New Thread - East v West Balancing

Fred

bvaughn76 said:

@acwagner the first elbow on the trouble main isn't even getting hot

I'm going to suggest that that little section of wet return before the Hartford loop, on that side is clogged and water has filled the vertical pipe and backed up into the main causing the steam to condense before anything can get hot. It may have enough water in it that it is backed up to the steam riser and may even be spilling over into the steam riser, from time to time. The other side and the Hartford loop are most likely still open, otherwise the boiler wouldn't overfill.

bvaughn76

https://youtu.be/QUPnxCyhxqo

Made some progress!

I ended up taking off the feed pipe and breaking the union on a few of the risers. My goal was to get both ends of the return header apart and clean it out. Couldn't get the plug out but was able to remove the fill. Got a big brush in there and cleaned it out. Poured water down a union to flush and then repeated like a dozen times.

Had a different plumbing emergency.

Came back and reconnected everything, filled the boiler back with water and a cup of treatment. Fired it up. This was like fresh water at 60 deg. Boiler header was hot at 7min, east pipe heated up at 11min, condensate from 1 return 13min in, condensate from the other return on the east was like at 20 min. West main started warming up.

Boiler has been running 1hr now. Water level has stayed up. No low water cutoff. No autofill. It is actually a bit high right now.

I have heat out of 4 of 5 West main boilers.

Oh I also took the vent out of the end of the east main where it was in the bushing at the end. Only vents are back at the boiler on the returns.

Time to balance my venting maybe?

I noticed the return on the west vent was slow to heat up. Like there was steam at the end of the main and the drip was hot, but the return was hot only like part way down the pipe. The heat creeped down the pipe slowly. Now it is hot at 1hr5min in.

Jamie Hall

You/re saying exactly what I'm thinking, @acwagner .

bvaughn76

So, I am not feeling the love that I seem to have been able to get the boiler working.

@Jamie Hall and @acwagner , I really don't want to remove all my insulation, but I will and verify.

@Fred I don't think that 1st Drip before the west main goes over my main beam is clogged. I know the vertical of that return is clear. I verified it yesterday. I am not sure about the horizontal run from the drop elbow to the riser though. I will say that after I steam long enough, the return gets piping hot.

I have a few Gorton No 2 valves on the way. Also a bunch of slower radiator vents.

acwagner

We haven't forgotten about you

If I understand you correctly, your boiler water is now stable and steam is going down the troubled main (just slowly), right?

If cleaning out the wet return improved things, you might consider just repiping that section. Sometimes wet returns are so clogged it's beyond fixing by cleaning out.

By the way you can cut the fiberglass insulation off and reuse it. Just cut the jacket along the length where the two fiberglass halves meet using a razor blade. You can buy tape that matches the jacket and put it back on.