This a bull head t?

guzzinerd

Went into the basement of a local home renno to look at the old boiler the local plumber is working on (you guys have made me infinitely curious).  I couldn't see any vents on the mains so I asked where they were and he said they weren't needed because it's a 2-pipe system 🤔

Anyway, here are some pics of the old boiler and progress   The trol is set under 2 psi which is nice.  They're also adding at least 3 or 4 large rads to the system.  Haven't met the owner yet, really glad he didn't just rip it out.

Steamhead

The vents are in the second pic. Two radiator traps are piped between the ends of the steam mains and the dry return. We call these "crossover traps" since they route air from the steam mains into the dry return. The large device in that pic is a "vent trap" which may or may not have a vacuum check screwed into the top- this is where the air actually leaves the system. From what I can see this is probably a Dunham Vapor system.

KC_Jones

The header is wrong for sure. It's colliding and no swing joints. Why is there a hot water boiler gauge on there? Hopefully they did the heatloss for the new radiator sizing and connect them right, I have doubts based on what I see.

They may have kept it, but still have the wrong contractor working on it.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@KC_Jones

Must be one of those really old steam and water systems

guzzinerd

KC_Jones said:

The header is wrong for sure. It's colliding and no swing joints. Why is there a hot water boiler gauge on there? Hopefully they did the heatloss for the new radiator sizing and connect them right, I have doubts based on what I see. They may have kept it, but still have the wrong contractor working on it.

There are no steam contractors anywhere near us, which is why I like to sneak in and post pics here for the experts.  

How can you tell there are no swing joints under all that insulation?  Asking for myself.

Thanks 

KC_Jones

"There are no steam contractors anywhere near us"

Apparently they disagree with you, I mean look at those pics, they are obviously a steam contractor...

Because the elbows are going straight into the header and facing each other. There should be an offset to allow for some expansion and contraction as shown in the second picture below.

guzzinerd

Thanks for the swing explanation. 

A local plumber is acting as the steam contractor.  Another plumber had been maintaining mine until I bought the place and had to undo a lot of their work with the help of this forum and Dan's books.

clammy

They installed two elbows right on the outlet of the boiler which served as there swing joint . I ve seen many older boiler piped similar and they worked fine no wet steam mainly due to the large steam chest area internally as in comparison to a modern boiler which really solely depends on correct near boiler piping to do the work of slowing down the exiting velocity and drying the steam in doing so . It usually is a lot of work to repipe to a modern steam header arrangement for a modern boiler .i would image a new properly installed boiler would drastically cut gas consumption . Thanks for the pics that one looks pretty much un knuckled headed as of yet but give it time . Not
Peace and good luck clammy

guzzinerd

clammy said:

They installed two elbows right on the outlet of the boiler which served as there swing joint . I ve seen many older boiler piped similar and they worked fine no wet steam mainly due to the large steam chest area internally as in comparison to a modern boiler which really solely depends on correct near boiler piping to do the work of slowing down the exiting velocity and drying the steam in doing so . It usually is a lot of work to repipe to a modern steam header arrangement for a modern boiler .i would image a new properly installed boiler would drastically cut gas consumption . Thanks for the pics that one looks pretty much un knuckled headed as of yet but give it time . Not Peace and good luck clammy

Very interesting, thanks.  Our area hasn't had any steam guys in decades.  I have a feeling many boilers are piped this way as this is the second one I see like this still operating.