having problems with a 1915 Vapor Vac system

Mikey Mac 1

What's up guys, hope you can help and tell me what can be done and removed, a brief historyon this system, there's a burnham commercial steam gas boil, that melted down, the pressure gauge was stuck at 40 PSI, the boiler was destroyed, we recalculated the EDR for sizing , okay, the system worked fine untill it dryfired, the new boiler is in place and working, only half of the whole radiators heat. l foundthat the air is not being vented from the system now, I'm afraid that the return trap and air vent have been damaged, here's some pics if the trap and air vent, no one at any supply house can help me in finding a replacement or even tell me how it works, I want to remove it but don't want to FoBar the system, I need your help, thanks. Mikey Mac

Steamhead

That's an Illinois Vapor system

the Heat Retainer is the main vent for the entire system, which also closes against vacuum.



The other device is a Return Trap. Pretty standard Vapor.



If one side isn't heating, make sure the steam can get in and the air can get out. Maybe the piping was altered when the boiler was replaced?



Dan discusses that type of radiator trap under Sterling in Chapter 15 of Lost Art.

nicholas bonham-carter

here's some factory info

http://www.heatinghelp.com/files/articles/1299/323.pdf

http://www.heatinghelp.com/files/articles/1821/dunham.pdf    [page 61]

do a search for dunham on this site, and i expect that there will have been someone who has wrestled with a similar problem!--nbc

Jamie Hall

Consider this:

as Steamhead implies, if half the system is heating, the air is getting out -- of that half -- and the steam is getting in -- to that half.  So it's unlikely to be the Heat Retainer or the Return Trap.  Somewhere, something else got changed -- it may be an utterly innocent looking change.  But somewhere something got changed, and either the air can't get out or the steam can't get in.



One of the first places I'd go looking on something like this is the water level of the new boiler.  If it is significantly lower than the water level of the old boiler, is it possible that it dried out what was supposed to be a wet return, somewhere out in the far distant reaches?  That might do it, if it allowed steam to get around from a steam line to a return line through what was supposed to be a water seal -- and isn't any more.  Depending on exactly how the system is piped, that could affect only part of it (although I'd have to admit that it would be more likely to mess up all of it...).



Any other piping changes?



Places to look -- other than water level which isn't always obvious -- are anything -- anything at all -- that was changed with the new boiler install.



Also, at the risk of the obvious... check your pressure.  8 ounces per square inch, max.