My new boiler, finished. Finally...

Joe_83

Does anyone else see what I see...???

Bell reducer and fitting bushings...Bad bad Bad on Steam systems....# 1 they trap water and cause noise...ets etc

Please review again...

The Wire Nut

Or I get by with a lot of help from my friends...

Well, almost 5 months after the big flood, the new V85 is fully operational. A couple of months ago, I finished installing the boiler with a new 3" drop header. That thread is here: Bill and Alex's Excellent Header).

Steamhead came by on his rounds and helped finish up the last of the peripheral plumbing and the light off. He got it tuned right on the money without too much fiddling.

He also did an amazing job on my CI baseboard, which was plumbed with 3/4 copper into a "butterfly" valve and the return end had a trap also in to 3/4 copper. He was able to unsolder both the valve and the trap and replace them with some 90 deg. fittings without scorching the floors or the walls. The man is an artist with a torch...and a wrench..

The boiler produces steam quickly and quietly, the only noise is pipe expansion along the long main and some of the risers.

As you can see from the first photo, the rear riser and drop came in with 2" to the end of the front drop's Tee. Frank suggested that it would look better if the header was all 3" and the rear drop connect in to a 3" ell that connected to the front drop's Tee.

He didn't think it was much of a performance issue, but it looked funny. I changed it. He was right. See the second photo. (2 photos are worth a couple poorly formed sentences.)

The other change was the set of ells on the return off of the eccentric coupling. It looked, well, like an elbow ready to poke your ribs. (3rd photo) I changed that too, using a couple of 45s to make the transition a bit smoother on the eye. (4th photo).

The unit has a VaporStat, set to about 6 ozs, and the included Pressuretrol as a safety.

He also suggested a 2nd damper as I had a tremendous amount of draw from my chimney.

A TigerLoop Ultra completes the fuel line.

Although the header on the original drowned boiler was insulated, I think I'll leave this one open for the winter. I touched it up with some paint, a trick I learned from Mad Dog (Hi Matt!), and I think it looks better.

I'll need the heat loss to keep the basement warm so I can finally do the inventory from the big flood. I'm running out of time to present this to the insurance company, so no more excuses...

Unfortunately with the rains we had last Sat. I got another 6" or so on the floor. I caught it just in time to prevent another drowned boiler.

One of the sump pumps shredded its impeller and the second, smaller pump, couldn't keep up. Once I got my spare pump going, it only took 1/2 hour to get the basement back down to wet floor. Fans, a wet/dry vac and a couple of dehumidifiers got it bone dry by the next day.

The only real casualty was my Bacharach, which I stupidly left on the floor in its case. This was the replacement for the one that drowned in June. I think this one may be salvageable though...

Once again, thanks to the Wall, the Wallies and Dan, I've learned a lot, had a blast playing with pipe, and, I'm sure, got my carbonized crustation bill down.

Thanks all!

Alex

Steamhead (in transit)

Now you need

a second sump, and a 2-inch pump in each sump with suitably large discharge piping. These aren't cheap but might save you a lot of trouble!

Glad I could help.

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The Wire Nut

Pumping away...

I had 2 pumps in the sump, both go out via 1 1/2 PVC. Unfortunately, one of the pumps seems to have shred an impeller and was running with little effect. The other, smaller pump, couldn't keep up especially against the back pressure on the outlet of the discharge.

I had a 3rd pump, bigger and stainless steel, that I bought during the first flood. Once I set it up, pumping out through the cheep 1 1/2 flexible sump pump pipe, I had the place down to the concrete in under 1/2 hour. I replaced the bad pump with this one and it seems fine for now.

I'm going to dig another sump and put a pump with a separate discharge out the other (boiler) side of the house...

Welcome to owning a house in the country, by a creek!

Boiler running well, maybe one cycle per hour. Still having trouble with the upstairs being cooler than downstairs. So much for hot air rising!. I'm going to put some Gorton 4s on the bigger downstairs radiators and see if that helps...

Alex

Steamhead (in transit)

That was an old pic

he's replaced the bell reducer with an eccentric one, and any water is flowing from the smaller pipes thru the bushings into the larger pipes so nothing will collect there.

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Steamhead (in transit)

I'd

increase the size of the second-floor vents.

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The Wire Nut

See Picture 4 which is the updated header...

Thanks!

Alex...

The Wire Nut

hot air...

There are 5s in there now, I think... What should I go up too? 6 or C? Also, remember, the radiator in my bedroom has the Hoffmann 75 at the end of the riser, I would think that would bring steam there quicker...

Alex...

Steamhead (in transit)

Try #6 vents

if you want fixed-port ones. Or, try VentRite #1 adjustables. I like the fact that these have little dials on them that you can adjust without tools. This would, for example, let you completely close the vent in the guest room unless it was being used.

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