Steam trap on boiler above water line

plumbworker · January 30

Has anyone seen this before? 1/2” Steam trap only slightly above water line tapped into a control plate. I assume the original installer was concerned about the boiler / system flooding? Peerless Lc-4.

This is a 12 unit apartment building in San Francisco. Of course the trap is slightly passing steam.

109A_5 · January 30

Well that is different. Probably doomed to always lose some water. I wonder if there is a flooding issue that can't be resolved if a water trap would loose less water over time.

mattmia2 · January 30

it does nothing. steam can't get down that pipe anyhow because of the water seal, unless there is a big differential between the main and return and the equalizer is supposed to take care of that.

oh, i see now, it is open, not connected to a return. it is probably a hack because the water is leaving the boiler and the auto feeder is overfilling the boiler during a cycle. it will kill the boiler if it is constantly dumping water.

retiredguy · January 30

A set-up similar to this has been done on systems with multiple boilers that insures that a down or shut down boiler will not flood. The down boiler or boilers will slowly fill due to steam above the water line condensing. A steam trap or a "liquid drainer" as it is called is installed slightly above the normal water line and the drain pipe is routed back to a condensate receiver or condensate tank so as to not loose the water. This way when that down boiler fires it's water level is close to normal.

EBEBRATT-Ed · January 31

A dump trap used to keep the boiler from flooding but it should go to a boiler feed tank or condensate pump. But it seems that doesn't exist

If it is dumping water and adding MU water the boiler is doomed.

Steam trap on boiler above water line

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