I have several acres, so it could be a huge single loop just as easily as the serpentine layout you usually see, so I don't think saturation would be an issue.
The problem with a single huge loop will be the friction (dynamic) losses.
I put down eight, parallel coils, each 200 metres (660 feet) of 1" HDPE pipe.
Here's a view showing part of them before being burried under about 6 or 7 feet of dirt.
All 8 coils come in to two manifolds, "reverse-flow balanced", which should in theory at least, ensure similar flows through each coild.
By running more loops in parallel, the flow through each is less, so fluid spends longer in the tube and can gain (or lose) the maximum heat, but having them in parallel means you get plenty of flow and minimum back-pressure (so less effort on pumps)
Sure, you could se one looong loop, flow rate would be higher through the ground loops for a given number of litres/minute through the total system, but the fluids travel time in your loop (and therefore the time heat loss or gain) should be about the same.
Before you ask, I plan to use mine as the ground loops for a GSHP system. At the moment, because I don't have the dollars or the watts spare for it, it gets used in summer as a heat-dump when I have excess hot water (several hours a day).
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