new piping ..is it right now?

plumbergirl1

My burnham pin 4 steam boiler is being repiped for the 3rd time.They are getting rid of the bullhead tee finally (see photo 1).Any opinion on how they are planning to connect the mains off the header and equalizer(see photo 2)I want to be sure it is piped correctly this time. Is this long nipple and the 2 pipes going up to the 2 separate mains O.K?They checked measurement on the header it is at 24 minimum from water line. Still insisting copper is ok above water for the returns. How should the hartford loop be configured now with the new piping? Can not tell you how much I appreciate all the great help I been receiving from this Wall...I'm just a homeowner who has had to learn as much as I can about steam since having so many problems with this new install in November.

icesailor

New piping, upside down:

What annoys me for you is that you had to go through this exercise. I very rarely post here on The Steam Wall. I've not done any steam jobs, just a few minor repairs. There's hardly any steam where I worked.

What annoys me is that I learned so much just looking and reading here about steam. If "professionals" are going to advertise themselves as

Steam-Pro's, they ought to know what they are doing and how to not get into trouble.

There are few if any new steam systems going in. Just boiler replacements. If you are going to be selling yourself as a steam boiler replacement specialists, you darn well better be a specialist.

The Steam Wall needs a "Wall of Fame/Pride: and a Wall of Shame. So "lurkers" can come and peek at what a good steam replacement looks like. And see disasters.

As a friend says about a lot of things, "Any fool can do it". If you do it right. If you install and pipe a steam boiler so that it will function properly, and deliver steam properly, and recover condensate properly, you're 90% there. If the new boiler is working correctly, then the only thing then might need tweaking is the system. The idea of dropped headers are a thing of beauty.

If those installers had spent as much time reading information here on the wall as they have spent trying to fix their Kindergarten Picasso's, they'd be genius's.

In my many years, it wasn't that I wanted to be right, I just didn't want to be wrong. Being wrong was taking something that needed fixing to make it better. When it was done, if it wasn't as good or worse, "I" did something wrong. I found it extremely difficult to blame everything else for the problem. If it worked before I got there, I "fixed" something, and it works worse when I left, who screwed it up? The customer for calling me? Or the other guy they call who fixed it. I preferred to be "The other guy".

I hope that they have been reading and studying here now.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Fred

Hard to tell?

It is very difficult to see with the pictures upside down but looking at the last photo, it looks like the header is good and it looks like the tie-ins for the mains are good and I'm assuming the end connection is intended for the equalizer. The hardford loop should tie into that towards the bottom, with a close nipple, below the water line at whatever height the installation manual says. It would be good if you could post some better pictures so we can double check it for you but it looks like they are on the right track, finally. I suppose copper on the returns is OK but my preference would be black pipe, at least until those returns are below the water line.