No Header, Equalizer, Hartford Loop, Insulation or Main Vents? How would it work?

AdmiralYoda

@ethicalpaul got me thinking on his recent discussion and test of installing a valve on his boiler equalizer to essentially remove the equalizer from the equation.

I have a single pipe counterflow system. 220 sq.ft. of EDR and the boiler has ~320 sq.ft. of capacity.

My 41 year old Peerless boiler (modern 63-03 equivelent) does not have a header installed (yikes!) Each riser from the boiler goes to its own 2-1/2" main.

There is no Equalizer either. Each main does have a drip leg that goes to the bottom of the boiler. Hartford loop? Meh. I guess they didn't need that either…the drip legs go right to the bottom of the boiler. Main Venting? Pfffft. Nope.

It has been working just fine for 40+ years! I have recently installed main vents and insulation and that got the heat to the radiators much faster and quieted down the radiator vents.

This summer I plan to re-pipe the near boiler piping per the manufacturers specs. Since the boiler is 40 years old I will re-pipe it so it will easily swap over to the 63-03L when it comes time for replacement.

I've never had water hammer, surging or priming. Regular use of 8-way keeps it squeeky clean. I recently installed a Vaporstat to keep the pressure under 1psi and it has helped reduce fuel consumption.

My conclusion: Steam heat is very forgiving! It seems with less than ideal installations a combination of very dirty boiler water and/or oils combined with high pressures usually are the cause for 75%+ of the problems we see here.

That said….any guesses how my system will act once it is piped and vented properly?

dko

what we say is the proper way to pipe is what the boiler manufacturer draws? But it is just what is acceptable and will allow a multitude of different kind of systems to work with one configuration? A universal and conformal way of piping makes it easier to diagnose issues in the future? Determine warranties?

The "proper" way will allow your system to work great as well i'm sure. Are there different ways with the same result? I'm sure as well..

ethicalpaul

It will work great. It sounds like your current boiler is also working great so it is likely to be indistinguishable.

mattmia2

With its age it may have been the last of the boilers that had some space at the top of the HX to separate steam and water.

ethicalpaul

My 63-03L (admittedly the smallest Peerless boiler) never gets a drop of water past the top of the jacket. The water has to be pretty crummy for the header to even come into play as a separator. The problem is no one else can see what their water is doing until it's bad enough that it all gets carried out!

Jamie Hall

@AdmiralYoda , you are absolutely correct. Steam heat is incredibly forgining. While there are best practices, one can go quite a ways away from them and it will work just fine. Of course the flip side of that — as folks have found out! — is that sometimes even a trivial difference and it won't work well, if at all…

ChrisJ

The 1920s Redflash that was next door to me didn't have a header, hartford loop, equalizer or any insulation either.

It worked just fine for almost 100 years.

But part of that is because the boiler was designed to supply good dry steam without a header.

jumper

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1743719#Comment_1743719

An example is a sizable winter resort with counterflow and vents near top of radiators.

AdmiralYoda

And when I repipe this thing with a header, equalizer and hartford loop, vent the heck out of the mains and add 1" insulation… the boiler will probably say…. "thanks, I guess".

The real reason I intend to do this isn't fuel savings…the fittings to re-pipe will cost 100x of what fuel I will save. It is to get the piping perfect in prep for the inevitable 63-03L which may be a few years or a few more decades…who knows?

If it makes my boilers life just a little bit easier and extends it life just a bit further I consider it paying it forward.

hot_rod

I don't know about steam, but some of the hydronic piping suggestion in manufacturers manuals is certainly questionable.

But hydronics is also is a forgiving medium to work with.

Newer mod cons are not quite as forgiving to bad piping/ pumping.