steam in return lines

Jim Wy.

I'm working on an office building that used to be an elementry school. There are 100 plus radiators w/ steam traps. Is there a faster or better way to tell which ones are leaking as I'm getting steam in the condensate return tank back in the boiler room ?

ed wallace

steam in return line

is there a steam trap before the condensate tank? post some pictures of the boiler and condensate tank please

Steamhead (in transit)

My favorite method

is "the AH-HA-HA test for the presence of latent BTUs".

That's where you feel the dry return and if there's steam in it, your reaction is something like "AH-HA-HA!!!!".

Then you follow the steam until you get to the runout with the leaky trap.

Credit Dan H. for the name of this test.

The other thing is- if the steam pressure is too high, the condensate will "flash" back to steam once it reaches the atmospheric pressure in the dry returns. So CRANK IT DOWN!!!!!

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Jim Wy.

There are 3 lines going into the tank. 1 off the output header w/ a trap. 1 from the 1910 side of the building w/ a trap. 1 from the 1940 side of the building with out a trap , the return pipe goes up hill from the spot it enters the boiler room to the return tank about 18 in.holding that much water all the time.

Steamhead (in transit)

Of those three lines

the only one that needs a trap is the one from the header.

The other two should have traps out in the system that keep steam from getting in the returns. The traps on these lines at the tank interfere with the flow of condensate in the returns, since there are already traps upstream of them.

The one that's too low will either need some sort of vent out in the system, or its own little transfer pump into which it can flow by gravity.

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Jim Wy.

OK so use the ah ha ha test to find leaking traps,add a vent to the line tht is comming in to low and after some careful investigation possabley remove the other steam trap. steam pressure is at 5psi maybe try turning it down to 3. thankyou so much for your input.If anyone disagrees please let me know.