Identification

347

Went to job the other day to look at some plumbing work and we ended up taking her heating system. She's telling me that part of the house "never" heats up properly. I did a little snooping and found these under the convectors.
Can anyone tell me what they are and what they do? The valve seems to me to be a Danfoss type of valve but I'm not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

Steamhead

The return fitting marked "VASCO" is a water seal fitting, as used in the Broomell, VECO and Vapor Regulator Co. systems. The bulge in the bottom holds water, and there is a divider in it that keeps steam from getting by. The divider has a small hole drilled in it to let air escape. See chapter 15 of @DanHolohan 's book "The Lost Art of Steam Heating" for details and illustrations.

Not sure who VASCO was, maybe a later iteration of one of the above companies?

Steamhead

OK, I Googled VASCO steam heating. In this Google Book:

https://books.google.com/books?id=HZxCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA569&lpg=PA569&dq=VASCO+steam+heating&source=bl&ots=neV48ruwnF&sig=hI4l19cLIz41zLuSaSIZlXEMc4Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj41IrX0M3dAhXFqFkKHWK9DzEQ6AEwD3oECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=VASCO steam heating&f=false

the V.A. Smith Company of Chicago is mentioned, which made furnasties under the VASCO name. They were located at 211-213 West Lake Street in that city. @347 , where is this job located?

@The Steam Whisperer , have you seen anything like this in Chicagoland?

Steamhead

@347 , if part of the house is not heating, go down to the basement and trace the dry (overhead) return lines. These not only carry water back from the convectors, but air (passing thru the little holes in the return fittings) as well. If there is no air vent on the dry return, the convectors will heat poorly if at all.

The three systems I mentioned above vented the dry returns into the chimney. They used the chimney draft to help pull air from the system. Many times the pipe went thru a condensing radiator or a long run of pipe, to condense any steam that got that far. It's possible someone removed this air pipe, unaware of what it did and too stupid to ask, and plugged the connection to it.

Take some pics of any devices you may find around the boiler.

DanHolohan

I’ve never seen this one. Nice find! And thanks for the research, Steamhead.

347

Steamhead, yes thank you for the information. The job is located on the north shore of long island. Te current status of the heating system is twin buderus oil fired HOT water boilers. I'm assuming that these fitting do not play nice with forced hot water.
I looked around quickly in the basement when I was there and could not find any of the connected piping (everything was in a crawl space ).
Do you have any idea what the "valve" fitting may be?

DanHolohan

I think it's a variable steam orifice, which would probably be too small for a proper flow of hot water. A bit of debris in the orifice will stop the flow to the radiator and result in no heat.

Steamhead

Oh boy- another screwed-up conversion. Change it back to Vapor!

347

That ship has sailed. I'm guessing I would need to remove these item and connect to the hot water piping in the crawl space.

DanHolohan

Yes