System Tune-Up

tim smith

Steamhead (in transit)

Beautiful Radiators

A customer in a Federal Hill Town House had All Steamed Up install the radiators they had refinished.

We also cleaned up the piping a bit and zoned the system

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Steamhead (in transit)

More info......

This is one of a group of 3-story rowhouses in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore. They all had gravity hot-water heat. Sometime in the 1970s we believe, someone got the dim-bulb idea of tearing the radiators out and installing baseboard loops. After that, someone got the even worse idea of removing the baseboard from the first floor and installing a heat pump. That floor was always cold in the winter, wonder why?

Photos 36 and 37 show the boiler room as found. Each B&G 100 circ handled one loop. Originally the system had zone valves, but someone added a second circ and flo-checks on each loop. There was a lot of gurgling in the loops since they didn't Pump Away. And the float vent on the air separator did a great job of allowing the expansion tank to get waterlogged.

Photos 4-001 and 4-002 show the boiler room almost finished. The two old circs are gone, as well as the flo-checks and circ relays. The zone valves operate an isolation relay which can be seen at the upper left in photo 4-002. A single Taco 007 Pumps Away the entire system, and the float-vent is gone. All loops heat quietly and evenly now. And you can actually get at the burner without bumping into the circs.

The boiler is a 5-section Smith FD-12, which is way oversized. A 3-section would have been more than enough.

The remaining photos show the radiators. Baltimore Finishing did the stripping and painting, and they look fantastic.



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