Flooding boiler...

John S.

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John S.

I had the pleasure of

visiting our friendly, neighboring country Canada to look at a one-pipe steam system in Windsor, Ontario.

The boiler is flooding and it's my job to figure out why. I will post some pics when I can, however, here's the situation:

It's a three-story, 18 unit apt. building.

one-pipe steam w/condensate pump. The pump appears relatively old, however, it seems to be operating properly. The original wet returns (which are obviously no longer wet) lead through a strainer, then an old Crane F&T trap, then into the pump resevoir.

After walking around the basement to get a feel for the overall system, the owner, super & I went back to the boiler room. The feeder passed a broken union test and another tech (from another co.) recently replaced the check on the pump outlet.

As we sat that after the boiler shut down, the pump periodically kicked on until the boiler water level was back where it was when we started the system. After a good 10 minutes, it kicked on again over-filling the boiler. I can only assume that the water-feeder came on at some point as we were exploring the basement.

Being somewhat of a rookie, it didn't dawn on me to clean the strainer until I was already back in the US. (It seems I spend more time troubleshooting away from the job than at the site?)

I recommended that the owner and/or super (being on a limited budget) go around to each apt. to check that no radiator valves were partially closed.

The owner agreed to replace the main vents with ones of greater capacity and also wants to replace many radiator vents with adjustables.

The thing that strikes me as strange about the pump and returns is that although the pump resevoir is well below MOST of the system piping, there's a buried return that most of the other wet returns feed into.

Other than a possible water line issue(thinking FWL), is there any reason that I shouldn't be contemplating returning this system to gravity return?

Your thoughts and/or suggestions are appreciated.



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Steamhead (in transit)

Gravity return

is the way to go. If the boiler's waterline is too low, a False Water Line is the answer.

Part of the flooding problem is that old Crane F&T being used as a "Master Trap". It really screws up the flow into the tank.

If the system absolutely had to have a pumped return, a FWL with bucket traps feeding into a boiler-feed (NOT a straight condensate) pump would be the answer. See "Lost Art" for details.

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John S.

Crane F&T

Thanks for the reply Steamhead. I mis-read the label on that F&T trap. It's a Trane, not a Crane. The system was also equiped with a small Trane main vent.

At any rate, I went today and changed main vents, cleaned the strainer and checked the F&T.

I have attached some pictures of the system. I'm wondering... if we turn this system back to gravity, will the existing thread-o-let that's been welded onto the equalizer be sufficient size? The wet return is in 2" pipe, however, the threadolets are 1". If I come out of that with a 2"x1" reducer, will the flow be enough?

I'm not opposed to cutting out the old junk and starting fresh but the customer is on a limited budget (who'd have guessed?)

P.S. I'm aware of the problem with the header piping. What a shame to make such beautiful welds on an incorrect installation.



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Steamhead (in transit)

You'd probably have to enlarge them

that wet return is 2-inch for a reason, and a reducer would probably choke the flow too much. But you can count up the radiation, then check it against the charts in Lost Art to be sure.

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