my reservoir tanks

Steamhead (in transit)

was likely a storage tank for domestic hot water. The Arco would have had a side-arm heater to keep it hot.

Nice piping job. Since the tanks are under system pressure, would safety valves be required by Code? And what's that big wheel above the tank on the left?

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nicholas bonham-carter

my reservoir tanks

I put 2 old 15 gal. expansion tanks in my 1-pipe system. Their horizontal centerline is 1.5 in. below the boiler waterline, measured from the floor, so as to best use the limited band of extra water that can be used by the boiler.

The top of each tank is connected with a 1 in pipe from a tee at the top of the equalizer, to give system pressure to the surface of the tank waterline.

The bottom of each is piped with a .75 in pipe swing joint to the wet return, so i can adjust the height if needed.

Each tank has .75 in. vertical nipples welded to the outer edge, and these have threaded rods running down to the floor. they are thus adjustable for height, if needed.

This extra water supply will compensate for that time the burner cuts out on pressure, and the steam bubbles collapse, leaving the boiler low on water for a few minutes. the advantage over a pumped system is that it cannot overfill the boiler.

now it seems to work pretty well. the system is a peerless 211a 1,050,000 btu. . many thanks to gerry gill for showing pix of one he did recently, so i had enough faith in this method of water compensation to go ahead with the project.

i also included pictures of the old coal-burning arco [cracked and replaced in 1952] with a tank which may have served the same purpose!
--nbc

Mark Custis

Safety valves

If I am seeing this correctly the tanks are part of the steam system. I like being safe so I vote yes.

If they are DHW then NBC wears orange or black underwear.

LOL

gerry gill

looks good...

should work fine..we didn't put any reliefs on ours as the tank didn't ''produce'' pressure and was just a passive reservoir..we had two asme inspections and neither asked for it..but it would be easy enough to add should someone someday ask for it..personally i see no need for it.

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Mark Custis

Driving to Bedford

is no longer on this ex-Havsco tech.

Gerry that was the point I thought I was trying to make that the tanks are not producing pressure.

I feel better with your explanation.

nicholas bonham-carter

safety valves?

when i set these up, i thought that check valves would keep the vacuum at bay, but then i reversed my thoughts and capped them. i presume that is what led to the relief valve question-there are none.

i think this method should be considered by all who wish to "go with gravity", whenever they have a condensate lag problem.

the large valve wheel [a gift from the local installer of the peerless, jay rybin] is for decoration only.thanks for the compliments--nbc

gerry gill

whatcha

doing after Havsco?

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Mark Eatherton

Nice \"Range Tank\" installation.

My old friend, Matt Carr refers to that as a "Range Tank", because it gives the system some "Range" to work with before it calls on the make up water, and causes a flood on shut down. Typically required when replacing an old, large volume steam boiler with a newer, low volume steam boiler.

Nice work. Looks like a LOT of forethought went into that installation.

ME

Mark Custis

This stuff

Strongsville and Valley City.

Mark Custis

This stuff

Strongsville and Valley City.

Timco

Can you post a pic of the top of the tanks piping? I see how they tie in low, but where do the pipes tie in after leaving the tank / sight glass on top? Really cool job.

Tim

Mark Custis

After Havsco

I bounced around then hung out our own shingle. We do outside the box stuff out west of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

nicholas bonham-carter

tanks piping

i don't know if these are any better than the early pix.

basically the connection to the pressure side was cut into the equaliser with a "tee", as high as possible above the waterline [several in.]. from the tee, a street elbow connects to a 1 in. vertical pipe running up to ceiling level, and over to the wall next to the tanks. then runs down, and tees off to the topside of the tanks.

therefore the tank sees the same pressure as the boiler. also the waterline in the tanks are the same height as in the boiler.

the bottom of the tanks are piped into the wet return with 3/4in. pipe. i had put check valves in various places, but now they have been taken out of the equation. if i would do it over i would do 1 in. connections to the return.

since you are doing new headers, you will have an easier point of connection, than i did. i did find out that if you never throw away any of the extra nipples etc. that come with m/m 67 lwco's you can make the surge collumns for the gauge cocks the right length with the leftovers!--nbc

Unknown

Very nice setup

there Nicholas . Was the system going into a low water situation often , before you installed the tanks ? Is the boiler sized right for the load of the building ?

I'm curious because we're starting a big steamer job soon , in a church . The old system had 2 huge Mills boilers and we're replacing it with one Burnham . It's sized to the load but spec'ed with a makeup tank . The powers that be feel the new boiler will cut out on low water even though it's sized right .

nicholas bonham-carter

frequent low water episodes

just about every time the burner cut out at 12 oz. the waterline would disappear below the sight glass for a couple of minutes. it only seemed as if i was a couple of gallons short. these tanks seem to do the trick as they duplicate the above water pressure, and waterline height of the boiler itself.

most modern boilers have a thin crossection at the waterline area and so being a couple of gallons short makes more difference than it would well below that height.

what you could do is to leave provision [connections to wet return, and to steam main, or equaliser] as i did for this type of setup, and if your boiler runs short then you can easily add it later.

i don't like any sort of auto-fill [over-fill], as i had problems with one in another bldg. years ago.

gravity for ever, for me!--nbc

gerry gill

whats outside the box?



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Mark Custis

Here is one

This is in Strongsville.

gerry gill

sweet!

nice work!!

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Mark Custis

You have mail

I will be doing real work, not design on 12/31.

Thanks for the look, Gerry.

Mark

nicholas bonham-carter

Reservoir tank

Here is my old thread for my tank:--NBC



http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/123380/my-reservoir-tanks



And there is probably more with a search for reservoir tank.