Webster system questions

ScottSecor

I visited a home last week that appears to have been a Webster 2 pipe system (probably vacuum) at one time. The nine and a half year old Crown gas fired atmospheric boiler failed last season and is now in pieces (major leak in front and back of boiler block). If it was a 'run of the mill' one pipe steam system I would suspect there are a bunch of leaks that were left alone or the low water cutoff failed. I also noted an automatic feeder that was likely filling the system often as the boiler leaked for a while the homeowner mentioned.

However in this case I'm not confident in the cause of failure, yet. From my brief visit I noticed the obligatory Webster 0023 vent trap above the boiler, still piped in with the original steel pipe and cast iron fittings (much newer copper coming off the bottom). I noted nothing else in the basement that looked like it was made from Webster. However I did notice a small Hoffman condensate tank at the opposite end of the basement with a Sarco F&T trap above it at the end of the steam mains (two mains, 2" and 1.5" appear to be mostly original).

I also noticed the kitchen had been fitted with a roughly fifteen feet long cast iron baseboard over the years, it had a hole in the center of it. I noticed some of the rooms had the orifice type supply valves and some did not. Some radiators were fitted with what appeared to be a thermostatic trap and some were not.

The customer is considering selling the house in the next few years as they are about to retire and move closer to the kids and grandchildren. I would love to rebuild the system to what it probably once was, but I don't think it would be practical. I'm looking to do a proper install, make them comfortable and make the system reliable. I searched pretty good on this site and a few others but with the condensate pump I feel my choices are limited. I'm open to suggestions and ideas.

Thank you.

Jamie Hall

You do pick some winners, @ScottSecor , don't you? The first question I'd ask is do all the radiators still have a feed line and a return? Except maybe that piece of baseboard (by hole, do you mean like broken? Drilled? What?)… if you do have returns on all the radiators -- and access in the basement! -- my own feeling would be to get out the threader and redo the mains and the dry returns (if this was a Webster or similar vapour or vapour vaccum system, it has the dry returns). I'm not sure I'd try to restore the vacuum -- in fact I'm rather sure I wouldn't. But I would use crossover traps from the mains to the dry returns, and put traps on the radiators that don't have them. Then I would look closely at my elevations. I'd bet that you can get rid of that condensate tank and the F&T, though you may need to have drips at the ends of the mains to wet returns. Then vent the system at the boiler -- and do a nice install on a nice new boiler for them.

Not sure what I'd do about the baseboard... baseboards don't play well with steam... I'd have to look.

ScottSecor

Thanks for the advise Jamie. I gather the cast iron baseboard has leaked for years (decent sized hole in front). To compensate, they removed the insulation from the basement piping and open the door to the basement whenever the heat is on, said it works fine. Yes, it's one of those houses...