weil mclain lgb

jim murtaugh

looked at a potential job today lgb-8 steam boiler replaced about 6 years ago. tennants are tired of all the banging. mfg says it is ok to only use 1 taping on this boiler so installer did.do you think this is ok? equalizer piped out of the horiz. header.there is no boiler feed tank. condensate return has inverted u in it i believe to establish a false water line. sorry i forgot my camera today. there is quite a lot of service stickers on this machine. and i would like to help them out i already have aplan of attack but any additional comments are welcome

patrick linhardt

LGB is good steamer

Hi Jim,

I'm quite familiar wth the LGB boilers. What size pipe did they use for the single riser? Minimum recommended per Weil is 5" for the single riser. Anything less than that and you can get in some trouble with high velocity that can cause wet steam, which can cause water hammer.

Larger pipe than minimum pipe size risers slow the velocity of steam out of the boiler, that is a good thing. The old timers were quite concerned with the production of dry steam from their boilers. Larger outlets, a bigger steam chest and multiple risers all were designed for and used to produce as dry and slow steam as possible leaving the boiler.

Is the header at least 24" above the waterline? Is it properly piped and pitched to drain any water down the equalizer?

The near boiler piping is now used to dry out the steam, so following the manufacturer's instructions is critical. Improving on them is to you and your customer's advantage.

Where is the hammering and at what point in the burner on cycle does it occur? At start-up, at mid-cycle, at shut down? There are many causes of water hammer that are not related to the boiler.

It could be the false water line, if that is what it is, has been installed wrong. Post some pics if you can, but if you can't, give me some feedback. You can quiet this thing down and have all the tenants sleeping like babies.

Best regards, Pat

jim murtaugh

reply

mr.linhart i thank you for your reply i forgot my camera today so i drew this ruff sketch i am interested in all and any opinions on this and if you wish you can call me collect at (708)301-7335

jim murtaugh

attachment

sorry

Jim Bach

Jim,

This is the guy who had you come over, do you want to come back over and take some pics?

(Love the internet!)

Big issue is the water is sitting in the pipes, when the first firing of the day happens, it sounds like De Nang in the lower level units.

Unfortunately, the pipes are sitting under the floors for the two lower units so increasing the pitch isn't an option.

(The banging is occuring in the storage room in front of the two units)

Will a condensate pump handle this? We also likely need a condensate tank....

We've been though a lot of contractors who knew squat regarding this issue. (How no one mentioned the problem that none of the pipes where insulated over the past three years is beyond me...)

Knowing one of them reads this web site is encouraging.

jim murtaugh

LGB

HERE IS SOME PICS, SORRY THIS IS ALSO A DBL. POST I HAVE MORE PICTURES ATACHED TO A POST CALLED LGB-8

EBEBRATT-Ed

You need to get a copy of the piping specs. from Weil Mclain and repipe or have someone repipe this baby. Piping looks way to small. Also looks like a false water line installed.

Not an inexpensive fix but IT WILL NEVER RUN PROPERLY OR QUIETLY UNLESS FIXED.

Ed