Strange condensate part??

Dennishvac

Is anyone familiar with this part 

Steamhead

It's an air vent. You have an O-E vapor system. You can see the name cast into the vent.

Post some pics of a few radiators and I'll bet we could point out more O-E gear.

Dennishvac

Thanks! That is what we thought. Do you know if they are supposed to be automatic vents? I would think so, but they are just odd. They open and close with a screwdriver. Have never come across these before. It is leaking a lot of steam after boiler has been running for awhile. Also the homeowner said they didn't leak before (although old boiler had a good size hole, and probably was leaking for at least a couple years).

Steamhead

Check your system pressure- it's probably too high. If the vent keeps leaking, replace it.

See chapter 15 of "The Lost Art of Steam Heating" for more on the O-E system.

Dennishvac

Thanks! Found it on page 264. Trying to understand the mechanics of that vent. But I guess anything and everything can only last so long? Have some Barnes and Jones Bigmouths onboard.
Also, new boiler came with pressuretrol, so vapor-stat time? We sometimes have problems with short cycling when we install vapor stats.

Jamie Hall

I thought @Steamhead would get it. That's a vapour system -- which means that it will misbehave at anything much over half a pound -- 8 ounces cutout pressure. Yes, you need a vapourstat -- the 0 to 16 ounce variety.

Vapour systems are more subject to problems with poor or inadequate venting or oversizing the boiler -- regular two pipe and one pipe systems actually have the same problems, but they are hidden.

The first thing to check if you are having short cycling problems with a vapourstat is the main venting. It must be very good -- no shortcuts here. If you have a low pressure steam gauge -- not a bad idea anyway -- what you should see on boiler startup is the pressure may rise to perhaps 1 or 2 ounces once steam is produced. It should then stay there -- no or only a very slight further rise --until all the radiators are hot. Then it will start to rise again, which is where you want the vapourstat to cut the boiler off. If that isn't true -- if the pressure rises too much at first, or continues to rise, you have inadequate main venting.

This is, of course, also true of regular systems -- but as I say, the high cutoff pressure used -- 1.5 psi or so --conceals the problem.

If the main venting isn't the problem, it's very likely that the boiler is simply oversized. In most cases, there's not much you can do about that, except make sure that the next installation doesn't repeat the problem.

Dennishvac

Thanks! If oversized could one burner orifice be plugged?
Also would you have a suggestion on brand/model of a large main air vent (for ounces of steam VS lbs).

reggi

Dennishvac said:

Is anyone familiar with this part 

Not very often that the O-E Air Exhausters show up so it's easy to not even give a second thought that they also have a Vacuum Seal that made them one of the Vapor Vacuum Pressure Systems from 100 years ago.. The systems are rarely intact after that amount of time but FYI about the mechanics here's a few photos I just snapped from a brochure of theirs of the same age I imagine and a copy of the patent just downloaded.