Found this in ....

kcopp

basement I was called to look at this week.... It has to be one of the absolute worst piping jobs I have ever seen. No Hartford loop, no equalizer and all in copper....To get heat the homeowner had to do all kinds of stuff...draining , pulling off vents, turning off and on....etc. Totally nuts. I am pulling the whole system out and going to install a Nat gas FHW set up.... I couldn't convince him to keep the old set up w/ the long flue vent pipe run.

MikeyB

Seperator

Its a type steam separator, I believe it slows the velocity of the steam down as it exits the boiler separating water from the steam, Is it all brass/bronze? it would look good in our mongo bin with that copper....:)

kcopp

Therma-Flo...

made them... I have seen a few. Still yet the lack of the other piping made this a terrible system to operate...kcopp

fixitguy

wow!

Amazing that it lasted as long as it did. unfortunately we see a fair number of variations on this theme. (all from the last 20 years) Here is a photo of a Burnham that I replaced last year, 3 years old burned out, and in the basement next to it was the duplicate burnout. I guess lightning does strike twice. The copper pipe was the condensate return. I guess the knucklehead thought steam & hot water were the same thing.

Steamhead

Knuckleheaded to death

I've seen systems work without equalizers or Hartford Loops- but not with copper steam piping that does not rise 24" above the waterline before joining together.



And that steam separator could never have worked with the drain opening plugged. You really, seriously can't fix stupid!



Why is it that when knuckleheads screw up a system, the knee-jerk reaction is to waste a lot of money completely replacing it?