one pipe steam system

rouzervillesmitty

Dan,

Thanks for taking the time to help this old deadhead.  I have three of your heating books that i keep in my desk that have helped me out time and time again.  What I'm needing help with on is a 100 year old house with a modified one pipe steam system.  The return piping is short and needs replaced.  My questions is do i need to put F&T traps at the end of all the drips or do i just pipe it as it is now.  The old returns run under the floor and i want to get them up above the concrete.  My first thought was to put these traps on so I could raise the return line to say about 5 feet above the floor and pitch everything back to the boiler.  I'm not sure about the traps on this kindof system.  Please advise, Thanks

DanHolohan

Thanks.

You'd use F&T traps if you're dripping into a dry return, where there's the chance for steam to enter the return from a radiator. You'd also use the traps if you had an open receiver on a condensate- or boiler-feed pump.



If you're dripping into wet returns, there's no need for the traps.



Make sure you're getting the air out of the system, downstream of the radiators.