Steam piping.

JRitz

Hi I was doing a home inspection and came across unique piping for a steam boiler. It had a 20" header pipe (2"). Directly off of the header they ran a 3' pipe angled down at about a 30 to 45 degree angle. At the end of the angled pipe they had what I would normally see on top of a boiler. A header (vertical pipe) about 2' long attached at the bottom the hartford loop. Attached at the top is the horizontal main loop pips. I have never seen a down angled steam pipe off the header like this before. Can anyone tell me if this is ok?

KC_Jones

It is indeed wrong.

I'm not even sure what they were going for, maybe modern lazy?

Safety relief valve is incorrect as well. I'm trying to find something that might be worth salvaging, but can't really see anything.

Is the 2017 written on the side the date of install? My suggestion is you write it up in the report that the boiler piping is incorrect and will need redone, by a steam specialist if possible.

Fred

Wow, That angled pipe is suppose to be a combination equalizer and steam supply to what looks to be two mains (one tee'd to the right of the other, with a drip on the bottom of it). There is another drip on the other main (in the back ground of your first picture). Is this (or rather was this suppose to be a counter flow system? That piping is a mess and needs to be completely redone.

JRitz

Not sure what the guy was trying to do. I'm a home inspector and had never seen anything piped like this before. I was pretty sure it was not correct but wanted to get the opinion from some experts. Thanks for your help.

JRitz

Can you tell me why this piping is wrong and what problems it will cause?

Jamie Hall

Actually, oddly, it may work moderately well. The biggest single thing truly wrong with it is that that angle pipe appears to come down, then turn 90, the go into the bull of a T, with one side going up to the run of another T and the other side going down to the Hartford Loop. The T going up then has the bull going out to one main, and the other run going on up to another main. Or at least that's what it looks like.

There are two problems which may lead to poorer performance than there should be. First, that first T. Ideally you want the steam -- which is very light -- to take a right angle turn and the condensate to go straight -- since the droplets are heavy and don't take corners well. In the arrangement we have here, the steam does take a right angle -- but so does the condensate. I expect there will be condensate impingement on the far side of the run, and much more condensate caught up in the rising steam than there should be -- in two words, wet steam. Then above that you have you have one main fed through the run and the other through the bull. The second main may not get as much steam, at least initially, and there may be balance problems. On the other hand, the main through the run will get wetter steam...

As I say, oddly enough it will probably work moderately well. But then, steam heat is astonishingly forgiving.

Fred

- There is no header to allow the water to drop out of the steam. That will cause wet steam , possibly some water hammer and maybe some radiator vents spitting.
- The fact that two mains are tied together on that riser will likely cause an uneven distribution of steam through the system. Some rooms will likely have hot radiators while others are just warm.
- Unless this is suppose to be a counter flow system (mains pitch back towards the boiler) the drips on those mains are attached to the Hartford loop. If this is a parallel flow system (mains are highest at the boiler and pitch down away from the boiler, its not clear how water from the radiators and mains (past those drips) get back to the boiler.
- The PRV is mounted side ways. That will allow crud to build up in the PRV and it may not open if the pressure builds past 15PSI. A safety issue.
- Can't see what the Pressurtrol is set at but I would guess it is set well above the .5PSI Cut-in and Differential of 1 (total of 1.5PSI max pressure) just to push steam through the system.
- Can't see the main vents on the mains and if they are adequate to move air out of the mains quickly. If not, the boiler will spend a lot of its cycle time just pushing air out through small radiator vents.

I see another boiler in the back ground. What is that being used for???

Dave0176

Wow that should make the plumbing wall of shame. The three stooges are still alive and well lmao...............

EBEBRATT-Ed

Done by a slob with no professionalism at all.

SeanBeans

Holy moly

ch4man

well, just because its installed wrong is no guarantee it wont work...

it just guarantees it wont work correctly, reliably, efficiently or for as long as it could.

hmm.

Gsmith

New style drop header?

Snowmelt

looks like it was an attempt of a drop header

Jamie Hall

Snowmelt said:

looks like it was an attempt of a drop header

And, you know, if he didn't have those perverse connections at the Ts… you have two Ts and get both of them wrong... and had had a horizontal pipe with the angle pipe coming in one end, the two mains taking off, and then the equalizer going down, it might not be too bad. Different, yes, but...

JRitz

Thank you all for your input. Very Helpful. The system did show signs of wet steam at the air vents. (Rust stains and spitting) Some radiators did not heat at the same rate as others (just starting to get hot 1/2 hour after some of the radiators were at full temp)