Old steam system, New to me

Dathanz

That's the skim port. It was already there.

neilc

pecmsg said:

What is the T and street ell pointing down on the left side for?

skimming

Mad Dog_2

Skimmer port.  You're doing an awesome 👌 job!  Mad Dog 🐕 

Dathanz

Final mockup and dry fit. I'm tieing the equalizer into the existing copper for now. Will change all that at a later date.

Any thoughts/concerns before I start final assembly?

ethicalpaul

I admit I'm a little confused why to have the 2" pipes at the outlets then go to larger supplies after that. The steam velocity will be fast at the 2" part, just the same velocity it would be if the pipes were 2" the whole way up to the header. Did you guys advise that?

If water is pulled out (It won't be with good water quality), it will tend to fall back into the boiler right there as the steam velocity slows in the larger riser pipes and not make it to the header anyway.

A bit of a waste IMO.

Dathanz

Up and running 👍🏻 

No leaks and everything seems to be working as it should.

Intplm.

@Dathanz
Nice and neat. A very clean job.

And it's your first one?

You have done your homework and it shows.
Please post a report on how it heats and how quiet it is.

109A_5

Hello @Dathanz,
Looks nice.

I am wondering what this is for? Future expansion ?

Dathanz

@ethicalpaul   It is quite possible that 3” may have been overkill. Boiler spec calls for minimum 2”, but all the feedback I’ve gotten and with the research I’ve done I didn’t see any drawbacks to going to 3”. The cost definitely was more than 2”, but I did all the work myself so I didn’t mind spending a little more for 3”.

@Intplm.   Yup, first one. Just a homeowner so I don’t plan on doing anymore. I have definitely spent a lot of time researching and planning. 

109A_5 said:

Hello @Dathanz, Looks nice. I am wondering what this is for? Future expansion ?  

@109A_5    Yes, I am changing my radiator arrangement in my living room so this will be where the new radiators tie in. I’m going from one large radiator along the wall and instead doing two radiators, one on each side of my fireplace in the picture below. 

Dathanz

Onto skimming today……

Is this to fast? Not sure what’s too fast or just right…….

https://youtube.com/shorts/C40Kv2HrNgU?si=8DXUOpGVtKITKFcq

ethicalpaul

too slow

Intplm.

ethicalpaul said:

too slow

Agreed........Try getting this adapted to a hose to drain and have a very slow discharge of water flow from the hose. Let in run for some time.....hours. This should give you a good skim.

Dathanz

I search of some more feedback from the group.

I am adding a bathroom addition to my house and will be installing a new radiator into my system. As I'm building I'm not 100% sure of where my radiator will sit in the room. I'm hoping to get my floor in, insulated, and subfloor completed in the next day or 2, but I just realized I'd have a hard time running my pipe once I close up the floor and I really don't want to have to open it back up and do the radiator piping.

My question is….

Instead of going directly down from the radiator into the floor like all my other radiators, can I go lateral into the wall with the appropriate slope and then 90* down inside the wall into the basement? This would allow me to finish closing up the floor, but be able to run the pipe later as I'll be leaving the walls open for a while. The diagram below is kind of what I'm thinking. Do they make a radiator valve that allows for this because I don't see one that specifically does this. Would there be any issue in rotating a standard valve so the handle would be horizontal to the floor rather than perpendicular?

I do have the capacity in my boiler to add another radiator to the system so that's not an issue.

Jamie Hall

As long as your pipe slopes are as they should be — no problem at all.

Dathanz

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1806368#Comment_1806368

Do they make a radiator valve specifically for this or do I just turn a standard one on its side?

Jamie Hall

They make straight through valves. I'd use one of those, and then the elbow into the wall.

mattmia2

Since it is 1 pipe the valve has to allow the condensate to drain. The angle valve on its side may trap condensate so a straight valve is the better choice.

Danny Scully

i wouldn’t be too concerned with an angle valve on its side. A straight valve will push the rad over a bit. You could also just use a radiator elbow. If you wanted to regulate the vent you could put a petcock there.