Phase 1 & 2 complete

Polycarp

I posted a while ago about my Hartford Loop re-piping and vent adding projects on my rental property. I was in town last week and finally got them done.



I went with a Gifford Loop instead of a Hartford Loop for a couple of reasons. The custom cut 2-1/2" cast iron equalizer would have cost a small fortune; the standard lengths were much cheaper. I was intrigued by the promise of decreased water hammer potential from the Gifford. But mostly it was because I wasn't able to find the 2-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 reducing T that the manufacturer's diagram calls for, so there simply wasn't enough room to get a reducing couple in below the wet return and above the boiler inlet. I also moved the drain cock from the bottom of the cross to the front and put a mud leg at the bottom. The bottom orientation just got gunked up before when I tried to drain the system, so it just doesn't seem to work there. I can remove the brushing and drain and get full-port clean-out if I need it.



The vents are doubled-up on a radiator run-out because that was the only place I had access to the main without risking some serious replacement (and I needed to fix the run-out anyway). But that is only temporary. It turns out that a season of use after decades of poor maintenance and several seasons of non-use flushed a lot of scale and gunk out of the system. Most of it ended up in the drip at the end of the main and it is now clogged. The system was working so badly I wasn't even able to diagnose the problem until I fixed the loop and venting.



So, since I have to cut the bad main drip line out anyway, I'm going to use the opportunity to do an upgrade. I ran out of time on this trip, so this will have to wait until later this summer. The main takes a 90 degree turn before the drip, and since I'm replacing the drip anyway, I'll have access to that part of the main and I'll be able to move the vents there. The system piping is now all either new or a century old, so I plan on adding a mud leg to the main to catch the gunk that I am betting will continue to flush out. I know that I probably need to replace the entire wet return, but that just isn't in the budget right now.



Any thoughts?

Steamhead

The drip from the main is too small

Make it at least 1-inch. That and a 1-inch wet return (when you replace that) will handle up to 700 square feet of radiation. 

Polycarp

1"

The sizes are original to the system and this is just one of the drips. Every riser has its own drip, as do most of the first floor radiators. With that in mind, do you think that it is still necessary to bump the size from 3/4" to 1"?