Time for a vaporstat?

SpeyFitter

I am thinking of getting one too, and plan to mount the gauge on a tee with the vaporstat, after the pigtail. Should keep the steam out of the diaphragm.

Meanwhile, any opinions on vaporstats L408A1132 (mercury switch) vs. L408J1009 (snap-action switch, mercury-free)?
I just don't like snap action after problems with two PA404 pressuretrols...

-Charles

Marc_13

Time for a Vaporstat?

I have a one pipe steam system, well vented mains, new valves on the radiators and despite all this I am still hearing some strong venting from the rads on the second floor. I have a Honeywell pressuretrol 404a model which I am told is not too accurate. Its set at .5/1.5.

TIME FOR A VAPORSTAT?
Is all this strong venting due to the fact that this pressuretrol is perhaps not giving the system the pressure set but rather something higher??

Thanks...................

Gary Segal

I'd first buy a

low pressure gauge to see what is really happening, vefore taking the plunge on a Vaprostat. Here is a link to a 0-3 psi gauge; there are may other choices on the website.

http://www.gaugestore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=33020

JohnG_3

Max temp on those gauges

Those WIKA gauges have a maximum media temperature specification of 140 degrees F. Yet people here are using them successfully. Are the gauges okay for steam?

Tom Hopkins

snap action may not be a function of

your Pressuretrol, it may be a response to something that is happening in your boiler. I know my vaporstat can get very violent if the water level is too high.

Additionally, it seems that there is a certain pressure range where it gets jumpy. Since my low pressure gauge (on the same pigtail) jumps when the vaporstat jumps, I am pretty confident that the problem is not with the control, but with the behavior of the system.

marc_14

Thanks for the comment.
How would I attach. I currently have the code guage on a short 2" straight pipe with a 90 degree elbow.

Boilerpro_5

Installation location...

You may want to consider putting the Vaporstat either on the end of the steam main or up on the header piping. In these locations, you tend to get away from the pulsing inside the boiler that will drive the vaporstat crazy. It has worked for a number of steam gurus here, I understand. Haven't yet tried it myself, though.

Boilerpro

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mark_109

How would I attach a second guage off the first.
Thats what I was asking.
Thanks

mark_109

How would I attach a second guage off the first.
Thats what I was asking.
Thanks

Charles_8

Snap action

I wasn't referring to that kind of jumpy behavior, but to a tendency for the actual cut-in pressure to keep "drifting" lower (over several weeks) until the boiler will no longer fire after cut-out, even after the pressure has dropped to zero! This has to be a mechanical problem in the linkage since the screw adjustment, pointer scale, and differential wheel do not move, and the pigtail is not plugged, but the setting is wrong...

In fact I have removed the pressuretrol and applied (by mouth) small amounts of pressure and the diaphragm/switch do work, even though the pointer no longer indicates anywhere near the actual pressures when it switches.

Of course, if the new mercury-free one uses the same mechanical innards and only a microswitch instead of a mercury switch, the difference is moot...

-Charles

steve pajek

vaporstat????

> I have a one pipe steam system, well vented

> mains, new valves on the radiators and despite

> all this I am still hearing some strong venting

> from the rads on the second floor. I have a

> Honeywell pressuretrol 404a model which I am told

> is not too accurate. Its set at .5/1.5.

>

> TIME

> FOR A VAPORSTAT? Is all this strong venting due

> to the fact that this pressuretrol is perhaps not

> giving the system the pressure set but rather

> something higher??

>

> Thanks...................



sounds like a venting problem not a pressure problem. what are you venting the mains with, and the second floor radiators?

Tom Hopkins

Pictures of gauge installation

Mark, hopefully these pictures will explain the install. I do not think the gauges get much above ambient temperature, even after an extended run.

mark_110

Thanks,now I understand it.