Vapor System/G-8 Road Trip! (Gordo & Steamhead)

Steamhead (in transit)

is that if properly cared for, this piping and equipment will outlast all of us. To paraphrase Dan:

"A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon our work, and marvel at our skill, but never know our names. And that will be good enough for us."

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Steamhead (in transit)

First worked on this one 7 years ago

in Hagerstown, MD, 75 miles west of Baltimore along I-70 and the historic National Pike. It's an Orifice Vapor system with Bi-Loop radiator valves, in a 1924-vintage house.

The owner decided to have us replace the old, oversized Bryant boiler with a new Smith G-8, and hook up radiators where a previous owner had installed a hot/chilled water system with fan coils running off a shell-and-tube heat exchanger fed by water from the boiler. Here we see the Bryant being deconstructed. Note the four-inch steam piping- looks impressive but configured completely wrong. We also found one boiler section had just barely rotted thru.

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Steamhead (in transit)

Steam piping done

the G-8 set in place and drop header done. We built a 3-inch header and ran it into the existing 4-inch, and turned the other end of the 4-inch into an equalizer. If this doesn't produce 99.5% dry steam I don't know what will. The Hartford Loop will be at the front on this one.

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Steamhead (in transit)

A friend of the owner stopped by

and invited us to see his system. This is a late-1800s gravity hot-water system and all the original radiators were made by the T.C. Joy Co. Note the multiple short rods that hold two of the rads together, and the offset nipples on the biggest one.

The system had frozen before the owner, a retired Navy officer, bought the house. He has repaired a bunch of radiators- they're holding so far, but he doesn't have the system completely filled yet.

The boiler is a U.S. "Capitol" atmospheric that looks like it dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s. It has a Thrush circulator that's just as old.

More pics this time tomorrow!

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Timco

the paper on the boiler is a nice touch! you do sweet work!

Tim

Timco

rads like the one in the 003 pic are for sale right now on ebay...

Steamhead (in transit)

Here's

the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ornate-cast-iron-radiators_W0QQitemZ300263271521QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300263271521&amp;_trkparms=72:1205|39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&amp;_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

And thanks!

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Tim_65

What are the "trays" under all the radiators you pictured made of? are they rubber trays or something else to protect the flooring? I wonder if anything like that is available on the market now..

I installed new wood flooring in my house and would like to protect it as best I can under/near the rads.

tia

Steamhead (in transit)

According to the owner

they're mahogany.

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Timco

I have seen many like that where the rad leaked for years, and began to sink through the orig floor. Then a 'decorative' base was installed. I think rads look best on the orig floor...

Tim

Brad White_203

Frank and Gordo- I really like

the way you leveraged the old "colliding header" into an elegant and generously sized dropped header and equalizer. Excellent example of recycling the best of the old.

Glad a lot of the piping will be "visible" and obvious to those of us who appreciate this stuff.

Steamhead (in transit)

As far as we know

these are original to the system. We believe the system was installed when the house was built.

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MikeyB

question

Hey Steam Head what kind of tee connection is that where the dry returns tie together and the air vents are connected? nice job by the way...

Steamhead (in transit)

Fired it last night

after a slight delay, tracking down some slow leaks out in the gas piping. We weren't able to test the piping when we demo'd the old boiler since they needed hot water at that point in time. But the pipes are tight now.

We'll be back in a couple weeks to finish piping in the new radiators and flush and skim the boiler.

For all you sharp-eyed observers, the drips on the backflow preventer and safety valve were installed after the pics were taken. Also, the reason the barometric is aligned that way is because that's where it leveled out.

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Steamhead (in transit)

That's

a separation chamber- basically a wide place in the piping that lets the water drop out of the return flow before it gets to the vents. You could do the same thing with a 2-inch cross and some bushings, but this setup saved some labor and cut down on the number of joints.

This was the first one I saw, seven years ago. I've seen others since then.

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Dave Stroman

How cool is this stuff! Don't you just love cast iron and steel. Your area is a heating man's paridise.

