The "equalizer" is mis-named. It does nothing to equalize anything.

@ethicalpaul ,

When you ran your experiment and throttled the main steam riser exposing water in the wet return sight glass (I watched the vid) did you then throttle the equalizer to see if it changed the water level in the same glass?

I think you are right that the main balances the system but I think the equalizer also has a role in balancing … maybe a much smaller role??

My system has one main take off that splits:

Loop 1 returns and combines with the equalizer below boiler waterline, there is a check valve in between dry return drops and the equalizer/main drop.

Loop 2 splits and 2A 2b return on the opposite side with no equalizer interaction. The main drops are separated from the dry return drops with a check valve.

I removed the element in the check valve long ago when I did not know **** I was doing but I had water in my main (or dry return) and the only way to get it out was to remove the check valve…10-15 gallons poured out of a system that holds ~5-6.

if equalizer was critical to pressure balance I would have one side behaving nice and one side struggling? I do have 6’+ drops and operate at 1.5” water max so the water column equalizes just fine … would be interesting if I could see what level each side is at to prove/disprove your theory.

BTW…I did an experiment and my equalizer temp (measured 24” above boiler waterline never gets above 140F during a long heat cycle. I take that to mean that I am not getting any carryover and steam cannot heat that pipe because it is blocked by air. That or the water in the column below it are enough of a heat sink but I would think if a lot off carryover water was falling down that pipe it would be getting hotter.

"The equalizer is like a hollow handle on a beer stein—completely unrelated to the level of beer in the glass. I stole this observation from Henry Gifford."

The problem I have with this example is the fire is only under the boiler, not the handle.

The earth's atmosphere is a huge equalizer but you can measure different atmospheric pressures in different places. And how far away is the Sun ?

I guess my point was what was your point ? Sure the equalizer looks like the handle on a beer stein, so ?

Formally it was called a "Bleeder" and was (is) relevant to some systems. The LAoSHR describes it and it sounded reasonable to me.

What exactly is meant by "sloshing around" in this case?

let's rename it the "header drain"