Hacked Steam Radiators Need New Seals

phenimore

I'm gaining a crash course education on steam radiators at a small college where I've taken over maintenance. So bear with me for not having the correct technical terminology.

I've inherited a large number of problems with a steamfed "frankensystem" supplied from a neighboring hospital with significant venting or return problems (it fills the lines with condensate and has to be manually drained every day when operating) more on that in a future post. Also a majority of the controllers are broken and need repair/replacement but that's also a future problem.

The first thing!

I'm trying to find are "gasket" ? rings for the traps.

They are usually leaking from the top cover of the trap and I find split ones when I try to tighten or repair them.

I've found 2 different types or traps we have:

The previous maintenance person was awkwardly hand cutting rings from this klingerseal material, but I've noticed they still leak and would prefer to have some kind of punch or die to cut this, but cant find that either. would appreciate if anyone can point me in the right direction! Most of the diagrams I see online dont show any gasket or flange between the top cap and the body so maybe I need a high temp sealant/dope instead? I'm feeling like this system has been bandaged improperly for years and I'm trying to start from rock bottom!

Grallert

I ran into the same issues here at Miss Hall's School. I found a gasket cutting kit. Works really well for trap gaskets.

ALLPAX gasket cutter systems

Heavy Duty Gasket Cutter Kit.

I have the 6000 series. Good tutorials as well.

M

Jamie Hall

Go with the gasket cutter — or try either Tunstall in Chicopee?, MA, or Barnes & Jones for parts for those traps. They are still made and not expensive.

JUGHNE

I have opened a lot of rad steam traps and never noticed any gasket on the lids.

Closed them up after cleaning/changing etc and never a problem.

Just made sure the brass to brass surfaces were clean.

Some of these were from 1932. Some running up to 5 PSI on the supply.

Surely a 1932 gasket would have fallen apart and gotten my attention.

Grallert

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1808543#Comment_1808543

This is a good point. I have tried to clean the mating surfaces of some of our traps with little successes. Maybe from past years of abuse. Most of our traps have had and still have gaskets from past services. Though they don't call for one from the manufacturer.

Ironman

I’ve never noticed gaskets on traps either.

If the mating surfaces are irregular, try using a little RTV silicone.

Mad Dog_2

Blue Monster Teflon Tape and some nice Megaloc make a nice gasket for the covers. Mad 🐕 Dog

phenimore

Yeah I think I might have more luck in removing the gaskets from leaking traps and seeing if they just werent being tightened appropriately/coming loose with the heat expansion and someone decided to put gaskets where they werent needed, thanks guys very insightful!

If problems persist I'll look into getting a better gasket cutter