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automatic skimmer

has any one heard of a automatic skimmer for a steam boiler ?

Comments

  • auto-skimmer

    someone should make one, so the installer/homeowner is not forced to sit for hours/days next to a  pipe dribbling into a bucket.

    i think the following arrangement might work [at least on my peerless with a side tapping for the steam outlet]. right now, it is the skimming port with a large elbow, and valve and nipple pointing down. if i piped that into the boiler drain tapping, with an extra "t" and valve, the oily water would get thrown up into this skimming leg, and the water level will always be at the waterline of the boiler, because of the connection to the boiler bottom. a small percentage of each splash will be the oily water, which then can be periodically emptied by opening the valve on the "t". gradually, the oils will have been emptied out. i would experiment with that sometime, but later rather than sooner, as i have already spent my time sitting on the washing machine, watching the temporary extension pipe dribbling into the floor drain!--nbc
  • Dave in QCA
    Dave in QCA Member Posts: 1,785
    For Process Boilers

    These are available for high pressure process type boilers.  But the skimming opeation on these boilers is acutally a top blowdown used to control the amount of total desolved solids.  The skimmer tube is usually a 1.5"  or 2" pipe which has a series of holes drilled in it, that extends accross the boiler, just below the water line.  When the skimmer is opened, it bleeds off the boiler water from the top, where the level of dissolved solids is the highest.  Undesolved solds such as pieces of lime scale, sludge, etc., fall to the bottom and are flushed out via manual blowdown.  Here is a diagram, albeit a poor one, http://www.ges-inc.com/BoilerWater.gif   

    The automatic skimmer control samples the water by opening at a regular interval, say every 60 minutes.  As the water passes through the piping, an electrode senses the conductivity, and will hold the skimmer in the open position until the conductivity falls to the set point, at which time the skimmer automatically closes.   Here is a link to a manual for a typical automatic skimmer control.  http://www.advantagecontrols.com/downloads/pdf/M-Analog_Boiler.pdf



    However, this type of skimming and this type of control is NOT the same procedure that is used to remove the oils from a new cast iron sectional steam boiler.
    Dave in Quad Cities, America
    Weil-McLain 680 with Riello 2-stage burner, December 2012. Firing rate=375MBH Low, 690MBH Hi.
    System = Early Dunham 2-pipe Vacuo-Vapor (inlet and outlet both at bottom of radiators) Traps are Dunham #2 rebuilt w. Barnes-Jones Cage Units, Dunham-Bush 1E, Mepco 1E, and Armstrong TS-2. All valves haveTunstall orifices sized at 8 oz.
    Current connected load EDR= 1,259 sq ft, Original system EDR = 2,100 sq ft Vaporstat, 13 oz cutout, 4 oz cutin - Temp. control Tekmar 279.
    http://grandviewdavenport.com
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