No steam flow

Unknown

I just visited an 8 story office building where the occupants of the tower are complaining of lack of heat. A technician had recently replaced the boiler and has been out several times since. He seems to have been focusing on the boiler only. I looked at the three air handlers in the building and noted that two of the three seem to be fine, while the steam coil serving the tower air handler is cold. There appears to be no flow of steam thru the coil. I want to provide the building owner with a list of items to have the technican check -

i.e proper operation of the steam trap.

How would one determine whether there is a blockage in the coil? What about obstructions in the condensate return or steam supply lines?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Unknown

Using ALL proper safety precautions,

Pull the trap cover with the unit steam off, but the system steam on, and see if steam comes into the trap from the RETURN. Stop the steam supply if it does. Fix the traps that are blowing steam into the returns.

If not, then open the steam valve to the unit carefully and see if air vents from the trap INLET, followed by STEAM. CLOSE THE VALVE WHEN YOU SEE VAPOR.

Venting, and "steam in the return" problems occur more often than plugging coils, but who knows...?

Noel