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Steam trap on low water cut out

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MichaelK
MichaelK Member Posts: 34
in Strictly Steam
Found this on a new site the other day and thought I'd post it here to see if anyone had any ideas as to .....why?  Looks like they tapped off the cross's from the low water cutout piping, made another loop and added a strainer, trap, and the trap dumps directly into a drain.  I'm not sure why this would be here or what someone was trying to accomplish.  I have never seen it before on any other boiler.  Thoughts?
Michael Knight

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  • Boiler wrestler
    Boiler wrestler Member Posts: 43
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    trap

    Looks like there are twin boilers. Likely this trap is to keep the boiler that's not firing from flooding. Should be piped to condensate tank.
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 16,856
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    BW is right

    it's called a spill or overflow trap. Dan covers this in Lost Art, page 183.
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • vaporvac
    vaporvac Member Posts: 1,520
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    Necessary

    Not to hijack this post. but is this necessay with every twin boiler install?
    Two-pipe Trane vaporvacuum system; 1466 edr
    Twinned, staged Slantfin TR50s piped into 4" header with Riello G400 burners; 240K lead, 200K lag Btus. Controlled by Taco Relay and Honeywell RTH6580WF
  • MichaelK
    MichaelK Member Posts: 34
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    Lost Art

    Thanks for the help.  We just recently moved and I saw my Lost Art bible somewhere but could not locate it the other night when I was looking this up.  Thanks for the page number as soon as it shows up I'll read up on it some more.  Thanks again everyone. 
    Michael Knight
  • Dave in QCA
    Dave in QCA Member Posts: 1,785
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    NO

    This type of a setup is only required on boilers with feed water pumps. On a gravity return, such as you are doing Colleen, if condensation does raise the boiler that is not running, it will equalize with the other boiler through the return lines. That is the main reason that I was suggesting a simpler return piping setup for your install -- it allows the boilers to equalize better, perhaps.



    Also, this tendency for the lag boiler to take on water is a very slow phenomena, but can cause problems if the lag boiler is automatically brought online by the controls. Thus, the trap installed as shown. This is a detail that is shown by the WM diagrams for multiple boilers.
    Dave in Quad Cities, America
    Weil-McLain 680 with Riello 2-stage burner, December 2012. Firing rate=375MBH Low, 690MBH Hi.
    System = Early Dunham 2-pipe Vacuo-Vapor (inlet and outlet both at bottom of radiators) Traps are Dunham #2 rebuilt w. Barnes-Jones Cage Units, Dunham-Bush 1E, Mepco 1E, and Armstrong TS-2. All valves haveTunstall orifices sized at 8 oz.
    Current connected load EDR= 1,259 sq ft, Original system EDR = 2,100 sq ft Vaporstat, 13 oz cutout, 4 oz cutin - Temp. control Tekmar 279.
    http://grandviewdavenport.com
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