No insulate steam header?

Bob W._3

In a house with single pipe steam, the warm tap water can be the proximity of the supply piping to the steam mains. Ours is plenty warm, just like our basement:)

Jim Franklin_2

No insulate steam header?

I got a mouthful of warm water from my cold tap this morning after the steam had run for 45 mins. The pipes run near each other in the boiler room for a bit. Is there any reason not to insulate the header & risers? I dont recall ever seeing an insulated header in the pics here...

jim

Dale

insulate

Insulate everything, with steam the quicker all the pipes get hot the better, and safer too, and more efficient. The guys that post here are quite proud of their near boiler pipework and post pics before insulating. Sometimes, like on large jobs someone else puts on the insulation after the system is run to check for leaks. If they choose not to insulate it's often because they (the homeowner) wants a little heat in the basement and if the basement is fairly well insulated the header and near boiler piping are very much like a nice little radiator.

Jim Franklin_2

Not the steam pipe..convection?

Thanks Dale, I'll insulate them then. Interestingly, the probelm of warm tap water seems to be convection in the DHW tank supply line, or something weird like that...

jim

Dale

warm tap water

Usually the warm water at the tap is from a leaky tap mixing valve, the Moen brand is a known leaker inside. One way to check is to turn on the faucet to full hot and turn the hot off at the water tank inlet, if water comes out the hot is connected to the cold. Moen faucet cartridges for example are about $15 so it's worth a try.