Morning,There are no guarantees with any OV system, most problems seem to arise in systems plumbed like yours where the pump is mounted high up on the flow from the boiler and very near the motorized valves (all for convenience). Mine (oil fired boiler) has the pump located in the boiler heatpac downstairs, on the boiler return.
I can run it at any pump heand or temperature I like with absolutely no problems.
You say that a increase in return temp > than say 50/55C triggers the air ingress problem.
Is the boiler up to its target flow temperature before 50/55C is reached, if not then its the flow temperature (pump inlet) which is probably triggering this, difficult to see how the increase in return temp without a increase in flow temperature can trigger a problem on the flow side at a steady temperature, the flow temperature will increase by 5 to 7C each time the boiler cycles as the burner cuts out at target temperature+5/7C, again don't know if your problems start with steady target flow temp or only when the boiler starts cycling.
Also don't like the thought of that dribble from the vent, I would think that each time this happens that you are drawing in some air each time. Of course, if the problem arises under steady, continuous pump running then another reason for the problem.
Can you ensure that the circ pump keeps running during all boiler cycling as it should only stop when both CH and/or HW is satisfied.
Also check that the pump start/stop is from the motorized valve auxiliary contacts (end switches)
You might just try (again?) running o n PP2 mode as it should run at ~ 0.5M lower head and still give sufficient flow with maybe no dribble on pump stop.
Re UPS 3 cavitation, havn't seen the NPSHr (Net positive suction head required) for this model but I would think that ~ 1.5M (like the selectric) would be OK,, the NPSHa (Net positive suction head available) however is/should be way above this as :
NPSHa is the Atmospheric pressure (absolute) + the static head - the liquid vapour pressure - the suction losses.
vapour pressure at 70C=3.1M, 60C=1.9M, & 55C=1.2M. so assuming suction loss at 0.2M (between cold feed and pump suction) and static head at 2M (use your own numbers for static head and suction losses) then the
NPSHa at 70C = 10+2-3.1-0.2, 8.7M and 10+2-1.2-0.2, 10.6M at 55C, so unless some very big problem with the suction loss at the pump (or my calcs are crap) then can't see how flow temperature itself should cause any cavitation problems so possibly points to air ingress/release at higher temps, there was a long running thread on here abut someone with problems like yours but with the circ pump located low down on the system (flow) and again couldn't be run at anything > say 65C due to noise, the system was then sealed but problems still persisted, unfortunately, the OP never told us if he ever fixed his problem.
Edit: Just saw that you had/have been running on fixed speed3? hope not for long as this is a disaster IMO with your type of system, CP1 at 3M should be a very good setting.
I’m only running fixed 3 to see if it pushed / drew any air out of the system. PP2 mode from memory did not give me enough flow to the furthest rad in our living room when most of the trv’s had shut upstairs. I can get 12 deg drop across the furthest rad (with all trv’s removed) easily on constant speed 2 (haven’t tried constant 1) and cp1.
So, yes the boiler is already at 70 deg when this happens, I’ve been monitoring temps and it is purely driven by return temp, HW only with a cold cylinder the boiler is running with 70deg flow and has modulated down to minimum output, I adjusted the balance valve to give a 15 deg drop (measured at they cylinder) after a few mins the return temp starts to slowly rise as the water is heating, after roughly 20 mins the return temp is now into the 60’s and air is building, you can hear it going through the pump, not big glugs but lots of little bubbles. With further heating it gets worse and starts to whoosh round the system until causing the pump to cavitate.
Balance valve on the HW return is open 3/4 of a turn, this gives the 15 deg drop and doesn’t impact the CH system too bad when both are on.
Pump is controlled by valve aux contacts, same wire runs to the boiler for demand, yes the pump runs when the boiler cycles.
The boiler starts to short cycle right at the end of the HW heating, on min output the difference between flow and return is only 6-7 deg, it does all seem to happen at the same time but I think the cycling is normal?