Where's my Equalizer Loop?

R Dougan

I've been taking in "Lost Art" for about a week now and had a few mysteries solved. The stepped pyramid of poured pads in my basement is probably the result of a coal to oil to gas progression in order to maintain the proper relationships between wet and dry returns and the all important dimension "A". I do have a big question concerning my loop(s) or lack thereof. My burner is a relatively new gas fired Burnham Independence (IN-4) and I'm wondering if the guy who retrofitted it did so properly. Out of the burner the piping goes directly from the offset header to the main ending at the return into the boiler making only one loop. If I understand what I've read correctly we're missing the equalizer loop of our one-pipe system. Can anyone tell me if this needs to be corrected, the system seems to have worked fine for the first two years we've lived here.

Ken_8

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R Dougan

Thanks for the reply Ken. Here are some shots of the boiler, I hope they're clear enough. The first one shows the piping out of the top of the boiler directly to the mains (one left,one right). In the last one you can see the return after it makes the trip around the basement. Let me know what ya' think, thanks very much.

Ted_4

Bare Bones

You do NOT have an equalizer. Assuming this is a one-pipe system, there must be enough pressure left at the end of the mains to pressurize the return and keep the water from backing out of the boiler and activating the low-water cutoff. This is not a good situation. Without a Hartford loop a leak in the return could empty the boiler out. What does the gauge glass show when it is cold vs when in operation? I bet there is a large fluctuation in water level.

Ken_8

Yeah,

Ted nailed it.

You have no equalizer, the boiler is piped dead wrong and there should be lots of banging, wasted fuel and system problems. But ya know, steam's kinda funky. I've seen jobs like this and asked a million leading questions like, "So, how can you sleep nights with all the water 'hammer'"? To witch the homeowner responds, "What water hammer"?

Bottom line; if it works as pictured, and the pressure is at or under 2 p.s.i. ALWAYS!, it cannot be economically justified to repipe the boiler properly. All steam system "problems" can be mitigated (not eliminated) by simply dropping the operating pressure down to a max of 2 p.s.i.

Hope this helps.



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thfurnitureguy_4

At 2 psi you have enough pressure to push the water back up the return pipe 4'6" vertical toward the main vents, Would a check valve in the return be a safety patch? Just a thought.