1 pipe steam

Snowmelt

went to a new job , was a school .

steam boiler was going up 20 feet then down to rads and a heat ex-changer blowing warm air.
they had a condensation pump. wasn't sure if it was working. anyways besides not being piped correctly it was loosing water but no leak from what I saw.
the question is if the condensation pump isn't working and the boiler had no equalizer - would it loose water?

EBEBRATT-Ed

If you have a bad check valve(s) between the condensate pump and the boiler the water will back out of the boiler and short cycle the pump

Snowmelt

Thanks Ed, I was reading the directions, the piping was 2 inch and should be 3 inch it is a 6 section boiler. And no equalizer on one of the two supplies. Would that all contribute to the water factor?

furnacefigher15

You only need one equalizer.

Snowmelt

yes I know you need one but it has to be tied in to the second takeoff ( supply) in other words there was two supplies each going there own way

furnacefigher15

I see. In situations like that, I allways recommend to rework the near boiler piping to what its supposed to be.

With the disconnect you have, you may have wet steam from velocity, or an imbalance of flow causing an angled water line in the boiler.

As far as loosing water, are there returns underground?

Snowmelt

no returns under ground as far as I see can you define what you mean by angled water line., I know the velocity is all messed up from the pipe work, and its also undersized.
I may have shut the condensation pump off or it may not be working I am bring my volt meter on Monday and go from there.

Jamie Hall

An angled water line can occur in a boiler either with two (or more!) risers if the velocity in the risers is quite different, or in a boiler with just one. What happens is that if the internal passages are rather narrow (which depends on the particular boiler design) the pressure inside the boiler at the end without a riser will be slightly higher than at the end with one, or if one has greater flow than the other ditto -- and that will tilt the water line down at that end and slightly up at the end with the riser. How much? Depends a lot on how the boiler is designed.

Snowmelt

another side note that I didn't mention is out of the two risers one of them is 2 inch doing a smaller part of the building, the other is doing a much bigger part of the building , they have some kind of zone valves on each riser. but the one bigger riser original has 3 or 4 inch pipe, who ever installed the new boiler brought everything down to two inch. if the pipe is 4 inch should the equalizer be 4 inch?

Jamie Hall

The equalizer doesn't have to be the same size as the header, however any reduction in size should be on the vertical if at all possible, or with an eccentric reducer, to avoid trapping water (there will be a lot). Honestly, @Snowmelt , it sounds as though you have a class A disaster there in the piping. Is there any hope that you could redo it all -- correctly?

Snowmelt

Yes there is I was talking to ezzyt on the phone I’m also talking to the local sales rep for utica, and the new board president, the board president told me Friday over the phone that it isn’t piped right, ezzyt & myself kinda said we need to start with three inch and then maybe 4 inch on the equalizer. It’s going to be a lot of money for 3 & 4 inch pipe, so I want to explain the best I can how steam & vilocity works, also would be nice if I gain his trust to service the other water boilers. Also would like to see if this boiler is over or undersized at all.