Webster Vent Trap??

Paul S_3 · April 19

Hey guys. Hope all is well. A friend of mine is on a job and he is asking me if I know what this is. is this just an air eliminator or a vent trap. Steam is leaking out the top. It doesn’t look like a boiler return trap. Also what can be done to replace this because it’s not a threaded port on top.

Steamhead · April 19

It's a vent trap which is the same as air eliminator. Not sure what brand.

He needs to look for the bad trap that's letting steam into the dry returns that the vent trap is connected to. Just follow the steam-hot return to whichever rad return runout(s) are steam-hot.

Paul S_3 · April 19

thanks @Steamhead so it has to be a bad trap or traps at the radiators. Even If the boiler pressure got too high from a clogged pigtail and backed water up into that vent trap the vent trap float would close the vent and air lock the system? Is that how these work?

Jamie Hall · April 19

More or less. The key is the comment "steam is leaking out the top". On two pipe steam systems, steam should neveer get into the returns (well, hardly ever — but that's another matter). If it does, some steam trap somewhere has failed — and you need to find it.

The float should close the trap outlet if the pressure gets too high — but there are a host of other problems high pressure will cause, most of them non-obivious, so get the pressure under control as well.

Paul S_3 · April 19

can this be replaced with a return venting manifold as long that the boiler pressure is maintained low ?

Jamie Hall · April 19

What's it not doing that it is supposed to do? If the problemcould be rigged as is letting steam out, a modern vent, but that's a band-aid to cover up a problem elsewhere — so don't do it. Fix the problem, not the symptom.

Steamhead · April 19

Agreed. @Paul S_3 , how about some radiator and trap pics? Also, many Vapor systems have radiator traps piped between the ends of the steam main and the dry return, which act as main vents- check for those too.

Jamie Hall · April 19

My goodness. My post got scrambled… my compu ter sometimes types where I don't want it to. That second sentence should read ""If the problem is letting steam out, a modern vent could be rigged, but that's a band-aid".

Thank you, @Steamhead , for figuring out what I meant… !

mattmia2 · April 20

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1894665#Comment_1894665

touch mice usually are the culprit for that, you touch it while typing and it either moves the cursor or selects and drags a chunk of text somewhere. I keep turning off the touch to click feature on them and it keeps getting turned back on.

mattmia2 · April 20

back to the vapor system.

if the pressure is too high or the metering valves are missing on the emitters or they are set wrong then steam can blow through the radiator in to the return. The system may have been designed to work without radiator traps.

Steamhead · April 20

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1894747#Comment_1894747

We'll see when the OP posts the pics. I don't recognize that vent trap, waiting to see what system it is.

Webster Vent Trap??

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