Piping check pls?

Jim Franklin

Just rented a house and have had to add water daily. Took the cover off today and flooded it and saw a hole. Every freakin house I live in...



Anyway I took some pics of the piping. It looks good to me but 'd like to have some experts confirm before we have the boiler replaced.



<a href="http://www.groupwbench.org/Groton%20house/">http://www.groupwbench.org/Groton%20house/</a>



(files are big; filenames with _small are much smaller)



thanks!



jim

nicholas bonham-carter

does it leak?

when cold, you can overfill the boiler, watch for a drip or a seep. that would confirm the need for replacement of the sections, or the whole boiler.

if you replace it, make sure the piping layout in the manual is followed--not the present layout!--nbc

Rod

Boiler Piping

Hi Jim- Hole in the boiler- Where are you located?. Some areas of the country have problems with chlorides in the water which can cause a hole like this.  It is also very important to heat the boiler water to a boil after any new water is added. This drives off the excess oxygen in the water. Excess oxygen can cause corrosion which can rapidly shorten the life of your boiler.

Near Boiler Piping-  This boiler has some rather "unusual" risers and header piping. I haven't seen one done this way before. As NBC mentioned it needs to be changed and piped according to the manual. The return piping looks okay. Where are you main vents located? I don't see any on the returns.  The system would also benefit greatly by adding insulation to the pipes that hold steam.

- Rod

-

gerry gill

what header?

the take offs come off the drop to the header via tee's as best as i can tell from the picture..in essence there would then be NO header.

jpf321

groton street queens?

or somewhere else?

Oak Park Electric

Holey boiler

Yep.  Needs a new boiler.  And that's an interesting take on a header.  We've seen a lot of  wrong piping here, but not anything quite like that.  When they do the boiler, the pipes should be replaced up to the mains on the ceiling and of course should follow the diagram in the manual.  The way it is now is definitely wrong.

Jim Franklin

Yes

That's how I found the hole. Probably 1/4" in diameter. It was serviced in November, I'd have thought the servicer would have caught that. There are also other spots down the chamber that have white deposits, and the nipples look whitish with growths too.



I didn't think the present piping layout was so bad. Not ideal, but I've seen so, so much worse :-)



jim

Jim Franklin

Groton, MA

We're on town water but I don't see any analysis info on the website. I just got here so I have no boiler history. However, the boiler short cycles a lot, running 2-3 minutes. It appears the house is heated mostly from the warm convection off the boiler hitting the subfloor. It's possible the anticipator on the old T87 is set wrong since the 'stat shuts off the boiler, not low water or anything. Point being it never boils for long, if at all.



jim

Rod

Piping

The piping is rather unusual to say the least. If it was judged like Olympic figure skating,  I'd give the guy that  piped it,  a 1 on  technical  but a 10 on artistry!  It will need to be changed.

You might want to check the water though you may be okay where you are.  Boston and surrounding area (eastern Mass) has been having a problem with heavy boiler corrosion due to excessive chlorides in the water.(salt water)

- Rod

crash2009

Looks like the guy that piped that one was on to something.

This looks like an early prototype to the drop header.  If the guy had connected the system risers a little farther down the line, he would have been light years ahead of the competition.  Back to the drawing board for that one.

While looking at the header picture, I noticed a plugged tapping for the main vent on the return,  It appears to be in the right place, 15" before the drop down to the Hartford.

Sure has a high water line doesn't it.

Jim Franklin

Piping is art :-)

I'll recommend to the landlord we re-do the piping. I found the water data, 8-19 ppm of sodium, and we're 52 on the hardness scale (slightly hard) from calcium and manganese.



There are 2 main vents, located out at the far end of the mains, before they become returns. They need replaced. And moved. And the whole shebang insulated.



Is there anything better than a good boiler + SuperStor? Only oil here. I've been out of the loop for a few years.



jim

Jim Franklin

That's from flooding it.

Not enough room in the bucket to drain to a proper level. No worries, it'll be bouncing off the autofill in a few hours...



jim

crash2009

Oh.

 I thought the plug that I circled in the picture was for the main vent.  When I said high waterline, I meant high from the floor not in the sight glass.

World Plumber

boiler

Looks like the boiler is close to 40 years old. Question if your renting, why aren't you calling the landlord? The stack pipe should have been a dead giveaway. Pass the info about the piping along to the landlord. They were (are) a good boiler. Once set up with a retention burner they became fairly efficient.

Jim Franklin

July 1991

Mfg date according to Peerless when I sent them the serial #.



She's a first time landlord, and I'd like to establish some goodwill since I'm keeping 12 motorcycles in the breezeway and would like to electrify & pneumatify the garage. Plus, I kinda like playing with steam systems. Thirdly, she'd likely just get the local guys to replace it, and they're the ones who didn't see the hole when they serviced it in Nov. And if I can nudge her in the direction of a proper system, I'll be more comfortable and hopefully more coin in pocket.



It has a Wayne Blue Angel on there now. Are they decent? I've never heard of them.