Quote Originally Posted by Alexandr0s View Post
Yeah, something like this.

Ah, I suspected as much so I went ahead and did some more testing when I got home last night. I wrestled up some of my old push in fittings and was able to do 2 different setups with actual Y fittings. Results were both interesting and encouraging.

The first test I did was set up like this.



It showed a decent improvement in a reduced amount of back flow but was still rather obvious it was there by output flow rate and I could feel a decent amount of back flow when I stuck my hand in the res.


The other was test was set up like this.



Again, another marked improvement over the setup above in the output flow rate and because they were both pulling from a single supply line, no flow back into the res. This is not to say that there wasn't flow back though as there was, it was just not getting to the outlet on the res.

This setup does come with a caveat though. You need a larger res>Y tube than Y>pumps and pumps>Y. Basically, you would use a 1/2" I.D. (or double the size of the tube you plan on using for the Y to pumps section) tube from the res>Y and then 1/4" I.D. tubing from the Y to the pumps and then back to the second Y and then back to 1/2" for the rest of the loop. To do the entire setup with the same size tubing would be starving the pumps on the inlet side and hinder max flow rate within the loop.


Personally, if it were my loop and seeing the results I've seen first hand, I'd really give it a try but as a last resort, after I've made certain that the flow meter is properly calibrated and none of the blocks/rads were plugged up with crap.