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one pipe with condensate pump

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tonycomaccchio
tonycomaccchio Member Posts: 2
in Strictly Steam
why would a one pipe system have a condensate pump

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  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,545
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    Normally a one pipe system shouldn't need a condensate pipe. But chances are something was altered or changed and there may be a good reason for having one.

    We would need pictures or a piping diagram
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,262
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    tonycomaccchio said:

    why would a one pipe system have a condensate pump

    Insufficient A dimension? I think Holohan wrote about a guy who filled in a pit and then......
  • dopey27177
    dopey27177 Member Posts: 887
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    Some times a steam system suffers thing called condensate lag.
    Condensate lag is a condition where the the condensate does not return to the boiler fast enough and the boiler goes off on low water.

    This could have been a design condition when the boiler was installed or changes were made to the heating system that caused the time lag condition.

    Jake
    Steam: The Perfect Fluid for Heating and Some of the Problems
    by Jacob (Jake) Myron
  • Lard
    Lard Member Posts: 115
    edited October 2020
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    I installed a pump on a large-ish 2135 EDR one-pipe system a couple years ago.  It was due to a failed 100’ long wet return buried under a bunch of finished classrooms in a church.  Without core drilling through multiple 18” brick walls or sawing up a bunch of concrete, it was the chosen approach.  The boiler already had a feed tank/pump due to sluggish condensate return (Probably that rusted rotten wet return), so I just fed back into that with an overhead line—no wild water level issues. 

    I have some extra monitoring planned for the tank to kill things and set a fault light for a failed trap (temp)/high level(float), and always always have spare seal kits on-hand.  Seals last a long time so long as the water stays “cool” and there is sufficient NPSH, but WILL fail like anything mechanical.

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