Steam return line fails every year

Paul S_3

The pipe that failed in the pictures is coming from the dry return of the system. It connects to the equalizer return tee where there shouldve been a hartford loop. System is one pipe steam. I repaired this section of pipe each of the last 3 years. This time I piped a proper Hartford loop. It seems to be failing at the weld of the nipple. My question is can this pipe be failing because there was no Hartford loop causing water hammer in that location? Thanks

Jamie Hall

How much stress is on that joint? And do the pipes vibrate? Can we see the full configuration? Looks much more like a fatigue failure from a lateral or up and down vibration and overlolad…

pecmsg

crap chinese pipe.
that little damage shouldn’t cause a leak.
Try Sch 80 nipples.

Pumpguy

You might also try a different material like stainless steel or brass. I've seen nipples this size in stainless for sale at Menards. Stainless is actually cheaper than brass.

Please keep us posted on what you end up doing and how it works long term. I have a customer with similar problem. They keep replacing with schedule 40 black pipe and continue to have the same problem. I just hear about this, but I'm not the guy doing the pipe changes.

delcrossv

I'd re do with red brass pipe and bronze fittings. Make the transition to black far above the waterline.

Jamie Hall

The guys above do have some useful comments on different components — but I'm not convinced this one is a corrosion problem. I still want to know what the loads on that fitting are.

EBEBRATT-Ed

How much MU water is being added to that system?