Boiler short cycling and problematic radiator

JUGHNE

NO!!....completely backwards.....change it right away!
The relief valve goes on top of the boiler....look at the arrow on the valve.
Unscrew the drop pipe....unscrew the 90 off the boiler...screw the coupling onto the boiler stub. Replace the drop pipe on the 90 ell.

Skimmer looks good though.

Nurb

Oh shoot, glad I posted the picture. I'll fix it now.

Nurb

Please tell me this is correct or I'm going to be really embarrassed.

ethicalpaul

Looks good. You can use cheap overseas fittings after the relief valve considering statistically they’ll never be used 😅

retiredguy

The steam safety valve looks to be piped backwards with the outlet facing the boiler. You could remove the elbow and replace it with a coupling and remount the safety valve

ethicalpaul

Are you looking at the earlier picture, @retiredguy ? @Nurb works fast and already repiped it I think

Nurb

Yes, I re-did it after JUGHNE's comments. I just removed the old picture to avoid confusion... sure hope it's right now.

retiredguy

Looks great now. I was looking at the old picture

Nurb

Great, thanks! I'll get to skimming tonight then.

Nurb

@JUGHNE, I'm ready to get the main vents installed. Can you tell me if these are the locations you suggested? Also, why are main vents so expensive?

JUGHNE

One on the left and 2 on the right.

The left one does not have much main to vent, if you have an angle head drill you might get one tapped on the run out just below the floor.

The ones on the right could go on the smaller dry return.
If you are going to drill and tap, I would go for the top of the dry return about a foot from where it goes from large steam main and heads back to the boiler. Keep about 1 foot between those taps. If there is a union at the boiler for the dry return you could install them there. They must be above the water line near the ceiling.

Nurb

I do have a right angle drill, so about where I marked in the last post is correct for the left side? For the right you're saying here would work?



Unless I'm misunderstanding, I don't see how they could be above the water line... sorry probably being dense but we're almost there

JUGHNE

Yes, those red dot points would work.

In steam talk....."water line" is the water level in your sight glass.
The level could back up a couple feet in the return pipe vertical drop depending on your steam pressure, your sight glass will not reflect this.
The steam main and dry return would only have water flowing in the lower portion of the pipe. And when the boiler is off all that water should drain back to the boiler to what you see in the sight glass.

So you want your vents well above the water line/level.
And however you install your vents, you want them to be able to drain any water collected by steam condensation back to the pipe they are mounted on.....we are talking a very small amount. You just do not want the piping to trap any water under the vent.

Do you have the "We Got Steam Heat" book from the store here?

clammy

Looks like u have no Hartford loop for starters if no one has mentioned and that type of boiler should have used both tappings .on a side not if you do repipe using two risers then use a tee on one outlet as a skim .on another note there should be a 2 inch tee on the return outlets this way you can remove the supply plug and use a home made wand and flush the mud and crap out of the boiler and let it drainout the reurn tee .it just about the only thing a side outlet boiler is good for unless it’s piped w a oversized header which your is not . You do need a main vent installed on the dry return that shall help . Get the installation And operation manual for your boiler look at the piping diagram ,remenber those are mimiun pipe sizes they give hope it helps not confuses you Peace and good luck clammy

Nurb

Got it, I had a feeling that is what you meant by water line but wanted to be sure. I have not yet purchased the book but I definitely will. The pieces came today and I plan to install them on the weekend. I didn't realize the vents were so large though, installing the left one is going to be tricky. Any suggestions how I should tackle that one?



Could this work even though it's at about a 10deg angle and only 4.5" from the nearest fitting? Or possibly drill closer to the wood beam and use an elbow to bring it away from the beam a bit.

JUGHNE said:

Yes, those red dot points would work.

In steam talk....."water line" is the water level in your sight glass.
The level could back up a couple feet in the return pipe vertical drop depending on your steam pressure, your sight glass will not reflect this.
The steam main and dry return would only have water flowing in the lower portion of the pipe. And when the boiler is off all that water should drain back to the boiler to what you see in the sight glass.

So you want your vents well above the water line/level.
And however you install your vents, you want them to be able to drain any water collected by steam condensation back to the pipe they are mounted on.....we are talking a very small amount. You just do not want the piping to trap any water under the vent.

Do you have the "We Got Steam Heat" book from the store here?

Jamie Hall

You can offset the vent from the pipe pretty much as far as you like, provided only that however you do it the condensate can drain back. One suggestion which may not be obvious: particularly if you use a near horizontal offset, do yourself a real favour and put a union on the horizontal line. That way you can screw the vent on to the elbow going vertical and the nipple to the union working in a convenient location without having to allow for any vertical or horizontal clearance around the vent to thread it on, and then just couple up the union and make sure the vent winds up vertical.

Nurb

Using a union is a good idea for sure. Is the area near the wood beam acceptable to drill in to (and be good for venting purposes)? I could probably get it close to 6 inches from the fitting and then build out using a 45deg street elbow, nipple and another elbow below the main vent.