one pipe with condensate pump

tonycomaccchio

why would a one pipe system have a condensate pump

EBEBRATT-Ed

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

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

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

Lard

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.