Williamson single pipe showing 4 psi

JED36

Williamson single pipe oil boiler. Showing 3 to 4 psi on pressure gage. Having issues with steam hammer. Have adjustable Vent rite steam vents on radiators. Should I open them all wide open to see if that lowers pressure? I am new to steam heating. 

pecmsg

Anything over a few ozs is generally overkill.
Start reading
https://heatinghelp.com/store/detail/the-lost-art-of-steam-heating-revisited
https://heatinghelp.com/store/detail/we-got-steam-heat-a-homeowners-guide-to-peaceful-coexistence
https://heatinghelp.com/store/detail/a-pocketful-of-steam-problems-with-solutions

KC_Jones

Water hammer in a steam system could be amplified by too high pressure, but the hammer itself is due to steam encountering water in an improper way and slamming water droplets into a fitting. Roughly speaking.

So, you have water in the system where it shouldn't be. The causes can be many. Venting isn't where I would start. In fact opening up the vents will allow for the steam to flow even faster, which usually makes hammer worse.

If the boiler isn't piped correctly you could have wet steam.
If there is a sag in the main that could be holding water creating the hammer.
If the boiler is oversized (high likelihood) that could be adding to either of the 2 previous issues.

We can start with pictures of the near boiler piping and go from there. Make sure the pictures show as much of the piping around the boiler as possible.

JED36

mattmia2

uhh..where's the equalizer

is that a dry return connected to the header?

pedmec

No equalizer?

No Hartford loop?

Header is reduced on the horizontal!!

No backflow on the autofeed.

WMno57

Well water? Well softener? Do not supply softened water to the boiler.

109A_5

Hello @JED36,

Looks like the Pressuretrol is cranked up too !!! Probably should be at minimum 0.5 CUT IN and 1 for the Differential (inside cover).

KC_Jones

The boiler is piped incorrectly.  At the end of the header is supposed to be an equalizer to balance the pressure from top to bottom of boiler, but also to allow any water in the header back into the bottom of the boiler.  Yours has what appears to be a main coming off the end of the header instead of the equalizer, I marked at top in red on the attached picture.  That pipe should be connected on top of the header not the side.  I marked in blue approximately how it should be piped and then scratched out in red what is incorrect at bottom.

Final thing I notice is what appears ti be two mains connected together then connected to the header.  Normally these are brought into the header separately.

pecmsg

100's of Sq Ins of sheet metal and they put the hangers on the ID tag!

Long Beach Ed

The hanger on the tag is the hallmark of quality work.

Clean the mung out of that boiler. Judging from the workmanship, it may have never been skimmed and have oil in it. Try lowering the pressuretrol too. Check the firing rate and nozzle size. There's a slim chance that will help keep some of the water in the boiler and out of the mains. Most likely though, you'll need some re-piping. These boilers do come with installation instructions.

You can look them up on the US Boiler site and see how this was supposed to be done.

KC_Jones

Also just noticed the reduction on the riser. The boiler calls for full 2 1/2" piping for the riser and header, with that bell reducer on the vertical riser that obviously didn't happen so it's another thing on the list of items that is wrong, and definitely contributing to wet steam causing the hammering.

In other words the near boiler piping is a complete do over.

As mentioned skimming is needed on any new install, since I see a plug in the skim tapping on the front I have my thoughts on whether they did it or not...

JED36

Thank you everyone for your time. It is so much appreciated. Not necessarily good news but I am able to more clearly understand the issues now.