New boiler installation: replacing the near plumbing

jamesschwartz1

We are replacing an old boiler and had a new steel header welded last week, but there's not much space between the second of the two risers and the first of the two mains. In fact the second of the two risers is pretty much directly under one of the mains as shown in the picture below. I'm worried that this will result in condensate draining back into the boiler through the riser instead of moving down the header to the equalizer. My question is will this cause problems and does it need to be corrected before we go further with the plumbing?

Charlie from wmass

How will the water climb up 1 1/2" to go back down the supply pipe? I would have had shorter nipples and flanges or unions between the header and the supplies, but I also would not weld inside a residential home. When I have used welded headers I used a full size welded elbow to a reducer instead of welding a nipple onto the header for the equalizer.

Abracadabra

You need separation between the boiler risers and the main takeoffs. The steam needs to settle in the header so water will drop out. The more the better. I like to leave at least 3 pipe diameters when possible. Make sure the header is pitched toward the equalizer. Might be the photo, but it looks like it's pitched wrong. Don't forget about swing joints.

I'm assuming this is a 1-pipe parallel flow system?

ChrisJ

That sure doesn't give any time for water to fall out of the steam.

I would've busted that elbow off and aimed a new 90 towards the other main and brought them down next to eachother. This would allow the header time to actually do it's job.

What size are the supplies? In the picture I'd swear those look like 1 1/2" but maybe the header is misleading?

jamesschwartz1

The supplies are 2 " and the header is pitched to the equalizer. Going to have header offsets--- they will be swing joints and the pipes will be threaded & I believe that they will act like the companion flanges shown below from "Lost Art" on pg. 53 .
Also we decided to get the welder back and to bring the two mains down next to each other on the far right of header to get more space between the risers and the takeoffs and give the header a chance to work . Thanks for the suggestions.

icesailor

Drop steam headers on a boiler can be a beautiful thing.

Like a hydraulic separator on a hot water boiler. No bad's, all good's when done properly.

Or so it seems.