2 Pipe Recessed Radiators - one piped backwards!

bigsteamedp

Any suggestions regarding these types of radiators? I have 4 of them only two work. The 2 that actually work seems like they are piped with traps way downstream, in the basement and have no steam valves. The one in the pic is actually piped backwards with the trap in the steam supply line. I found out because I thought it had a bad trap, opened it, no cage. I put in a cage and added steam, and OMG the supply line was feeding the trap! This one doesn't heat at all, even with the cage removed.

Jamie Hall

There's no harm to having the traps downstream a ways, provided only that they are piped to drain properly. Pitch and all that sort of thing.

On the other hand, a trap on the steam supply will pretty well guarantee that that radiator won't work. Can you rearrange the piping so that the line with the trap goes to a return, and the other line to the steam main?

Or figure out how it got piped that way and fix it

KC_Jones

Looking exclusively at pipe sizes the radiator looks correct, the return pipe should be smaller. What does the piping look like in the basement for this radiator? Can't really make any intelligent judgement by the piping at the radiator alone. Need to see basement connections and the pics need to include enough piping to get an idea of what is going where (not too close).

JUGHNE

Have you actually traced out the piping in the basement. They might have tried to use the remote trap for 2 rads and the steam is backing up into the 2nd trap body.

bigsteamedp

I moved in December and I have been able to spend very little effort to trace piping, there are 22 radiators in my house. It's been quite a difficult task when heat is required to figure this out. My plan for over the summer is to shut each working radiator down and figure out each supply line/return line in the basement.

My guess on this particular radiator is that some remodeling was completed and the supply and return were switched accidentally.

If you have any suggestions on how to trace the piping I'd be open to learning, but from what I can figure is start will all valves off and as I turn each on figure out which supply lines get hot.

Regarding the remote trap for multiple radiators, I have thought about that one, but it seems all the supply and return lines are 1 to 1 in the basement I just need to figure out which ones go to which radiator.

Thanks for all your input. I'll try and put up some basement pics in the next few days.