weil mclain peg 55 2 rads dont heat

ablemech

this system is parallel flow there is one 3 inch riser feeding the header wich it shows in diagram the header is also 3 inch with one 3 inch tee facing straight up 90 degrees this main feeds the whole house and is heating .The other tee is 3x1 1/2 it is on a 45 degree angle it feeds the two rads that dont heat piping is less than 20 feet it is driped before it goes to the second foor I removed piping inspected for debris pipe is clear and so is drip and return line .removed unoin wich is about a foot away from header turned on boiler untill it started steaming about 2 gallons of water came out put piping back together and rads heated the last time i went to the job I removed the drip line to check if it was clogged and same thing happened water came out rads heated for a week then stopped header has very little pitch and equalizer line does not drop straight down it also goes down on a 45 deg angle its 3x 11/2 90 then goes down to a 45 then to a 90 to hartord loop hartford loop measure ments are good header is 38 inches above the waterline also there is a space nipple in the hartford loop I dont know if equalizer piping and tee on a 45 in header is making the water surge up into header water is clean boiler has been running all year I did not install it just trying to fix the problem any help would be greatly appreciated

nicholas bonham-carter

Give us some pictures of the piping from the boiler to the mains, and of the radiators, and it will be easier for us to advise.--NBC

ablemech

ok I will try to send them thanks

BobC

It sounds like some of that main is not sloped correctly or has a sag that is allowing water to pool in it. Pooling water will collapse steam and starve the radiators of steam.

Is this single or two pipe steam? If it's one pipe what kind of main air vent does each main have. If iy's two pipe are the steam traps all good and are the main air vents working?

Bob

ablemech

its single pipe mains have a small vent at drips from 2nd floor risers that main wich has 2 rads has very little pitch but when I removed it to see if it was plugged there was no water laying in there.also I am having problems with pictures sorry. this main only serves 2 rads and is closest to the boiler the other 3 inch main heats fine no water hamer no condensate return problems

BobC

Are you sure the main air vents are working and are they large enough? You have to vent the mains in proportion to the volume of air they contain but generally you want to vent the mains fast and the radiators slowly.

Bob

ablemech

The 3 inch heats fine but did not check the vents the one that doesnt heat all the time only has vents on the 2 radiators nonthing on the main but is only like 12 feet from the boiler those vents on rads were changed also you could remove them and no steam or air would come out . the 3 main goes probably 40 feet and has many rads on it

BobC

Steam always follows the path of least resistance, what kind of vents are on the radiators that connect to the working main? maybe those have to be smaller so steam gets routed to the bad main and it's radiators. What is the EDR of the radiators on the bad main?

Clock the gas meter to make sure the boiler is consuming the amount of gas it should.

Bob

Fred

Also, check those two radiators and make sure they have some pitch back towards the supply pipe. The water may well be setting in the radiators. What is the Pressuretrol set at? If the pressure gets too high, it can push water back into the system as well.