Near Boiler Piping / Causing Wet Steam ?

Bobby D.

Please take a moment to look at these photos of my near boiler piping on a one pipe steam system.
The boiler is a coal converted/ oil fired Dunkirk # 717
Circa 1947.
The piping is all orginal. As you can see there are two takeoffs for steam on the top of the boiler, one is used the other is capped. The header drains at a right angle to the return ( a Dan H. No- No! )
I get a lot of bounce in the sight glass, no foaming. I have installed all new Hoffman #40 Vent Valve on the radiators and a 4A on the main. Any thoughts on correcting current piping ? Thanks in advance.

Unknown

Where does the 1 1/4 pipe go

thats coming out of the 2 by 1 1/4 tee off the header ? If its going to a single rad , a better place to tee it in is the 2 inch horizontal main - the one with all the other rads tied into it . . But that shouldnt give you any major problems . What did you mean that the header drains at a right angle to the return ? Do you have a pic of the pipe ?

Bobby D.

Th 1 1/4 pipe off the tee does go to a single radiator nearest to the boiler. What I meant was the header return runs parallel to the top of the boiler rather than dropping straight down to the hartford. in picture # 1 it is the pipe closest to the camera. Am I not correct in thinkin that this pipe should drop with a 90 degree elbow straight down rather than a 90 degre turn ?

Unknown

It doesnt have to drop right away

as long as you have a slight pitch down to the return all the way . The problem you might have is that the tee is decreased going to the equalizer . We try to keep our header piping all the same size till we drop down to the return - so no steam hits any water laying in the header .

DanHolohan

Bobby,

ideally, all those mains should come off the header individually, but this one has been in for many years and the old boilers tended to produce steam that was drier than what you get from a modern boiler. Have you checked the pH of the water? And has any work been done recently on the system that may have contaminated the water?

Bobby D.

Yes, the wet return piping was replaced entirely, about two years ago. I have yet to check the PH of the water. What would be ideal ?. I just wanted to add that the sight glass is showing a lot of condensation when boiler is steaming. I tried the Lobestael method of steam boiler water quality inspection, I got steam through the top of the glass and out the bottom of the petcock. This led me to believe that the boiler water is clean, but I could be wrong. The wet return installed does not have a drain valve installed. One would have to be installed to flush the system.