leaking traps?

jim friedman

need help with a new steam system i installed for a home owner. put in a new weil mclain LGB steam boiler (520mbh in, 421 out) that replaced a old leaking american standard boiler. i installed a condensate tank (sterling 4126fx) with it, thinking that the new boiler's steam cavity would be much smaller than the old boiler and i might have a condensate flooding problem without it. so far so good. however the other day the condensate tank vent started discharging a lot of steam, which i assume is from a bad trap. however this is an old home (80years +) and a lot or steam cast iron or fin tube heaters are encased in enclosures with no piping or traps visible. how do i determine which trap is bad and how do i fix it if i can't see the piping to the radiator. any easy solutions?



thanks



jim in ohio  

gerry gill

you can use the ''touchy feely'' method

and follow the hot return pipes back to the radiators in question or use a thermal camera which is faster and easier..there may not be traps..maybe there were graduated inlet valves instead..you know, the ones people replace with regular valves and don't put orifice discs in the connections..those ones..

MikeyB

Traps

Try to isolate each radiator/trap one at a time, and then have another guy standing by the vented receiver and he will let you know when the steam stops,(2 way radios work well with communicating) if you have access you can install a test tee on the rads, see attached pic.

MikeyB

TRAPS

Hey Jim, what did you find out?