Finished EOM drip replacement

Polycarp

Thanks for everyone's input on my <a href="http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/132868/New-main-drip-and-moving-a-vent">end of main drip replacement.</a> I finished it up on Wednesday.



The clog in the drip was really *really* bad. The system has been sitting for over 5 months and the end of the main was still flooded. Over two gallons of water came out when I cut the pipe.



It looks like the mud leg was a really good idea. There was already gunk in there just after a system test.



I moved the vents from a radiator runout. When I added them, it was the best I could do at the time. But since I was going to have access to the end of the main with this project, I decided to take the opportunity to put it them in a better location. I decided to stick with the antler configuration for the vents. The deciding factor ended up being the main itself. That little section had a pretty severe slope to it and I worried that a menorah would have really pooled on the downhill leg.



Thanks again everyone for your help. This is the last critical thing to do on the system. I'll need to replace the rest of the wet return, but that can wait

jpf321

looks really great!

looks really good .. nice work! i'm sure you're proud. 

TomM

nice.

I see that all your barcodes face the corner wall.  was that intentional?  :-)

Polycarp

proud?

Inordinately so. 



Thanks to this board, I stand on the shoulders of giants .. or maybe kneel .. sit?  truth be told, I probably hang from the shoulders of giants. 

Polycarp

Not intentional

But maybe indicative of equal tightening?

crash2009

Clean install

Looks good!  Dont show your neighbors, unless you want to get busy.

Polycarp

You're telling me

... when I started rehabbing the exterior of the house, I started getting all kinds of offers from my neighbors to do work on their houses.

crash2009

Does it run better,

now that it can breathe?

Polycarp

running

It certainly seems to be.  I was only able to do limited testing while I was in town, but this is what I observed:



- the mains and risers in the basement heated up faster



- all of the drips and the whole wet return heats up (they didn't all heat up before, that was what clued me in to the clog), so condensate is draining throughout now



- the radiators on the riser that connects at the end of the main actually heat now (before, they did not), and heat quickly



The real test will be the really cold weather that is coming.  I may need to get a tech in to do some more skimming and re-balance the raidators.

crash2009

You are the tech now

Skimming should be easy compared to what you did all ready.  All it is really is overfilling the boiler very slowly, and letting the water drain somewhere.  Balancing, chances are good that those 2 Hoffmans balanced it for ya.

Polycarp

long commute

I'm a tech with a long commute.  This is a rental and I am not local anymore.



I did skim while I was there .. a couple of times actually.  But my experience with adding new pipe is that it takes more than a couple of skims to get all of the cutting oil out of the system. 



Also, since this is such an old and neglected system, every time I get things running better, I get a whole bunch more scale and sludge flushed into the system.  So I think getting a tech in later in the season to skim, drain my new mud leg, and drain a bit off the bottom of the boiler will probably be a good idea.

crash2009

Steam clean the returns

I havn't tried this one yet, but it sounds quite thorough.

http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/133168/cleaning-skimming