Switching out steam boiler

ChrisJ

CT1988 said:

what is wrong? now i'm really nervous.

This is from the installation manual. The horizontal section of pipe shown is called the header and it's job is to separate water from the steam. It allows the water to drain back to the boiler and is extremely important.

j a_2

Besides the steam piping. How is the venting/chimney. Did u do a combustion test..and is there enough make up air....there is a lot more to it than some people think. Its not for the unskilled...highly suggest you READ the warnings in the I and o manual.

CT1988

got it. thanks. i will go back to him and have him fix it. looks to be an extra pipe i need to add.

Abracadabra

I'm guessing the boiler wasn't skimmed either.

CT1988

the skimming part was done. I remember they emptied out a good 3-5 buckets for water once water was added. I can def get the guy back to fix this. i'll have him read the manual to make sure the header is added with proper distance. thanks again

ChrisJ

Skimming cannot really be done on the same day as installation. Well, it can, but it won't do too much.

You need to wait a few weeks for all of the oils to wash down into the boiler and then skim it. After he fixes the header it will need to be skimmed again.

CT1988

thanks!

CT1988

i wonder if the wet steam is the reason why one of my convector is making a constant hissing sound during the heater cycle. i thought that was normal since it made that sound with the old boiler. (which i see now also didn't have a steam header)

ChrisJ

CT1988 said:

i wonder if the wet steam is the reason why one of my convector is making a constant hissing sound during the heater cycle. i thought that was normal since it made that sound with the old boiler. (which i see now also didn't have a steam header)

From what I can tell your previous boiler did have a header.

archibald tuttle

sorry, when i posted it was right around when you posted saying you had replaced the boiler, so, unless you took pics of the old one, we won't have any comparison on an empirical basis as to what was and was not working in the previous regime.

the hissing sound, if its the same radiator/convector is probably just a steam trap that needs replacing. if it is really pushing water into a close radiator to a great extent it might just be keeping the temp at the steam trap a little too low to close, but i tend to doubt that.

as to the piping, sometimes systesm run like that for years. i don't have enough experience to say how much more fuel it might use. my guestimate is that the amount of extra work being done throwing water into the operating steam mains if they are well pitched and a little oversized doesn't really add up to 30% if you are otherwise seeing your radiators/convectors steaming up reasonably and the thing ain't knockin' itself crazy.

but there is no question that it ought to have had a close drop return to dry out the steam as depicted in the installation instructions (but i never read those either).

combustion test is useful but if you've been running a boiler in there probably that size or bigger for low these many years with a similar stack setup it is probably way past time to know whether you have enough make up air. now maybe you have tightened the crap out of the house over the last decade and so combustion/draft tests would be quite reasonable to do. but i know plenty of 'professionals', esp. with atmospheric boilers, who are just going to R&R. If there was an X btu atomspheric running there they just put another one in. Unless they happen to catch sight of a really orange to yellow or sooty flame that is the combustion testing.

the vent pipe looks newish. so i'm guessing they at least insured that the entry to the chimney was clear and gave it emperical feel for a little draft and put the thing in. I can't see, but it being a new boiler it should have some spill switches (thermal cutouts around the open edge of the draft assembly on the back of the boiler to which the round flue stack is attached and you oughta have CO detector in the home and you're reasonably covered albeit instrumental checking of the draft and combustion can insure you're getting decent performance in the range of efficiency and that you aren't operating on the edges of parameters for which the spill switches and CO ought to be emergency engagements, not operating controls.

brian

KC_Jones

Not only the header, but verify all the correct pipe sizes are used. The pipe that is supposed to be your equalizer looks small to me. It should be 1 1/2" per the manual. I would question almost everything on that install at this point. Could you take a picture of the other side so we can see the return piping and the "equalizer" connection? Would be good to check everything at this point.

CT1988

here's the other side. do you guys know the ballpark of what a plummer will charge to get the header install based on my current setup. i'm wondering if i should just bit the dust and eat up the extra cost to get this done correctly once and for all.

CT1988

KC_Jones

All that piping is wrong too. There is no Harford loop at all. In all honesty there is so much incorrect basically you need all the new piping torn out and done over from scratch. We do not discuss pricing on this site. We had recommended a great steam guy to call and I suggest you do it or you get the original installer back to fix their mistakes on their dime. If it was me I think I would just eat it at this point since the person you had obviously has no idea what they are doing. Call the company at the below link and see if they can help you out.
https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/thatcher-heating-and-air-conditioning

CT1988

thanks

KC_Jones

One other thing the fill valve isn't in the most ideal location. IMHO it should be in the wet return where the warm condensate can temper it. Where it is now you are potentially dumping ice cold street water into a possibly hot boiler...that has the potential of ending ugly. Just my $0.02 worth.

CT1988

wow, i screwed up big time. thanks for your suggestions

CT1988

btw, before i freak out even more, nothing is gonna "blow up" if i leave everything as is right? I'm going to call my guy and will try to have him remedy this.

KC_Jones

Nothing is going to blow up, the system just isn't going to run very well. I would expect hammering and noise. Without the Hartford loop I would just keep an eye on the water level. The LWCO should stop anything if you go low, but keeping an eye on the boiler is never a bad idea.

CT1988

thanks. i want to get this remedy but as the weather is quite cold, would rather do this after the winter season. this is def enough of a concern for me, and if i have to go out of pocket, i rather get it down right.

Abracadabra

I see no skim port. Is that 1" pipe for the equalizer?

Is the installer the same guy that did your brother's boiler? I see similarities between the 2 installs.