Wet return line

ceksenior

I just happened to notice while doing some work in my basement that my wet return line on my steam boiler no longer gets hot during operation. I had my basement redone and Im thinking that they lifted the main steam line at the far end away from the boiler so that it pitches towards the boiler instead of away from the boiler toward the wet return line. I assume they did this to get more headroom in basement. It dosent have water hammer, heats up perfect and I dont loose any water in the system(sight tube always at manufactures height requirement). My question is am I going to have any long term problems with whats going on here and is this an acceptable method of returning water to the boiler from the radiators and steam pipes?

Jamie Hall

not ideal

since there will be a small amount of counter flow water in there, but if it works... you do need to be sure that any low points on the steam main either have drips or go to the wet return in some other way and, of course, if there is a dry return as well, ditto...

ceksenior

There is no dry return that i know of. Its a one pipe steam system. I dont know what a drip is or what is does but I do know the main is 20 feet long before it branches out to the upper floors and dosent have any fittings between the boiler and main vent.