Best Of
Re: Remodeled House. Now Radiators Are Way Too Large
and a sweet little Mesa combo amp in there too, you didn't use that as your table during the project did you?😁
GGross
Re: New refrigerants Epa 608
I ran into a former co-worker the other day. He told me that the R454-B is in short supply and pricy…..very pricy.
In fact he said some people have installed R-454-B units and then find out they can't find refrigerant.
he said some have resorted to putting R-410A in. I guess most MFgs are using R-454B but some others (like Goodman) are going R-32
Re: Vent placement in home 2-pipe steam heat system
Here it is:
@pacoit , does this look like yours?
Re: New, unused Peerless 63-04 Brooklyn/Queens area
Reassembling the sections, is technically not to manufacture specs. Which is why it's not listed in the manual. It could be done, if there were sets of circumstances that warranted. But it's a lot of work, and may or may not work. Meaning if it fails the pressure test, then we need to start again..... More time and more expensive. Not something that I would want to do and frankly not something the customer wants. If it was my own boiler in my own house and I had a lot of extra time then maybe. But I know there are guys out there that will have no problem doing this type of work and bless them. That's why I am offering this for sale.
Re: Hartford Loop design origin
The Hartford Loop (or related Gifford Loop) was and is intended to limit loss of boiler water due to a leak in a wet return — and it does that very well indeed, as @EdTheHeaterMan said.
Now. Will it prevent a boiler low water condition entirely? No. Nor is it intended to. What it does do is give time, in the event of a large leak in a wet return — not unheard of in those days — to pull the fire in the boiler (or nowadays to turn the burner off!) before the water level in the boiler drops below the crown sheet or top of the firebox. Before the use of the Loop it was entirely possible for the boiler water level to drop below the crown sheet in a matter of a few minutes — or less — particularly in larger boilers operating under higher pressure; with a properly piped loop (including that equalizer thingy — note that without the equalizer the loop offers no protection) that simply can't happen, and the fireman has a fighting chance at saving the boiler. Or, nowadays, the low water cutoff.
It's also worth noting that even with the loop, if the boiler is allowed to keep steaming it will eventually run dry — it will take some time in old boilers with lots of water volume, but much more quickly in modern low volume boilers. If your fireman is paying attention, though, nothing bad will happen.
Re: Coal to Gas Burner Conversion?
Regarding coal conversions, I did not do many of them in my rookie years, but I did remove old oil burners from coal conversions in order to build a new combustion chamber out of fire brick and install new oil burners like the Carlin CRD100 in the 1970s.
The first step is to remove the grates that hold the solid fuel (coal/wood) which was already done when I "modernized" the boilers I worked on. Next thing is to build the combustion chamber floor with insulated fire brick. After that you would build the rear wall and side walls as you might build a wall by staggering the bricks so all the vertical lines were not lined up. At the corner you would also stagger the bricks until you were at the front of the chamber where you would use a piece of 4" vent pipe to leave an opening for the burner's fire tube. Once that was in place you would finish the chamber walls so the chamber was just above the lowest part of the water jacket of the boiler. That part of the boiler was called the mud legs.
With the chamber wall slightly above the mud legs of the boiler you then take vermiculite to backfill the hollow space between the chamber and the boiler base. This is where you find that sealing up the front clean out doors and ash pit openings are important. the vermiculite would insulate the fire chamber from the exterior walls of the boiler base. It would also add a little support for the chamber so it would not fall apart after the fire cured the mortar between the fire bricks. A well built chamber was like an archway where the pressure from the backfill would hold the bricks from collapsing out and wedging the bricks together would keep the chamber from collapsing inward. Some mechanics were better at this than others. Once the fire chamber was completed and the backfill was pressed into place, you would cap off the chamber's backfill insulation with some high temperature retort cement. That would cover the loose insulation at the top of the backfill with a seal between the top of the fire brick and the side wall of the boiler's wet jacket, high enough above the mud leg to protect the mud legs from the intense heat of the burner flame.
Here is a video of how one might build a round combustion chamber by hand
With today's precast ceramic fiber combustion chamber kits, you can cut the time from 2 days to 2 hours to build a combustion chamber in an old coal conversion.
Re: Coal to Gas Burner Conversion?
Big Ed_4
Re: Its hot in here 84deg but I am a lot hotter
Friedrich,
I hate the way business is done today. It was much better in the old days. Yes it took longer back then but with much less aggravation.
People paid attention back then and things got done.
Now with all the texts and e-mails it is so easy to communicate that people pay no attention.
First I had to get an appliance company to confirm my diagnosis. Done , no issue
Then he wanted a copy of the invoice where I purchased it. Done no issue. Is that all you need do you need anything else? No reply
Then he wanted a copy of the service report from the appliance company. Done no reply. Do you need anything else? No reply
Today, he needs pictures of the model and serial #s even though its on his service companies report. Why didn't he give me a list of what he needed in the first e-mail?. Its like pulling teeth. A lot of extra nonsense for nothing
They just look for a way to deny the warranty.
Plus I noticed on the name tag (which you have to pull out of the sleeve to see it) that the unit was made in CHINA.
I guess Friedrich didn't like Mexico.
Re: Vent Pipe For Boiler: How Far Into Masonry Chimney?
I ran into the same issue and ended up getting help from Emerson Pro Services to figure it out. Their tech explained that the liner should stop just a little past the chimney thimble, not pushed all the way in. Too far and it can cause turbulence or block flue gas flow. They also checked draft readings after install, which made a difference in performance and safety.
Wikkenz
Re: Hartford Loop design origin
The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB) is a global specialty insurer and reinsurer headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut. Back in 1919 they invented the Hartford loop. By 1919 HSB got tired of paying for all those steam boiler failure claims and mandated all boilers that were insured by HSB to have the piping design they invented or they would not cover the boiler. HSB was founded in 1866 by members of a group known as the Polytechnic Club.