops. That includes welded and grooved piping replacement, header rebuilds, isolation and control valve packages, strainers, air separators, expansion tanks, pump replacement and rebuild, mechanical seal and coupling work, base-mounted and inline pumps, VFDs and premium-efficiency motors.
Where it makes sense we convert constant-volume plants to variable flow — variable-primary or high-delta-T pumping with proper minimum-flow protection, differential-pressure control and BAS sequences — which typically cuts pumping energy sharply and stabilizes the whole distribution system. We coordinate chemical treatment and cleaning so a new loop does not inherit the old one's corrosion.
Scope & capabilities
- Welded steel and grooved piping replacement, header and manifold rebuilds
- Pump rebuilds: seals, bearings, couplings, impeller trim and alignment
- Variable-primary and high-delta-T flow conversions
- Expansion tanks, air management and glycol fill and makeup systems
- Flushing, chemical cleaning and water treatment program coordination
- Base-mounted, inline, vertical turbine and end-suction pump replacement
- VFDs, premium-efficiency motors and differential pressure control
- Control, balancing and isolation valve replacement; strainers and separators
- Insulation, jacketing, seismic bracing and code-compliant supports
The technical envelope
- Pipe sizes
- 1/2" – 30" welded, grooved and flanged
- Pump range
- 1 – 500 HP
- Conversions
- Constant to variable flow, primary/secondary rework
- Testing
- Hydrostatic testing, flushing and flow verification
- Verification
- Hydronic balancing report at completion
Facility types
Hydronic Piping & Pumps — straight answers
- Some zones never get enough flow — is that a pump problem?
- Usually not. It is more often a closed or seized balancing valve, a fouled coil, a leaking three-way valve, air in the loop, or a differential-pressure setpoint that ignores the critical zone. We measure the distribution before recommending a larger pump.
- Can you replace pumps without shutting down the plant?
- In a redundant plant, yes — one pump at a time with proper isolation. In a single-pump system we plan a short outage or install a temporary pump and piping, generally on a weekend.
- Is a variable-flow conversion worth doing?
- Pumping energy varies with the cube of flow, so on constant-volume systems with meaningful part-load hours the savings are large and the payback is usually short. We model your load profile before recommending it.
Get a number you can budget against
We walk the plant before we price it. You get equipment condition, options, phasing and a schedule — not a guess with a contingency wrapped around it.