Near-boiler piping, pressuretrol, equalizer, etc...

Counterflow Charlie

At least the sight glass is clear...

Just finished reading "We Got Steam Heat"



Here is what we have-

One pipe oil fired steam, two mains

House built 1928



Here is what I observed-

Headers 16" about waterline

No insulation until elbow from riser to steam supply mains

Pressuretrol cut in 3, cutout 5 (now adjusted to .5 and 1.5 respectively) and connectio to low water cutoff straight pipe, not pigtail (not sure if this matters, but based on everything else, it probably does)

No Hartford Loop - wet returns meet at "Y" and then go under equalizer "T" and straight into boiler

I'm afraid to even check dimension A

Furnace about 30 yrs old



Am I right in assuming that this entire system was installed by Knucklehead's Inc.or am I missing something?  I don't even want to guess how much of my paycheck is going to the oil company for these inefficiencies.



I'm considering converting to gas.  The house already has gas for the dryer, range and hot water heater - so no new piping is needed there.

Steamhead

What make and model

is the boiler?



What burner is on it?



Does the system have properly-sized main vents?

Rod

Steam System.

Hi - It would help if you take some pictures of the boiler from farther back (away) that include the piping. If we need to see detail we can blow them up. Take the pictures so they different sides of the boiler that way we can trace the piping. Are you having any problems with the system at this time?  You should have a Main Vent on each steam main at the farthest end away from the boiler. Take a picture of these as that would also help

- Rod

hotpipe

converting to gas

Depending on the size of the gas unit you add, proper line size may dictate a greater size than what you currently have.

nicholas bonham-carter

30 year old boiler

While it is regrettable that the boiler was not piped with a Hartford loop, that should be the least of your worries now with this. You mention the previous pressure settings were up to 5 psi max, and have now been lowered. This high setting was probably a "kludge" to overcome bad main venting, and so you must investigate the capacity of the main vents. One way of doing this is by installing a good low pressure gauge(gauge store.com, 0-3psi), and seeing the resistance to air escape while firing as the back-pressure of venting.

Or you could measure the length of your steam mains, and guess at the capacity of the steam chest of the boiler, and using the venting information available from the shop here, calculate the number and type of main vents.

Once you have solved any venting inadequacies, you should then turn to the rest of the system. It's not clear how your returns are joining. Are they joined above the waterline of the boiler (not ok), or below,(ok)?

Is the boiler using any water? If you have an auto/over-fill it may hide a small leak somewhere in the system, and enable it to become a big leak! I would turn off the water supply to the a/o-f and check the water level regularly. Use a clothes pin on the rods of the sight-glass to mark the water-level and check it when the boiler is not running every day or so.

Next in line for examination would be the thermostat. Is it an old mercury switch type? Is the anticipatory been set to run longer periods of firing? Is its location away from the biggest radiator, or the blast of air from the front door, or an outsidewall?

I would say that your boiler is much older than 30 years old, but if not loosing water, then will be ok for the moment. It might time for a cleanning/combustion test if one has not been performed in the last year--nbc

Counterflow Charlie

Got some homework tonight

Thanks to everyone--

When I get home I'll get as many answers as I can and post them in this thread. 

With regard to specific problems, other than hammering and clicking, I don't know how efficient or inefficient  the system is in that I don't have a baseline.  Based on what I'd read with regard to minimum header's height being 24", I assumed that at least that was installed incorrectly, and where that was wrong, there were probably other things wrong as well...



Here are the answers and add'l iI nfo can give now-



We have the furnace serviced once a year- check the nozzles, clean the fire box and change the filter.

The cold water returns are below the waterline, but above the cement floor, and enter at the bottom of the boiler I haven't seen any evidence of them leaking - is that where I would typically see a leak?. Never seen the radiators spittting water from the vents having said all that, it seems that whenever it fires, after a few minutes the auto over/fill kicks on for a few seconds.

The thermostat is a digital Honeywell, I don't recall setting the anticipatory heat, I'll get the model # tonight.



Most of the questions are about the steam mains and their vents, so I'll measure those, and get the vent model #s and pictures as well. I replaced the main vents about a month ago with the exact same model. I assume the boiler (HB Smith) model # will help me find the size of the steam chest.

An interesting thing about one of the main's (I'll call it the back of the house main)- the house has a living space over the garage and the steam main runs through the basement wall, exits on the garage floor, goes to a riser then across the garage ceiling and straight up to 2 radiators. Before it exits the basement though, there is the main vent and it doesn't appear that there is anyplace after the current location of the vent to put another vent. I'll get pictures. If I need to get a gauge, I'll need somehelp with  model #'s - no idea which one to buy, but I may be jumping the gun there anyway - we'll see if the info I provide will suffice. 

I know that without the pipe size, length and radiator size this info is probably useless, but just in case.. the system cosists of 9 radiators on the back of the house main and 10 on the front.

I'll get the rest of the information tonight-

And thanks again