Suspicious Piping

ccretella

I recently had a new Mega Steam 3-Pass Oil Burner installed. Our old one crapped out. When we first moved into our house we noticed we had horrible water hammers and noisy radiators. Each radiator sounded like it had a mini ocean inside of it. After years of having different people come out to look at it we finally found a guy who recognized the old boiler was piped incorrectly. In early 2014 we had it re-piped and the house was gloriously silent when the heat kicked on. Well...that boiler died and now we have a new one and the hammers and horrible radiator noises are back. I checked pitch on all of the radiators and replaced all of the vents. I even replaced an older valve on one of the radiators but no luck. This leads me to the near boiler piping. It looks nothing like the installation manual. From what I can gather from all of the reading I've done on here the piping is wrong. To start...the risers don't extend anywhere near 24" from the water line. I've attached pics for those of you with more expertise. Needless to say...I've learned a very hard lesson in contractor selection...I owe the guy I used for the repair in 2014 an apology for using someone else!

Steamhead

Oh boy- this goes to show that not even a MegaSteam will tolerate bad piping. There is no excuse for this, since Burnham offers a piping kit for this boiler where all the nipples are pre-cut. You can't fix stupid!

I hope you haven't given the installers their final payment.

Here are some links to threads containing pics of properly-installed MegaSteams:

http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/148292/megasteaming-by-the-river#latest

http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/144144/latest-megasteam#latest

http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/135345/megasteaming-on-marylands-eastern-shore#latest

http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/128408/a-very-special-megasteam#latest

There are other MegaSteam threads but these are the ones I have bookmarked. I'm sure some others will chime in.

Fred

OMG. There is no way for that boiler to function properly piped that way. It will suck your boiler water right up into the mains, causing the hammer. It has to be fixed.

ccretella

Thanks all...appreciate the confirmation. Glad to know that I am at least picking up a little from what I've been reading.

nicholas bonham-carter

Since the piping is so recently installed, it will be easy to dismantle it, and repipe it as intended by the Burnham.
Maybe the Burnham rep could get involved in this.--NBC

ccretella

The guy who did the job is coming back tomorrow morning. I will be sure to tell him I want it done exactly as show in the installation manual. I guess getting the Burnham rep involved will be the next step if I have any trouble getting it done correctly.

Fred

Make sure he uses both riser tappings out of the boiler (if that model has 2 tappings) into the header, that he gets the header up as high as he can and that he places the Risers to the Mains after the risers out of the boiler and then the equalizer after that. Also, your Hartford loop is way to high. It should be a couple inches below the normal water line in the boiler.
If there is more than 1 main in your house, make sure he connects them individually into the header.

j a_2

Sad that has happened to you..Sorry to say if he/she can’t do it right the first time, then they can’t do it…If the rep is a nice guy he may come out, but its definitly not his duty…If I were the rep and saw that I would forbid him from purchasing my product…Demand he send in someone other than himself and redo it, or demand your money back….Pretty simple

Snowmelt

I would like to know what the final result is!

icesailor

Steamhead says that Burnham provides a pre-cut outlet kit with cut nipples. Make the installer get the kit, install the kit, and then connect it to the system.

Could that be harder?

Fred

They do sell an installation kit that costs about 2 or 3 times the cost of the pipe itself and, except for longer risers, he probably has enough pipe already there to do the job right.
The real question is can he do it right and read the installation instructions? I'd be standing over him with 1 eye on the instructions and 1 eye on him and, if I had a 3rd eye, it would be on the boiler

icesailor

That ready made header assembly would have been cheap at twice the price after someone gets done re-piping the supply.

Or like someone said: First, RTFM.

j a_2

I still can not believe an installer has to read a book for a basic steam boiler install….Shame on him….Sorry but he’s in the wrong business

Fred

icesailor said:

That ready made header assembly would have been cheap at twice the price after someone gets done re-piping the supply.

Or like someone said: First, RTFM.

I can't argue with that!

Steamhead

Fred said:

They do sell an installation kit that costs about 2 or 3 times the cost of the pipe itself

That's because some of the nipples they include are non-standard lengths. They cost more because there is no economy of scale. Try special-ordering something like a 14" or 17" nipple and you'll see what I mean.

j a_2

Steamhead said:

Fred said:

They do sell an installation kit that costs about 2 or 3 times the cost of the pipe itself

That's because some of the nipples they include are non-standard lengths. They cost more because there is no economy of scale. Try special-ordering something like a 14" or 17" nipple and you'll see what I mean.

I guess a kit could be helpful in some cases…Never did use one…As with most installs clearances are different each time…Had a 2 1/2 in. X 10 1/2 in nipple cut not long ago for a peerless 63-04 series…only because our threader needed new dies…Very surprised it only cost 21.00…..I still was not happy as they ran the threads out to long …kinda messed up my end to ctr. measure…Had to double up on the tape….

icesailor

"" kinda messed up my end to ctr. measure…Had to double up on the tape…. ""

With tape, at least you have that option to double up on wraps.

Try doubling up on paste and see how well that works.

Then, there's my "If you charge $60.00 per hour, that's $1.00 per minute (A buck a minute). How much does it cost you to set up, cut and thread a 2 1/2" X 10 1/2" nipple? Including the cost of the pipe for the nipple?

SWEI

icesailor said:

j a said:

I still was not happy as they ran the threads out to long …kinda messed up my end to ctr. measure…Had to double up on the tape….

With tape, at least you have that option to double up on wraps.

Try doubling up on paste and see how well that works.

Not so good, but anaerobic thread lockers can handle it. I'm becoming more and more of a fan, but it's hard to get the plumbers around here out of the overtightening habit.