Found where my system is losing water. What is this part?

underdog32

I've been trying to track down why my water feeder keeps kicking on. I changed a couple valves that were hissing a little, but nothing that would account for as much water as I was losing. My chimney looked normal, well at least the same as my neighbors anyway. Finally I found thing thing under my porch in the old coal room. It has a big slit in it and a puddle of water under it. Is it some sort of steam trap? There are no couplings around it. Not sure how I'd get it out of there other than cutting and replacing the two pipes holding it there and replacing with at least one coupling?

Ironman

Looks like a bucket trap.

JUGHNE

What does the piping to this go to and where does it come from?
Maybe needed or not.

Jamie Hall

It does, doesn't it? The real question then is -- why is it there? The obvious thing to do is to cut it out and just replace the pipe (I'd take out the strainer, too, while I was at it). Some clever fitting of nipples and a union, or... Fernco time!

But first, I'd try to figure out why there was a trap there in the first place...

motoguy128

I’m wondering if it used to supply a small unit heater to keep the coal room warm to dry out the coal that was often stored in piles outdoors. My coal bunker room pitches back towards my boiler room and I suspect there used to be a floor drain under where the boiler is sitting now. Floor seems to pitch that way.

underdog32

So, this is my coal room under my finished porch. I think maybe the porch wasn't finished at some point and they closed it in. It has baseboard steam units running along the entire outside wall, and two wall units on the wall that is inside the house. This loop appears to feed 2 of the baseboard units. Here's my best guess according to what i can see in the pictures. Blue is supply, yellow is return.

From the boiler:


Entering the porch area. It appears that the pipe feeds a unit as it enters the room and also acts as a return? Maybe, I didn't crawl in there yet and see, it could be feeding two different units.


And to the trap. There is another line feeding another radiator here that is not in frame because it's in the joists:


So I guess the trap is acting as a stop so the steam fills those radiators?

underdog32

It also looks like someone tried to fix this thing by slathering jdweld or epoxy or something similar on the bottom of the bucket...which admittedly may have also crossed my mind.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Looks like a bucket trap being used as an end of the main drip.

Jamie Hall

It is quite possible that it was intended to act in some way as a steam trap. You would want to check what the elevations of the various pipes are in relation to the boiler water line to make sure that steam can't get into the returns.

underdog32

So something like this should work right? Provided that the pipe is actually 1"...i'll have to measure to make sure but it looks like 1":

https://www.statesupply.com/an1086a

Jamie Hall

Looks pretty darn close to me.

mattmia2

i bet it froze and split at some point

dopey27177

If there is no equipment that needs steam in the coal bunker remove the the bucket trap. Make sure you put a vent valve at the drop point of the steam pipe. The vent should be between 6 and 12" from the drop.

Additionally you have quite a lot of un-insulated steam piping shown in the picture, that all all needs to be insulated.

Jake

underdog32

dopey27177 said:

Additionally you have quite a lot of un-insulated steam piping shown in the picture, that all all needs to be insulated.

Jake

Can you recommend somewhere to buy insulation in bulk at less than the 8$ per 3 feet that the big box stores want?

underdog32

Got the new trap today and installed:

PC7060

I’ve found this site to have price and availability for insulation sleeve. 

https://expressinsulation.com/collections/pipe-insulation?gclid=Cj0KCQiAlZH_BRCgARIsAAZHSBmcdhNSmDyzE7yrzhI4TtgYFrkD5QFb-bTPflRKXGLolZYm3l19uFoaAg2NEALw_wcB

Ironman

I would have left a strainer before it. The amount of crud that could enter it can cause it to malfunction.

deyrup

You can try these guys as well https://www.buyinsulationproductstore.com/Fiberglass-Pipe-Insulation-SSL-ASJ/. Their shipping fees are a little high and they don't label the sizes as far as I can tell. So if you get a bunch of sizes it can be hard to tell which size is which, but I like their product overall.

mattmia2

Labeling sizes is tricky. Different types of pipe of the same nominal size are different outside diameters and labeling it by its actual id could be confusing as well. The fiberglass pipe insulation I have seen had a part number printed inside the flap that holds it together.

Probably should put that hanger back.

underdog32

Ironman said:

I would have left a strainer before it. The amount of crud that could enter it can cause it to malfunction.

Yes I should have done that. I added a drip leg to replace the strainer. Thanks for the reminder