Cool stemer - DF

Dan Foley

This is one Flag looked at a couple of weeks ago. It is an old vapor system in Alexandria, VA. We will be replacing this one next fall with a Burnham Inedependence steam boiler. The homeowners are going to tough out the last few weeks of this heating season and it has been pretty chilly around here for late March. It was 18* this morning when I left for work.

-DF

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Dan Foley

Spelling

I should really read what I type before I hit "post". That should be "Cool STEAMER". DOH!!!

-DF

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Weezbo

I like it!

i have a rather old boiler or two that one day i intend to sand blast and put Almond enamel brass gages crome pipe lots of fancy shiny gizmoes and put it in my living room as a radiator ) just to make people envious )

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

Wow

I'm totally amazed that this system has worked for so long. Do the owners have any complaints?

I don't see an equalizer, Hartford Loop or any kind of header. When I first looked at it, I thought it was hot water.

Thanks for the picture, Dan.

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Mike Reavis_2

Dan, Have you seen like this that had the rotary hearth

burner (Timken) that still worked? We had one in the house that I grew up in. Mike

Steamhead

Looks like it's in pretty good shape

after all these years. I like the fusible link setup at the top!

You might want to try adding some bricks to the flueways to get the stack temp down. It would make the "toughing out" easier on the owners. I have several brick jobs out there now, helping the owners save up for a new boiler.

What kind of Vapor system is it?

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Ken Ditchfield

Could you explain the idea behind putting bricks in the flueways? I've heard of this before but never got an explanation of how it works. Thanks.

Steamhead

Bricking Flueways

is actually pretty simple but you have to do it right. It involves the strategic placing of bricks in the large flue passages of older boilers to act as baffles, slowing down the hot flue gases and making them come into better contact with the boiler's heat-transfer surfaces. If you read Frank Graham's "Audel's Oil Burner Guide" from the 1940s, you will see some diagrams of how they did it during the coal-to-oil conversion era. You'll probably have to search a used-book site such as www.abebooks.com to find a copy.

The same holds true today. George "Firedragon" Lanthier mentions the same thing in chapter 12 of his excellent work "Combustion and Oil Burning Equipment". You can order this book on George's site, www.firedragonent.com .

It is important not to introduce too much draft loss when bricking. As with any modification, you must test with a digital combustion analyzer to make sure you have enough draft for the burner to operate properly, and that the air/oil mix is correct and you're not making smoke. And your stack temp should not go below 300 degrees or you might cause condensation in the chimney.

One of the most dramatic brick jobs I did was on an old National 4-section round boiler on a gravity hot-water system. The old burner had given up and it was 20 degrees outside, so I stuck a Beckett in to give the lady heat. With three bricks in the top section, which was all I could get in there, I got the stack temp down from 835 degrees to 615. All told, I reduced her oil firing rate from 1.25 to 0.85 GPH (about 30%) and the house heated better than ever.

But bricking a boiler like this is a temporary measure. When the heating season is over, we're going to replace that old round boiler. I bet I can heat that little 2-story rowhouse on 0.5 GPH with a modern boiler.

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Ken Ditchfield

Thanks!

It's great to know how they did these things in the coal-to-oil conversion days. While my 1941 Thatcher has some really big flue passages, the net flue temperature is only about 450 degrees. Thanks to proper venting, etc. it hasn't seen any pressure on the gauge for the past few years. When I temporarily installed a low pressure gauge, the most I ever saw was 8 ounces when it shut off on temperature.

steve_6

mouat vapor

Is that a mouat vapor system?? Looks like a mouat air vent in the picture!!

Steamhead

I bet

if you put a brick in the outlet flue, you could get it down by 50-100 degrees. One is the most you should use unless you have a 3450-RPM flame-retention burner.

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Ken Ditchfield

Thanks, I'll give it a try.