pressuretrol & vaporstat on same tapping?

iddelz · February 7

many years ago this place was a great help in learning how to tune and maintain my single pipe boiler, which has worked really well up until my pressuretrol got funky and for some reason won't cut out below 2.5psi anymore. (we did some construction and maybe it go dusty? i've taken it off and tried wd-40 but still won't work).

so I'm preparing to replace / combine it with a vaporstat 1017. with only one tapping i think i'm just going to add a connection to my setup (see pic below). question: as one nipple branches off to three for the gauge, pressuretrol and vaporstat will it affect the pressure sensitivity? i'm thinking maybe yes, but not enough to matter, but i'm afraid of the consequences if i'm wrong.

appreciate any advice from still one of the great resources on the internet (and btw, another great resource albiet for a different subject matter is hammockforums.net)

* this pages is very helpful for learning how to wire them together
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/182747/how-to-connect-wires-for-vapor-stat-to-a-backup-pressuretrol

ethicalpaul · February 7

Pressure-wise (physics-wise) it's fine. Code-wise, I have no idea but others might.

delcrossv · February 7

Fine in Chicago, which is pretty strict.

Big Ed_4 · February 7

Clean the pigtail...

EBEBRATT-Ed · February 8

What you propose is fine. Make sure to take all the 1/4" piping apart and make sure it is clean including the pigtail all the way to inside the boiler and use only brass fittings.

iddelz · February 19

as a follow up to this, got a 4psi vaporstat, ran great for a few cycles and then stopped working. u read these stories and think it can't be that bad. not even 24hrs of use. would cut out right where i wanted it to and for a few cycles would cut back in but then the pressure would drop past the differential and nothing. all i needed to do was flick it with my finger to get it to restart, but that's just not a long term solution. sometimes once the system cooled back down it would turn back on, which lead me to suspect that ambient heat around the device might have been an issue - manual says up to 150F, which isn't that hot for a device that needs to be mounted to a boiler - so first I moved the device away from the hartford loop and then put some insulation around the flu and still no dice.

the good news is in this whole process, i learned that all my rads heat up within 12 mins at less than 1psi so I might get the other vaporstat that measures in ounces.

Jamie Hall · February 19

What was the cutin pressure set to, and did you verify that the settings were accurate with a reliable low pressure gauge? What you are describing is fairly typical of setting the cutin pressure too low.

iddelz · February 20

Jamie Hall said:
What was the cutin pressure set to, and did you verify that the settings were accurate with a reliable low pressure gauge? What you are describing is fairly typical of setting the cutin pressure too low.

the main was set to 1.5 and the diff was set to 16oz so it should cut back in at 0.5ps. it would work for a few cycles and then stop working. replaced it with the last remaining mercury switch vaporstat at the supply house. it's hard to get the thing level though!

EBEBRATT-Ed · February 20

It may have been the pigtail ang piping having no water in them the first cycle or two. Reajust and try again

SeanBeans · February 26

In the original post you say that your pressuretrol is bad? Are you keeping it in the system still? Why not just replaced the bad pressuretrol with the new vaporstat?

pressuretrol & vaporstat on same tapping?

Comments

Categories