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Any downside to high pitch?

delcrossv
delcrossv Member Posts: 1,646
in Strictly Steam

I always see minimum pitch recited for mains and lateral runouts (1/4"/10 feet for parallel). I was wondering if there's any downside to significantly increasing pitch. Pipe erosion would be a guess, but is that ever seen in real life? With swing joints on everything there's no real limit. 2" in 10 feet would really get the condensate moving..

Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 25,365

    No, no downside (other than possible overhead clearance problems) but not much upside, either. The amount of condensate isn't that great.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    ethicalpaul
  • ScottSecor
    ScottSecor Member Posts: 917

    Vertical steam mains and risers certainly have a lot of pitch.

    ethicalpauldelcrossv
  • delcrossv
    delcrossv Member Posts: 1,646
    edited January 22

    Spirax Sarco recommends 1:100 pitch so that's 1" every 8'4"- seems reasonable. Smaller water content boilers need quick condensate return.

    Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.

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