One-Pipe Steam – Boiler Piping Trouble

Gary Schotland

Attached is a photo of my heating contractor’s second – almost complete - attempt at piping the new Burnham steam boiler he recently installed for me. Based on how badly he messed up the piping the first time and my reading of Dan H.’s book (I gave him a copy but he didn’t read it - or the Burnham installation manual), it looks like we have another train wreck waiting to happen. Despite being paid a flat fee for the job, he seems to prefer the hit or miss method of installation over reading and thinking things through. Very frustrating!

I’m writing this with the hope that the experts here can help me get my contractor onto the path towards a successful installation. As you can see, I have one main supplying a group of radiators in the front of the house and another supplying a group in the rear. The contract has connected one riser to each main with lots of nice 90 degree bends. In Dan’s book and in the Burnham manual it clearly shows two equal length risers from the boiler being connected together to a single main, which then feed risers to the groups of radiators. The contractor claims this setup doesn’t apply because I have two separate mains. What’s the correct way?

Thanks,

Gary

Mark Hunt

The Burnham

diagram and Dan's book are the correct way.

If that piping is left like that you will have a real problem on your hands.

It looks like he tied the dry returns together above the water line. If that is the case, get ready for some really cool noises when it gets fired up. The returns need to tie in below the water line.

The supplies coming out of the boiler should connect into a common "header" and the mains will come off of that. And then there is the equalizer.

The Burnham instructions are pretty clear about how their boiler is to be piped. Make him follow the directions.

Mark H

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Boilerpro

Actually, Mark...

It looks like a one pipe COUNTERFLOW system...those drips are right off the beginning of the main. Hope he kept the boiler small enough and the piping is sloped back towards the boiler and I would say those drips are a likely source of trouble. A conventional header would not need to be used if it is counterflow. Just untangled a counterflow recently...banged all the time. Boiler too big, someone tried to slope the pipes down away from the boiler and installed 3/4 inch dry returns. The rad runouts near the boiler were sloped the wrong way. With 3 men and wrenches we managed to twist the piping back into a counterflow position, got rid of the dry returns and put in the right size boiler with big risers..no drips... works like a charm. Counterflow is pretty neat!

Boilerpro

Mark Hunt

Now that I


look at it, you may be right. I can't tell which way the pipes are pitched.

Not too many of those systems around here.

Mark H

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Unknown

Yes , it looks like a counterflow system

I believe the better way is to actually drop into those headers , not elbow across into them . And of course - both risers out of the boiler have to be twinned into a main header branch - and need an equalizer , which aint there yet . Someone once posted a counterflow diagram here - maybe they could do it again . This one isnt counterflow - its one pipe with gravity returns - but the near boiler piping should look more like this .

Unknown

Here's one I built

Drip the whole counterflow main into a wet return, and feed it from the top, or 45° from vertical.

Noel

Steamhead

It's Gonna Bang, Gary

The above posts are correct. The boiler will never work properly this way. You could get away with this on older boilers since they had those big steam chests in them. But newer boilers need proper piping to catch any water that may come up with the steam.

If your contractor won't do it right, find one who will. Go to the Find a Contractor page of this site to locate one.

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