New Weil Mclain EG 40 with near boiler pipe issues?

Weil Mclain EG40 near boiler pipe issues

I’ve recently got a new boiler installed and replaced my 80 year old snow man that still worked very well. Unfortunately the old boiler cost a little too much to run with an AFUE efficiency of about 50%. There are some pictures I posted here of the old boiler and of the new boiler and the piping job that was done on the new installation. Most of the piping looks good with the A-dimension from water line to the bottom of the header of 32 inches (manufacturer calls for a minimum of 24 inches) and the header and equalizer all seem to be right according to the manufacturers specifications.

Last year the old boiler heated the house flawlessly and all the radiators would get hot and heat the rooms evenly after I balanced them with all new venting of the proper sizes for each rooms/ radiators needs. I have a computerized Honeywell HT7400 thermostat, which learns run time and overshoot and automatically adjusts or learns your system and the old boiler worked awesome with this thermostat. I got each room within 3 degrees in the house after balancing the radiators. That’s pretty good for an eighty year old one pipe steam system even by today’s standards. The old system was a coal fired boiler retrofitted with a natural gas burner.

The new Boiler is a Weil McLain EG 40 with about 325 sq ft of radiation. Now the new boiler is running with the same equipment now and the thermostat has had time to adjust to the new boilers quicker steaming rate. Now the radiators furthest away don’t get hot or hardly hot at all before the thermostat is satisfied and the system is unbalanced compared to before. I tried balancing the radiators again but I think that if the new boiler is producing good dry steam like the old one did that nothing other than a faster system should have changed. I read the Weil McLain owners manual and checked the riser size and header size that I have compared to what Weil McLain says I should have as a minimum. What I have now is one two inch riser and the header is made up of just two inch pipe and the correct 1-1/2 inch equalizer. In the Weil McLain owners manual it says I should have a minimum of one 2-1/2” riser and 2-1/2 inch header. Now remember I have 8 more inches of rise or clearance between the water line and the bottom of the header than Weil McLain says I need for a minimum so that should help any water drawn up to separate from the steam I think. For the experts here could you please look at the before and after pictures and let me know If I should call the contractor and try and get them to change it to at least the 2-1/2” it should be? Do you think that if the riser and header were larger that I would get more even heat in the radiators and dryer steam? How do I know if I am getting wet or dry steam? I have no water hammer or spitting vents and I’ve skimmed the crap out of this thing. I’ve done just about everything I can do including taking a sample from the boiler and boiling it on my stove just to see if the water was foaming compared to a clean sample. I even called Weil McLain and they said I should have 2-1/2 inch pipe.

The old boiler had two, two inch risers as you can see in the picture; twice the volume of the new one!

Do you guys think the contractor should redo the riser and header in at least 2-1/2 inch or larger? The owner’s manual like I said before states a minimum of one 2-1/2” riser and header with 1-1/2” equalizer. Is 2 inch too small or can it work with a longer riser if 32 inches?

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Ron,

This is a counter flow one pipe steam system so yes the mains pitch towards the boiler and there is a condensate return pipe just before the header on each main. There is no old header on this installation. The riser, equalizer, and header are all new. How should it have been piped? There are no main vents as of yet (going to install those next). They did measure all 9 of my radiators to correctly size the boiler.

Ttekushan,

They didn’t change any of the old main pipes pitch except for a short section where they increased the pitch to about one inch in four feet on a 6 foot section because it was hanging after the old one was taken out. If the system does run until all the radiators get hot (it has) it does not hammer and there is no spitting of the vents or any other abnormalities. The only difference is that the radiators don’t all heat as quickly after the point the boiler starts steaming even thought the old one took twenty minutes to get to a boil from a cold start and the new one takes just 8 minutes. I took my boiler sample from the top as I skimmed the boiler where it counts. I also forgot to tell you guys that the pipes you see uninsulated in the picture are actually insulated now. I took that picture before I insulated them with 1” fiberglass. I don’t think the vents are pulsing and when the boiler is steaming and the water level bounces normally like the old one did. I can check for pulsing air with a smoking match next time the system is running. The vents are Matco Norca adjustable 180 and I have one Maid O Mist #6 on the furthest radiator from the boiler. Most of the adjustable vents are ¾ to full open especially the ones furthest away. Like I said before though with the old boiler these same vents worked fine and they are less than a year old. I’m going to recheck my EDR again and make sure it matches the boiler. The 1.33 pickup factor is already factored into Weil McLains boiler EDR ratings so I don’t have to calculate it separately.

Please see the picture of the insulated pipes I attached.

Thanks guys for the input.

I think you'll have to get it repiped

if W-M says to use 2-1/2-inch or larger, that's what it should be. You can go larger, but NOT smaller!

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