Main vent questions - newbie

dabrakeman

So are those two main vents venting OK with that pipe pitch issue? No water, gurgling, spitting or anything? Can you witness air being expelled once steam has reached the header at the boiler and begins to travel down the main? Then, witness them closing when the steam reaches them? If they vent fine without issue then I guess you don't need to change anything there. (Sorry if you answered this before somewhere… TG morning, no time to go back and read).

EBEBRATT-Ed

The pipe downward pitch at the pictured vent obviously is not the best situation.

However it may not affect the venting too much.

The pipe coming out of the T is dead ended to the vent so it sees very little flow and not much velocity. It is only carrying air.

Increasing the vent capacity at that location may be ok or the increased flow may cause the pooled water to make the vent spit.

Intplm.

To make a long story short. The vents pictured are doing little because of the back-pitched pipe. That pipe, as you know, fills with condensate, rendering the vents useless.

Your earlier-mentioned concerns are well placed as to how to correct this issue. Removing that end run of the tee to improve the vent piping can turn into a nightmare. That ? 2" x 11/4? x 11/4 ? Black cast iron tee can crack and open up a large can of worms.

If it were me, and I had access to a mega press fitting and tool, I would cut the pipe back and repipe with a mega press ell to the left of the beam. This should fix the venting issue. And while you are at it, build a nice new antler vent set. I hope you can find a Mega press. If you can, do that. There's less chance of cracking a fitting or damaging anything else.

Steamhead

That pipe should come out of the tee if you use a big enough wrench and heat the tee where it connects. Then screw a street 90 into the tee and go where you need to go from there. This will minimize the water that collects.

A MegaPress elbow would leave too much room for water to collect.