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Steam zone valves

Snowmelt
Snowmelt Member Posts: 1,422
in THE MAIN WALL
I was at the supply house today & one of the sales guys said that the steam zone valve has to be veritivle and have a bypass, is this true?

Comments

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,072
    What's "veritivle"? Low pressure steam valves would need no bypass.
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,200
    Maybe vertical...?
  • Mike
    Mike Member Posts: 94
    Horizontal. If in the vertical, then you need the bypass.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,106
    Watch out for steam zone valves. They must be full port. There must be provision for condensate return from beyond the valve orfrom just short of the valve, depending on pipe slope.

    Assuming they are on a steam main, you may have to provide additional main venting just short of the valve (may not, too, depending on how close to the header or another source of venting you are).

    Tricky devils.

    Not to mention instantly oversizing the boiler when you close one...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    1Matthias
  • Snowmelt
    Snowmelt Member Posts: 1,422
    edited December 2018



    Let me find a picture of them (2)
  • Snowmelt
    Snowmelt Member Posts: 1,422
    Piping wise there about 10 feet from boiler
  • Danny Scully
    Danny Scully Member Posts: 1,434
    edited December 2018
    You should have a bypass (1/2”) regardless to prevent build up if pressure when the zone valve closes.
  • Snowmelt
    Snowmelt Member Posts: 1,422
    thanks scully what do you think al the rot is from. the second question is should it be on its side or should it be above the pipe.
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,200
    By vertical it may refer to the plunger operator.
    I have only seen them with the moving plunger shaft that operated the gate valve in the up and down position.

    They were on a horizontal pipe like you have but the operator on the top. In one case they had to build up a pocket between the floor joists for clearance, so it must have been necessary.

    For trouble shooting the rest of the system it might be a good idea to get them open and leave locked open as if they were not even in the system.
    Then they are out of the picture as far as problems go.
    You could then see what heats and what does not.
  • Snowmelt
    Snowmelt Member Posts: 1,422
    the big problem is I am loosing water and there is no water on ground anywhere. I took the rad ribs column & height yesterday. today I will figure out how much heat they can supply. I didn't find any data plate on 2 steam blowers ( 1 is small other is doing a gymnasium) other possibility is that there may be a clogged 1 inch return or 3/4. I felt heat In 3 rads that had the same return with no heat going to the return. the return was 1 inch.
  • Snowmelt
    Snowmelt Member Posts: 1,422
    also did anyone notice the piping at the steam zone valve was 3 inch and at the boiler it reduced to 2 inch with no equalizer.

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