Innovative or stupid? You tell me

InsideOilDave

A customer has really poor access to the steam traps. It's the typical story of a carpenter and a tile man not respecting what he is covering up. In the bathroom radiator, the steam trap has been boxed in so that there is no enough access to remove the trap with out doing some "surgery" on the customer's finish work. The customer is reluctant to allow that. The steam trap appears to be stuck open. What if I were to remove the element and shoved a rag in the trap? Then it would effectively be stuck closed, which would be better because it would keep steam out of the return pipes and thus not interfere with proper steam function of other radiators. Probably some air and condensate would make its way past the rag, which might allow some heat from the radiator. That could be good.



If that radiator is not an important one and the heat won't be missed, isn't this a good trade off to keep steam out of the return piping? Is there a downside to doing this?

jpf321

from what i've read ...

it's possible to install an orifice and abandon the trap completely .. the orifice will only allow the amount of steam that the radiator/convector can condense .. therefore the trap doesn't ever need to handle steam, only pass condensate .. article reference here: [url=http://sites.google.com/a/energysavingscience.com/www2/BSEOrifices.pdf?attredirects=0]http://sites.google.com/a/energysavingscience.com/www2/BSEOrifices.pdf?attredirects=0

Unknown

Rebuild the Trap?

Maybe I'm missing something here. If you can open the trap to put in a rag, why not just rebuild the trap with a new element? One of these guys should have the parts you need.

- Rod

http://www.barnesandjones.com/

http://www.tunstall-inc.com/tunstallsteam.html

Jamie Hall

I'm with Rod

if you can get the cover off at all, take the element out and put in a new one.  Otherwise, is there a valve on the radiator?  Turn it off... or down... that will do the same thing as an orifice, without the hassle.

InsideOilDave

Didn't think parts were available

I did not know parts were available for these traps. I've called around to several local supply houses in Westchester, NY and no one was familiar with these traps but maybe I'm just not calling the right places. I'll try these sources and see if they have anything that will fit.



If anyone knows a good source in Westchester or Bronx NY please let me know.



Good idea to close the valves. Unfortunately the rad's and convectors are piped directly with no valves.

Jamie Hall

Local supply houses

probably will not have replacement elements.  Try the internet sources listed previously -- they work just fine!



No valves?  Wot?  Who plumbed a radiator without a valve?  Sigh...

Unknown

Trap Parts

Here's some more trap part sources for you.

- Rod

http://www.statesupply.com/steamTraps.jsp