Placement of strap on aquastat on steam boiler

JayZ

Hi, I live in a ground floor apt in a 3 story house. A plumber recently replaced a steam boiler that has a hw loop on it. He placed the strap on aquastat on the header of the steam system. I've found that when the steam system is satisfied the header stays hot for quite a while and if my zone calls for heat, it won't allow the burner to fire so lukewarm water is all that circulates through my baseboard. I believe that the aquastat belongs on the return line of my loop. Any suggestions? Thanks

Jamie Hall

Indeed. Odd spot for an aquastat. Get the plumber back and put it on either the feed or the return line for your loop, where it belongs.

JayZ

I am a plumber myself. My landlord used the guy that he's know for 30 yrs now. I moved it to the return line, but now it takes so long for the return to get to 180 that it starts sending steam upstairs. There is approximately 200 linear feet of pipe including the baseboard. I lowered it to 160 and waiting to see what happens.

STEAM DOCTOR

You will probably need to play around with the temps on the aquastat. Don't count on an accurate reading. Set it as high as possible while ensuring that the boiler kicks out without making steam. I have seen similar set ups where the high limit needed to be dialed down to 125. The water temp in the loop was 180 or so. Just the stat wasn't picking it up properly.

EBEBRATT-Ed

move it to the supply then. If you have 200' of tubing your probably getting crap for flow. What size tubing, what size pump how many ft of baseboard????????????

JayZ

I figured that would be the solution. They didn't install a temp gauge on the loop so I'm not quite sure what the actual temp is. It's a crazy setup. I have a total of 68' of baseboard with a total of 200' of piping. They ran a return through the baseboard due to the fact that it's on a slab. That's why it takes so long for the return to heat up.

EBEBRATT-Ed

68' is max on a 3/4 loop I beleive