Drain wet return?

Rightrudder

I am doing my usual annual draining of water in the boiler of a single pipe steam system and was considering draining the wet return as well. It has a hose bib at the end before the Hartford loop. 

Is it better to drain all the water from the entire system or simply use that wet return drain to blow off some crud when the boiler is under pressure? Of course I am worried about evil oxygen eating up the system.
Thanks in advance for any input.

Jamie Hall

It's probably not a bad idea to flush the wet returns once in a while, and if you have a convenient hose bibb that helps. Be better if there were one at each end...

And it's probably not a bad idea to flush the bottom of the boiler once in a while, too.

No need to drain the whole thing though.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Rightrudder

You don't want to just fill the boiler with new water and let it sit.

Once your done flushing and filling run it to drive off the oxygen and you will be fine