Water in steasm radiator

jhansen

I was recently on a 3 floor 18 unit building where a tenant had no heat in one of his radiators which was on the 3rd floor. This is a single pipe system. When I removed the vent water spewed out under some pressure and did not stop. Thinking the boiler was flooded I went to the basement. Someone had abandoned all of the underground returns and repiped the supplies in copper ten years ago. Thus requiring all condensate to return via the supply branches. There were bellies in the pipe everywhere. The boiler was operating at 1 PSI and had a good water level. I know the piping is a mess and must be redone but I would like to get the one tenant heating until spring. I figured that in the offcycle the riser would drain and how would the water cliimb so high at only one PSI. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

JH

Rod

Water in the Radiator

Hi- Did you check that the steam valve on the radiator was fully open and that the radiator had a slight slope towards the inlet?  Other than that, with such screwed up piping, anything is possible. If there is any slack in the inlet pipe you might try raising the radiator by putting some blocks under the feet (you still will need a slight slope towards the intake) as this might help drainage.  Also check the radiator vent - if it is too large a capacity, the high velocity of the escaping air and steam coming into the radiator may be blocking the condensate that is trying to leave the radiator so you might want to try a slower radiator vent.

- Rod

Hap_Hazzard

How does the water get all the way up to the radiator?

Since water is steam that's given up its heat it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that water will find its way into every radiator in the system, so the real question is, why isn't it finding its way back to the boiler, and I think you already know the answer to that question.



The good thing about copper is that it's ductile. If you can get hangers on the sections that are sagging the worst you might be able to straighten it out enough to drain more effectively. You can also run as many drip lines as you need below the the water line and back to the boiler.

supt

supt

my steam vacuum system has a lot of water out of return drain........i have 396 units and 2 new gordon piatt boilers....