Pressure test of steam lines

targetman

Just wanted some opinions. New customer called about a known pipe leak at their church. Customer wants to pressure test steam lines with air to identify any other leaks. My Boss tells him it would be better to just double the operating pressure to check for leaks. We have never worked on this system. Don't know if it's one pipe or two. My thoughts are to just fix the known leak and then evaluate the system.

Jamie Hall

One pipe or two...

doesn't matter.  What does matter is that there is simply no way that I can see to test a steam system for leaks with air.  There is this little problem of the vents -- which are hopefully wide open when air is present.



Further, if you try to test with steam, you have another minor problem: you can't hold pressure, as the steam will condense very quickly.



And there isn't much point in doubling the pressure (even if you don't over pressure the vents and make problems where there were none before).



What you can do, however, is check the water use of the boiler.  It should use very little, even in a large system (as might be found in a church).  The manufacturer will have maximum values -- but in most cases I would venture to say that anything over a gallon a week is excessive.



I'm with you -- fix the know problem(s) and then check the whole system over -- and keep track of the water usage.

targetman

condensing steam

Jamie, you just gave me what I needed to get out of this mess. I thought about installing a water meter. But the fact that i can't hold the pressure, will be all I need to convince the customer and my Boss that raising the pressure is a bad idea.



Thanks