DIY Near Boiler Piping improvement hopefully

ethicalpaul

I just about couldn’t sleep due to thinking about my “percolator” (see https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/168004/sight-glass-on-main-shows-a-surprise )

Today was sort of Springlike (a little above freezing anyway) so I decided to try to improve my NBP situation.

First I scraped out the old pipe dope with a pick and applied some penetrating oil to the joints I needed to free and tried a couple of them. I got them to give a bit with my 24” wrench plus cheater so I went to Harbor Freight to get a 36” wrench for insurance and then to HD (sorry but my local counter closed before I decided to do this task) for fittings.

Luckily, I only needed a 3” and 9” nipple to do this conversion. HD didn’t have a 9” so I had to create one with a coupler (they only had galvanized couplers in 2” so yeah—it’s temporary anyway)

Before and after. I now have a mini-header that flows to the equalizer (I think, LOL)

Do you think my steam is drier now? Here’s a video showing the condensate return in my sight glass: https://youtu.be/97jhq7fSTuU but now I think I need another one above the header!

Photos are before, during, and after. Any input welcomed!

neilc

which of your mains is the glass return on?
the straight thru? or the mid header takeoff?

at that, you sir are a mad man, and I appreciated your enthusiasm

ethicalpaul

The straight-up “main” on the left just runs up to a single radiator centrally located on the first floor.

The one on the right is the real main and it heads toward camera then makes basically a perimeter around the basement feeding the risers to first and second floor radiators on exterior walls.

The sight glass is at the end of the main where it’s a dry return right under my main vent and shows condensate returning from about 160 EDR but a LOT of it comes from the upstairs risers which are all in those cold exterior walls 😓

And thanks for the compliment 😃

Fred

Is there no place on the main where that one radiator can be tied into the main? If so, that would probably really help with balancing and steam distribution. You probably have to really vent that first floor radiator way down and I bet that room is still a lot warmer than the rest of the house.

ethicalpaul

I bet I can, @Fred. Let me look at it and make a plan. It's a nice big radiator in the kitchen which I don’t mind being cozy (it has an unheated powder room off of it. Thanks!

In fact, I heard that line hammer at cycle end after my modification so yeah

mikeg2015

ethicalpaul said:

I bet I can, @Fred. Let me look at it and make a plan. It's a nice big radiator in the kitchen which I don’t mind being cozy (it has an unheated powder room off of it. Thanks!



In fact, I heard that line hammer at cycle end after my modification so yeah

I’d blame pipe pitch for that. System pressure drops rapidly when the burner shuts off so could be flashing steam in a couple spots.

ethicalpaul

Thanks. So you would suspect that with not enough pitch on the horizontal part of that line, that the water sitting there is at like 213 degrees at 1-1.5 psi and when the pressure drops, that water instantly evaporates, causing the hammer? I like it

In fact there is a 2” -> 1.5” bushing on that horizontal which could be pooling some water.

I’ll investigate, thanks again!

Fred

@ethicalpaul said: In fact there is a 2” -> 1.5” bushing on that horizontal which could be pooling some water.
Yes, if there is a bushing on the horizontal, it will allow water to pool. Most likely where the hammer originates.