City Water tower- Steam problem??

Don Walsh

I have been asked to repair a 2500 sq ft steam boiler that services a municipal water tower. My problem is I have no clue as to what is inside the 36" diameter water riser. I suspect that there is a coil of some sort directly in the water riser. There are two 3" steam feeds going into the tower wall, and two 2" trapped condensate returns coming out of it. The boiler floods in a matter of hours and starts running out of the condensate receiver vent like a hose was connected.This, after all make-up water lines are shut off to the system. Naturally, I suspect a fairly good size hole somewhere in the the piping of what ever is on the other side of the wall. The tower is 120 feet high and holds 75,000 gallons of water. Draining this puppy down is not an option that anyone is willing to discuss (Yet!)

Have any of you worked on this type of system? What is behind the wall? Heat exchanger? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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DanHolohan

I found this:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question56.htm

I'd give Malcom a call; I'll bet he knows.

You get all the good ones, don't you?