Posted by Tony Conner, TBP Industrial Steam Systems on December 24, 1997 at 11:32:24:
In Reply to: Re: steam trap posted by Tony Conner, TBP Industrial Steam Systems on December 23, 1997 at 17:50:36:
: : What is a steam trap used for? Can you use anything else @
: Lou: A steam trap is simply an automatic valve. It opens when it senses air and/or water, and closes when it senses steam. Contrary to a what many people think, it is NOT a pump. There are several different types: thermostatic, thermodynamic, float & thermostatic, etc. You could use a manual valve, like a gate or globe, if you wanted to stand there and open and close it. A trap holds the steam back until it gives up it's latent heat, and turns back into water. Tony
Lou: I almost forgot. You can achieve the same result with a pipe loop. You need 28" of height for every 1 PSIG of steam pressure. You need to remember that if the steam pressure exceeds what you've allowed for height, you can blow the water out of the seal. Except in one-pipe boiler systems. Original one-pipe systems returned condensate to the boiler with no traps, or pumps. The condensate would "stack-up" in the piping, and the head of this water would gradually push the water back into the boiler. That's why they were designed to run at 2 PSI. Just over 56" of height in the condensate system was enough to get the condensate back into the boiler under it's own weight. If people reduce this dimension in the piping when they replace a boiler, or set the steam pressure too high, they can't get the return water into the boiler. Tony