Near-Boiler Repiping

michael_15

a picture of the pipes higher above the boiler? I'm intrigued by the fact that your equalizer and dry return are so awfully large and think it would be interesting to see the header/upper areas as well. . .

-Michael

Rob_21

I posted yesterday about my upcoming near-boiler piping replacement. Here's a picture of the current boiler piping ...
The plumber thinks that my boiler was not intended for steam and was simply retrofitted as such. Anyway, on Monday we're planning on moving the dry returns and the hartford loop IN towards the boiler, and lowering the loop intake by about an inch or so.

After look at the picture, anything else fire off an alarm for anyone?

Al Letellier

re-piping

Get rid of that long nipple and union at the top of the hartford loop. It needs to be a close nipple. Install a couple of drain tees at the bottom of those two dips. they can be combined into one riser into the hartford loop. It's a great place to trap mud an sludge and you should have a way to flush it out occasionally. Can't see by the photo if the supply and equalizer are correctly piped but pay attention to that as well. If you're going to repipe, do it right!!! As there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every steam boiler. Don't fix just one of them.

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Rob_21

Here's a quick-and-dirty idea of how those pipes look above the picture. It's all 2 or 3" piping to the mains, which are 2" pipes.

Thanks for the advice so far, guys!

Rob_21

I'm pretty convinced the main steam pipe coming out of the boiler is not done properly, since it actually comes out the SIDE as opposed to the top. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to redo that piece properly at this time ...

EBEBRATT-Ed

Difficult to tell from the picture but it looks like your water gage glass is piped to the branch of the 1/2" brass tees and the #67 lwco is connected to the run of the tees.

This is the reverse of what it should be and would not pass inspection in my State (MA)
Different States different rules???

michael_15

vertical dimensions

How high is it from the center of the gauge glass to the bottom of the header? Also, what's the vertical dimension between the center of the gauge glass and the top of the vertical portion of your dry returns?

I don't know enough (since I'm not by any means a pro) to know about your boiler in particular, but there are certainly setups for which the header pipes come out the side; for example:

http://www.heatinghelp.com/pdfs/224.pdf
http://www.heatinghelp.com/pdfs/249.pdf

-Michael

Steamhead

Gotta get rid of

that bullheaded tee above the header. Each steam main must have its own riser from the header. With the current setup, the steam will bounce off the back wall of the tee and cause the water level to bounce.

That looks like a Dunkirk "Plymouth" boiler. Like the Utica and Columbia gas steamers, the steam outlet is on the side. This in itself doesn't seem to be a problem, as long as the piping is right. Compare the piping with the diagram in the installation instructions and make sure your installer repipes according to the diagram.

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Rob_21

I'm not sure about other states either; unfortunately for me, I'm in Mass too so I'm guessing I'm not in compliance.

I need to find that diagram and find out what they were smoking when this system was installed ... !!

Rob_21

Here's a closer picture of the gauge glass; I checked it against the diagram and it *appears* to be as illustrated ...?

Rob_21

Here's a real pic of the bullhead tee

I took a better shot of the tee at the top ...

I'm still a little confused as to how to give each side of the main their own pipe with the setup I've got now. Coming off the boiler, the pipe on the RIGHT is for steam and the one on the LEFT is the equalizer, right?

Again, thanks to everyone for your help!!

Steamhead

To do that

you'd need to extend the horizontal portion of the header past the existing tee and install another tee, then go down to your equalizer.

But now that I see the photo, it turns out that tee connecting the riser to the mains isn't bullheaded the way it looked in the drawing. So you might be OK.

When you check the instructions, see if the boiler requires two risers off the boiler to the header. If so, use the corresponding steam outlet on the other side. Here's one we did on a Columbia.

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