Wierd bird in Spokane........haave you ever seen this?

Magnehelic

Hi guys.....Don in Spokaloo here........had a customer call us for the first time with an old 1900's steam system.  Asked me to come and have a look and see what I thought.  I was expecting to find either a trusty old 1 pipe, or the more common 2 pipe.  System running on a vaporstat, and all rads that have vents are working well, but there are 4 or 5 rads with 2 pipes going to them, and a wierd looking "trap looking" contraption that is piped in where a vent would be if it were one pipe.  The thread it attaches to the rad with is 1/4" and then the little trap looking thing, and then 3/8" pipe going to some kind of a return pipe going back to the boiler.  THOSE TYPES of rads are not heating up.  My first thought was "this was originally either all one pipe, or all 2 pipe"  but I've never seen this type of system before, and it was not in my customers trusty "Lost Aart of Steam Heating" book (imagine that 8-).  Here is a pic of the "little trap" looking things.  Whaddaya think?  My tech that was there yesterday is wondering if those little things are actually some kind of a "piped air vent" or something, instead of a trap.  I dunno. 

DanHolohan

That's a Paul-type air vent.

Can you get a name off the top of the vent device?



If possible, check to see if those two-pipe radiators drain into a wet return.

Magnehelic

No name stamps or nuttin

Nothin on the top of them Dan.  What we do know is that they are piped to a pretty small diameter (3/4 and 1" in places) pipe that indeed does return back to some type of "collector" before piping back into the steam boiler.  Here's a couple more pics.  Whether that pipe is a wet return or not remains to be seen (customer told us that at one point much of it become plugged with rock hard scale, and was replaced.) Notice how the "little trap like things" are piped in where an air vent would be? (1/2 to 2/3 up the side of the rad) what's up with that?

DanHolohan

This is from the Library

It looks similar. Hopefully, one of the others will have some thoughts.



http://www.heatinghelp.com/files/articles/1390/126.pdf

Mike Kusiak_2

Same problem?

Here are postings about a similar system with the same problem:



http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/128517/four-radiators-suddenly-stopped-heating



[url=http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/127622/clogged-air-return-lines-on-a-1906-K-M-C-vacuum-system#p1175847]http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/127622/clogged-air-return-lines-on-a-1906-K-M-C-vacuum-system#p1175847



http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/128624/whats-the-long-term-prognosis-for-an-old-vapor-vacuum-system



[url=http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/128599/Some-radiators-cool-down-as-boiler-fires-with-drawing#p1181254]http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/128599/Some-radiators-cool-down-as-boiler-fires-with-drawing#p1181254







Don't know if he ever got it resolved?