Dave Stroman

Steamhead (in transit)

Part 2, or, Frederic Tudor must be smiling down from heaven

we just installed four radiators on this system. A previous owner had closed in the sun porch and installed fan-coil heat/cool units there and in the living room and what was then the breakfast room. The present owner tore this system out and had us install radiators.

These are Utica small-tube rads that the owner provided. Radiator shutoff valves are MEPCO orificing type. The one in pic 003 was powder-coated. Sweeeet!

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Steamhead (in transit)

One of the original radiators

National "Aero", with original Bi-Loop orificing valve. Also powder-coated.

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Steamhead (in transit)

The new Vapor piping

shown from several perspectives. We finally got to do all those things we've seen in so many Vapor basements.

The steel beams you see supporting the ceiling in pics 8, 9 and 10 are train rails. A couple have holes drilled in them where the fishplate (plate that joins two sections of rail) would be attached.

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Steamhead (in transit)

And this is all the pressure it takes

to fully heat all the radiators on this system:

2-1/2 inches of water column.........

That's just over ONE OUNCE!

Vapor rules!

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ttekushan_3

how low can you go?

Beautiful work! But that operating pressure is truly amazing. And so are some of those radiators.

I had the privilege recently of servicing a Mouat vapor system. The boiler isn't that old and the installer had the foresight to install a vaporstat (mercury, too!) but it was set at 1 lb. I kept lowering it so it wouldn't blow the water out of the traps. I settled at 4 oz, but it sure seems as though it could go lower. My concern is that it might not turn back on even with the slim 2 oz diff. I don't need THAT phone call! Maybe I'm getting more cautious because of how the new mercury-free vaporstats act.

Water hammer at the boiler was the cause of this call. The new owners didn't like it much. Apparently its been like this since installation about 10 years ago. The Hartford return T was well above the water line. Looked like it was moved. Not thinking, I merely repiped so the close nipple was in its proper position. You guessed it. Water hammer at the boiler solved. New water hammer at the loop seals at the end of the mains appeared! I just didn't notice the height of those seals. Ugh. The water line of the new boiler is much lower than the original. With a wimper I set off to lowering the loop seals as far as possible and installed clean-out ball valves. All's quiet. I'm going for a follow up and will take a few pictures of the Mouat traps and graduated valves.

-Terry (formerly ttekushan. I really got tired of typing it!)

PS, I'll post pictures soon of the two-pipe-with-air-vent church job with all the gorgeous Nasonesque pipe radiators. These radiators were locally made in Cleveland and Akron, all with an 1885 date stamp. This was one screwed--up system! I think this is going to be another 50% fuel savings job, and I don't make that kind of claim lightly.

Steamhead (in transit)

Terry

We look forward to seeing those pictures!

I gather that your experiences with the Hg-free vaporstats have not been altogether positive?

And thank you for the kudos!

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Maine/Baltimore Doug_5

I keep expecting to see

the gas piping for the gas lamps but it looks like these places all have electric now.

When I was in Western PA last week picking up some stained glass, we stopped at Gettysburg on the way. Visited at a house built in 1929 still in steam. Was originally coal.

I can envision you with an 18 wheeler on HGTV going around fixing steam systems big and small. Pics of you and Gordo on the side with drop headers, vents etc and the company name in steam cloud puffy font.

ttekushan_3

Hi Gordo--re: new vaporstats

Wellllll, I won't say exactly, but lets just say I fully understand the rationale for Gerry Gill's and Steve Pajek's awesome pressure column thingie with the LWCO's for steam vapor pressure control;-)

Dry Steam

Yeah quality TV

That's a show I would definately watch like a religion!!!

Steamhead (in transit)

Thanks, guys

maybe someday........

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David Nadle

I would watch that too.

There's a great TV show out of Canada called "Holmes on Homes." He basically comes in and fixes other contractor's HUGE mistakes, saving the day for families who might otherwise be wiped out. I think it's part entertainment and part educational, and part public service. It's on Discovery Channel in the US.

We could definitely use a show like that for steam.