autofeeder on counter flow

Paul_69

installed a weil mlain 4 sec.steamboiler replacement on a very old steam counter flow piping system. never had auto feed on system.old lady wanted one installed. i am not a fan of them anyway. but even after adding extra delay timing relay it still over filled boiler. i skimmed and flushed new boiler alot. is this counter flow just trouble for a feeder??the condensate seems to take its sweet time returning to the boiler. no wet returns to speak of other than the small section at rear of boiler which is clean.this seems to be a weird piping desighn as the main pipe pitches back towards the boiler and steam and condensate travel in this piping.ran out of patience and they are hand filling it now.any insights appreciated.

nicholas bonham-carter

counterflow problems

when you run the boiler, with the auto/over-fill valved off; can you see some part of the cycle where the waterline drops? i am sure that you followed the mfg's piping layout, but could there still be some wet steam from oils etc. in the boiler?

i think they show a diagram for a reservoir tank in their piping layout, and maybe the volume of the large counter-flow pipes is just too much for the boiler water capacity. peerless show the header connecting into the top of the main, for counter-flow, but i don't know about w/m. how is the pressure?

or this may be a preexisting condition [of needing topping up], so that's why she wanted the auto-feed. observing while running might show you if the returns are slow, or water is "hiding" in some horizontal part of the piping close to the waterline height, as the pressure rises.

problems like these are why timco says "steam heating isn't rocket-science--it's a lot harder!"--nbc

Long Beach Ed

Counterflow Grief

If the velocity of steam leaving the boiler is too great, water will not return to the boiler in a counterflow system. 



This would be caused by undersized or improper header piping, undersized or too few boiler risers, or oil in the water. 



As Nicholas mentions above, if you didn't skim and clean the boiler for six hours, your water's dirty.  Clean it up and if your piping's correct your problem should vanish. 

Paul_69

counterflow

thx for replies,i would imagine uf the boiler was to big for radiation it would do this also?? i feel its sized right, just a question. it sounds like this is very different from other piping lay outs. thx again guys.do you guys approve of auto feeders on steam or stay away.

Jamie Hall

Opinion on autofeeders

seems to be split.  A lot of folks seem to have had trouble with them, but mine has given no trouble at all (of course, except for the blowdown from time to time, I almost never find I've added water with it anyway -- 4 gallons in two years, so far, excluding the blowdowns which are refilled manually anyway).