Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

No Air Elimination on a 2 pipe

JohnnySTPAULSteam
JohnnySTPAULSteam Member Posts: 1
in Strictly Steam

Yesterday I went to a steam boiler that was piped in two pipe with a condensate receiver. The plates had separated after only 12 years and a myriad of other people were there before me and essentially ruined this boiler. I wont belabor the amount of nonsense I saw but I could not find a single Air vent on the entire system. Could the air vent pipe on the condensate receiver be the only needed air elimination in this system?

Pictures included

BURNER ALIGNMENT CRACKED HEAT EXCHANGER.jpg
separatedplates.jpg
steamboiler header space.jpg
water damage.jpg

for fun! My favorite part is they put a tee and pump off the condensate return pipe to pump the condensate through a copper fin baseboard in a remodel a plumber did for them 12 years ago when they also installed a 1,040,000 btu steam boiler that only needed 500k btu at MOST due to the massive amount of radiators removed and modern furnaces taking the heat load in those areas of the home.

Comments

  • delcrossv
    delcrossv Member Posts: 1,241

    No vents or crossover traps? Weird.

    But I'm not a 2 pipe guru.

    Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 17,326

    Yes, that tank vent can serve as the vent for the entire system.

    But- you say this is a home? Why is that tank even there? From the pics it looks like there should be enough height for the water to return by gravity.

    The boiler looks like a Weil-McLain LGB. These boilers will leak if not properly piped. Did you take a pic from the front of the boiler?

    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
    mattmia2delcrossv
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,754

    You need to take a good look at the whole system and make sure it isn't some vapor system that someone knuckleheaded too.

    delcrossv
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,556
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1817491#Comment_1817491

    This. It probably is… or was… but who knows what's happened to it since…

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    mattmia2
  • PEvans
    PEvans Member Posts: 136

    My steam system (residential) is two-pipe with a condensate receiver and the only vent is on the receiver. There is limited height and the system with this boiler probably requires a pumped return. For the most part it vents fine, but it has a water sealed return that does not vent that I have posted about.

    I don't think it is or has ever been a vapour system, but I don't know how to tell for sure.

  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,384
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1817491#Comment_1817491

    YES. Ventless systems existed but once alternate air elimination no longer…..

Categories