Steam Boiler

John Fernandez_2

We just put in to operation, a 317,000 BTU natural gas, Burnham IN10 steam boiler. All piping was installed as per Burnham's specifications and diagrams. The boiler works great as all controls work as they are supposed to ( low water cut-off, water feeder etc). The boiler has two 2" risers that extend vertically out of the boiler then turn 90* in to a 3" header that is that connects to the old steam pipe, My concern is this............when we fired the boiler for the first time, the 2" steam riser on the left side of the boiler got hot, the riser on the right remained cold, this seemed not normal to me so I shut down the boiler for about an hour.  We fired the boiler again and this time the riser on the right got hot and the riser on the left was cold, then after about a minute or two the cold riser got hot. Today we fired the boiler again and one of the risers was cold but it got got hot in about a minute, I can't figure this out.............help.

ALNY

Cycling

I have done in10s a few times....the 2: makes great for field threading...do you have a picture included of your setup so we can look at..

Plus are you allowing your boiler to fully cycle?, or are you waiting to touch the risers

within a few minutes, because the steam will travel to path of less resisiatnce.

So if you have venting issues on one side, etc, the other side will heat up first, but you shouldnt have a problem as far as both risers go...post up a few pics.

Hap_Hazzard

Pictures?

I got nothin', but maybe if I could see it something might come to me, or somebody.

Gordo

The Behavior You Describe

is perfectly normal.  When the boiler begins heating up, wisps of steam will rise up through the riser with the lest resistance.  It will flow back down the other riser in a mini heating loop until enough pressure is generated by the boiler to need both risers to release it.  Then both risers get hot as you describe.



Isn't that cool!!  Enjoy the wonder of Steam!

JStar

Steam

My partner and I always grab one riser each and try to guess which one will get hot first. It's never predictable. Not even by boiler or piping arrangement.