New Steam Boiler Problems

dcomiskey

Test

Mike Cascio

That near boiler piping is a horror. Two risers with no equalizer go up to another tee with a supposed equalizer. Cast iron float low water cutoff, I suprised anybody uses them. You need to get the skim tapping open. Do it now before the plug gets welded in. Skimming with some tsp should get the oil out in a week or two.

j a_2

Oh God, get your money back ASAP...I also will go out on the limb and say it’s oversized site unseen..Don’t forget to keep the wall posted on progress,so many come for help and never do Jmo

Jamie Hall

Why on earth did they pipe it that way? It would have been so easy to hook up the two risers as they are (although I'd like to see swing joints), then a T for the steam main, then a reducing elbow down to the equalizer...

Different, anyway.

The only really effective skimming happens when you can slowly let the water at the top slooooowly slide out while the boiler simmers. Figure out a way to get the skim port functional and then use it...

Fred

I won't say anything about the way the boiler is piped. The others have already spoken to that. What I will say is that pipe that has a cap on it, below your Pressuretrol is not the skim port. A skim port is above the Normal water line, and on a Burnham, it is on the back side of the boiler. See that knockout in the back panel, directly across from the Pressure Relief valve? Behind that knockout is a plug that needs to be removed and a skim port installed there.
Also, that Pressure Relief Valve should be mounted upright, not on its side.

KC_Jones

Also not sure why you think the skim tapping is blocked? The actual skim tapping is on the opposite side from the LWCO and doesn't look like it was ever installed, didn't even remove the knock out in the casing.

They sort of got closer this time, but for sure that equalizer is totally wrong.

Is it really that hard to make it like the picture?

KC_Jones

Skim tapping circled.

lchmb

Hartford loops is wrong as well...get it all fixed before you waste time trying to skim it...

unclejohn

There is probably 2" of water sitting in the header.

dcomiskey

KC_Jones said:

Also not sure why you think the skim tapping is blocked? The actual skim tapping is on the opposite side from the LWCO and doesn't look like it was ever installed, didn't even remove the knock out in the casing.



They sort of got closer this time, but for sure that equalizer is totally wrong.



Is it really that hard to make it like the picture?

Yes, I'm still learning. It's now obvious that the skim tapping is on the back and was never installed. Here's the problem: The installers have had it with me and are not coming back. And it was possible to remove the oil and solve most of the problems before without using a skim tapping. We just added TSP a couple of times and flushed the boiler two or three times over a couple of weeks. Now that there's nowhere to add TSP directly into the boiler to deal with all the oil from this new piping, I'm stumped. Like I said, I'm having a section of the condensate return line repiped because it's rusting out. It will have a riser to dump in TSP as well as a ball valve to drain the return line. Will enough of the chemicals in the return line ever make it to the boiler to clean it? Can I flush oily water through the boiler, into the return, and out the new valve?

dcomiskey

Fred said:

I won't say anything about the way the boiler is piped. The others have already spoken to that. What I will say is that pipe that has a cap on it, below your Pressuretrol is not the skim port. A skim port is above the Normal water line, and on a Burnham, it is on the back side of the boiler. See that knockout in the back panel, directly across from the Pressure Relief valve? Behind that knockout is a plug that needs to be removed and a skim port installed there.
Also, that Pressure Relief Valve should be mounted upright, not on its side.

Thanks, Fred. I'm still learning. I could have someone install a skim port, but as you can see, I don't have a water bypass to force the water that high in the boiler. So how would I even use the port? At this point, I'm looking for any other way to get oil out of a boiler (adding chemicals to the return line and flushing, etc.). But maybe there isn't one.

JUGHNE

A few fittings and nipples could turn that into a double dropped header done correctly. The longer the steam "cooks" the pipe joints the more difficult they will be to get apart and reuse.

Same goes for the plug in the skim port in the back.

How detailed was your contract for the install?

dcomiskey

Unfortunately, the contract wasn't very detailed at all. There's no way I'm getting them back to do more work. I'm surprised I was able to get them back to spend a day repiping it closer to what it should be. Although the near boiler piping isn't perfect, that's not the problem. The piping was much, much worse before, and we were able to resolve the issue (oil in the boiler/pipes) with a couple of doses of TSP and some flushings. Now, there's nowhere to add the TSP directly into the boiler. So I'm wondering if adding it to the return line is a possibility, or if there's some other creative way to get the oil out.

KC_Jones

dcomiskey said:

Here's the problem: The installers have had it with me and are not coming back.

I have to comment here as it makes me laugh. They are mad at you for holding them accountable to do their job right.

I guess they aren't used to having to attempt to do things correctly. Do them a favor and make sure anyone that listens knows they don't know a damn thing about steam and to never ever hire them to work on steam. Clueless is being polite here.

It's pretty terrible how many contractors take so little pride in their work. This website is refreshing from that perspective.

I commented on one of Facebook a few years ago and the contractor sent me a private message basically wanting to meet me in an alley to beat me up. Talk about professional. Oh and his boiler was piped incorrectly, but he doesn't want to hear the truth. So beat me up because you are wrong, that makes sense.

Fred

You need to have a bypass installed around that water feeder. What are you going to do if/when the auto feeder fails? You have to be able to manually feed water. Also, the boiler is new. Get the skim port installed, even if you choose to never use it, it will be available.
TSP will not replace good slow skims but you can replace the elbow that the Pressure Relief Valve is mounted on with a Tee and then put a plug in the end of the Tee that you can remove. The Pressure Relief Valve has to be turned upright anyway.

eagle0031

The Hartford loop is not at the correct height and should have a close nipple coming out of the tee not all that pipe and union.

New England SteamWorks

You need to get that re-piped while the re-piping is easy. It's a brand new boiler and you don't want to live this way. Right now everything will turn out easily enough. Later, -not so much. Where are you located? Hopefully one of us is nearby and can help out.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Another contractor that never learned how to read.

Is it that difficult to read the installation manual?