I redid the near boiler piping

ryanr256

It was the last thing that needed to be done. I will insulate this weekend. The "pre" photos are in this thread:



<a href="http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/132665/Bryant-235BAW-cleaning-procedure">http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/132665/Bryant-235BAW-cleaning-procedure</a>



I've attached the "post" photos. It's not perfect but it's a whole lot better than it was. Everything went pretty smoothly considering we were dealing with pipes and fittings that haven't been touched in anywhere from 25 to 80+ years.



I want to thank everyone on the Wall that freely contribute their stories and knowledge. It makes for a tremendous knowledge base.



-Bob

Rod

Safety with Kids

Hi Bob - Looking good!  Just a thought - If you have young children you might want to put a pipe plug in that skim valve and also remove the valve handle. I strung my valve handles on a wire and hung them on a nail next to the boiler,  On hose bib drain fittings - you can cap them.  It might be a little over kill but may prevent a tragic scalding accident.

- Rod

..

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

Repipe

Much better and the new header actually is a header that meet manufacturer's specs.   Also for safeties sake, run the relief valve drain down to about 4 inches off the floor to help protect from scalding.

BobC

Safety first

I just had a new boiler installed and the installer put in a full port 1-1/4 skim port to make skimming easy. i went out and bought a 1-1/4 threaded plug to put on that valve when not skimming.  You can see it on top of the boiler.



The thoughts of someone opening that valve while under pressure is not a pleasant one, and there is always the chance one could leave the valve open and later have the boiler come on. **** happens and anything you can do to make it less likely is worth the effort, that brass plug on top of the boiler is just another jog for the old memory.



I actually did try to remove the handle on mine but could not get that nut to budge with considerable force, it looks like the threaded shaft the handle is on was swaged after the handle was put on there.



Bob

ryanr256

thanks

Thanks for the tips about the valve handles. No small children running around the basement but it's always good to be safe. I'll also put a plug in the open end of the valve.



The relief valve plumbing is on the list. It's one of the "easy" jobs that are left.



I wish I could have two take offs, but we didn't want to risk cracking the boiler trying to get the plug out. We were fortunate enough to remove a 90 degree elbow from the overhead main so we could connect the new piping. A lot of heat and PB Blaster did the trick. I went high instead of dropped on the header because of the one take off. I thought that the extra height would limit the amount of water pulled up into the header.



The other issue is the equalizer goes from 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 and then 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 for the last 18 inches to the boiler. Again, that's because the 1 1/4 was already there and it was too risky to try to replace it.



It's a very different experience now when the thermostat clicks. You almost can't tell the system is running. Major change from the hammering, hissing and spitting we had before.



Again, the knowledge on this site saved our system. If I could, I'd buy you all a beer.



-Bob