Picture of a very special (to me) dry return CH

Christian Egli_2

Here is the picture of the last kink. No dirt pocket and about 6 ft of vertical pipe falling into it

Christian Egli_2

My own handiwork

It is always a treat to look at pictures of the beautiful work that is so commonly posted here. I finally figured I should add something too.

This is a replacement 2 inch dry return on a large system. The old one failed primarily by ripping itself off the wall to which it was solidly bound, then the condensate puddled in the slumps causing gurgling sounds. The old layout was not fantastic either, it had too many elbows, a more elegant solution was needed. There was a lot of rust too, inside and out, the scale had piled itself on the inside of the elbows.

The repipe took a lot of thinking and planning but it made me happy. The picture features two ideas I came up with that I think are of interest.

First

I was concerned for the welfare of the air I expel from the system. You see, when the air scrambles for the exit, I don't want head-banging turns to slow it down. You'll notice I used all 45s elbows, this provides nice sweeping curves, nothing new, but you'll notice that at the bottom of the vertical leg, there is not just an elbow, there isn't a tee either, there is a wye. This provides me with a dirt pocket for the falling scale and it maintains the sweeping curves I wanted.

A throw back to the beautiful fittings that were used on galvanized drain lines.

Second

The small line that drips into the return is not a condensate line off a radiator, it is the anti-deeper-vacuum-in-the-boiler-than-in-the-return by-pass. It is a safety measure common on vacuumized systems, which this is. The hot end of the line is connected to the header where there is the necessary check valve.

I don't trust check valves blindly, they are corrupt: in exchange for a little scale they will let contraband steam leak into the return side. This can eventually destroy the peace in the vacummizer.

So, you'll see I inserted a thermostatic trap on this line that will close on any trespassing steam. I don't think it will ever do much work, but one day it might selfishly throw itself in front of the gushing steam and save the condensate pumps. That's worth its weight in gold.

The gauge shows both vacuum and pressure, that's why the hand points to 10 o'clock.

Thanks for looking.

Christian Egli_2

A call for a dirt pocket

This dirt was waiting when I opened the old return. This return that caused many problems was a redo in the nineties, it wasn't that old, but it did rust a lot. Remember there was quite a bit of stagnant water in the slumping areas. Water + air = rust rust rust

Two elbows down the line were clogged with dirt.

This redid-in-the-nineties line with all its elbows double-crossed the vacuumed lines. Don't ask me why, but, of course, this stopped the system from working properly.

Now it's fixed.

bob young

WOWEE looks like the holland tunnel. a picture is worth a thousand words. nice job.

Steamhead (in transit)

Looks good

and I'll bet the system runs great now too!

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Christian Egli_2

Thanks

And a blast of steam through the Holland tunnel would get things flying,no?

Christian Egli_2

Why strain yourself

There was strainer after the last turns, too bad no dirt ever got that far.

The strainer passed clear water, the screen wasn't clogged at all. It had an easy valve to operate. But in the end, it was all useless without the dirt pockets.

Who knew there was so much scale waiting to get out.

bob young

no looka too good ! lol