Oil Out - Steam

Dan Foley

Dragon, Nelvis and Brian did this steam change out in this Cleveland Park DC row house.

The hardest part was removing the horizontal oil tank from a crawl space under the front porch.

Here are some “before” pics.

Dan Foley

We went back with a 4-section Crown gas boiler.

Steamhead

Looks great, as usual.

I'd love to get my hands on the InterBurner if you still have it- I know they're out there but have never seen one.

Dan Foley

Sorry, Frank it’s long gone. It went straight to the scrap yard.

ethicalpaul

The rating plate on the old boiler has an EDR rating for oil and gas fired, and then a smaller rating for "hand fired". Does that mean coal?

Steamhead

Yup. It was a so-called "all-fuels" boiler.

ChrisJ

Is it ok to have a gap in between the blocks under that boiler?

ScottSecor

Not sure why not? As long as the legs are properly supported I see nothing wrong with it. I suspect the boiler block is centered on the middle of the pancake blocks, probably the best way to do it.

ChrisJ

ScottSecor said:

Not sure why not? As long as the legs are properly supported I see nothing wrong with it. I suspect the boiler block is centered on the middle of the pancake blocks, probably the best way to do it.

Air is the reason I would see it being an issue depending on how the burner is setup.

Dan Foley

We usually pour a concrete housekeeping pad. Due to time constraints, we used the concrete blocks on this one. This boiler uses standard ribbon burners. Combustion air would not be any different than with a poured concrete pad.

Danny Scully

@ChrisJ, these boilers have burner trays. They aren’t like Weil McLain or peerless which are open to the floor.

JUGHNE

So if no burner tray, then the blocks under the corners only would upset the air to the burners?

STEAM DOCTOR

> @JUGHNE said:
> So if no burner tray, then the blocks under the corners only would upset the air to the burners?

Yes. Would lead to excess air

Mike_Sheppard

Great, as always.

Had one of those vaporstats on a 109 year old boiler this winter. Still working.

HVACNUT

I don't understand. I haven't seen a ton of steam over 30+ years. Most had the PA404A. Some had the secondary mercury switch manual reset. I've serviced a few steam, oil fired Carlins lo-hi-lo with a 404B.
Why then would the vaporstat be somewhat commonplace 100 years ago, seemingly go away, only to return as the pressure control choice of the pros?
Steam boilers on Long Island from the Nassau Queens border, out to eastern Suffolk, I dont think I've ever even seen a vaporstat. Only when I came here in '16 did you guys explain to me and others the benefits of a vaporstat, that cross tee thing where an anti siphon isn't needed, and the drop header.
So what did I miss? They're just not (or weren't) typical in my neck o the woods?

EBEBRATT-Ed

@HVACNUT
My 2cents.
Vapor stats were for a vapor system which were more common in the old days. If a vapor system builds pressure it won't work.

1 pressure control on a boiler and it doesn't build pressure then the thermostat is the operating control and the pressure control is the high limit. That's the way it should be

If the boiler is oversized and builds pressure (which in my opinion a residential boiler shouldn't) and regularly cycles on the pressure control then it should have 2 pressure controls, 1 operator and 1 high limit.

So IMHO if it occasionally hit's high limit fine. If it operates on pressure 2 controls

Phil53

Nice touch Dan - your replacement boiler is a similar color (not sure if you were going for that). I replaced an almost identical gravity hot water boiler in a rental I used to own several years ago. Anyone know what became of National Radiator? Did they just go out of business or have they morphed into another company.

SeanBeans

Probably just a visual effect, but is that main counterflow?

Dan Foley

Just the camera angle. It is not a counter flow.

Steamhead

Phil53 said:

Anyone know what became of National Radiator? Did they just go out of business or have they morphed into another company.

National Radiator merged with United States Radiator in the 1950s to form National-US. This combine was later sold to Crane. In the early 1970s Crane sold their boiler/radiator operation to Slant/Fin, to complement the latter's baseboard line.