2-pipe steam, no traps!

Campo

I am working on an old vapor vacuum system in an attempt to make all of the radiators hot and reduce gas bills. The pressure was set way too high and I have replaced the pressurtrol with a vaporstat. I have replace the clogged main air vent with two Gorton #2 vents. All the return lines are dry returns and there is not other special equipment in the basement such as an alternating receiver, boiler return pump, diffarential loop, etc.

The radiators have metering-type valves made by Vapo that bring steam into the top of one side. The valves have a scale on them and a screw to allow the valve maximum to be set. These screws have all been moved so the valves are now wide open. The return is just an elbow at the base. I have opened a few of them to see if there is anything special in there such as condensate reservoirs, check valves, etc. But, it is just and elbow!

My question is, now that the pressure and venting issues have been solved, how am I going to preent steam form getting into the returns. The metering valves have all been de-calibrated over time, and I have no idea how to adjust them to let only the correct amount of steam into the radiators. Will it matter? Should I install traps on each radiator. Do they still make orifice plates?

Thanks for any advice.

Steamhead (in transit)

I'd start

by setting them all at about 1/3 open on the smallest radiators to 2/3 open on the largest ones. Then fine-tune them from there with the pressure set at maybe 3-6 ounces. Each radiator should fill with steam to 80-85% of its volume. That's not a typo, they were sized to allow for this.

Make sure the steam mains, as well as the dry returns, are well vented before doing this.

When finished, you will be amazed at how well it works with so few moving parts. Frederic Tudor was a genius.

"Steamhead"

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Campo

Great idea. I will give this a try. And if all esle fails, I guess I could pull out the union elbows and put traps on each radiator.

Thanks,
Campo

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

No traps, just use Orifice plates

Give Tunstall a call, they have them.

Boilerpro

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