Steam confuses a lot of people but things get a lot less confusing when you know where to look for solutions. What we have here is a good portion (but not all!) of my book A Pocketful of Steam Problems (with solutions!). Find the type of system you're having trouble with. Then look for the problem and click on it. What you'll find will be a list of things that can cause that problem, along with a plain-English explanation of each. Work your way through the list, making sure you don't overlook any of the possibilities, and you should be able to solve even the toughest steam challenge. If you'd like, you can order the complete text at Books & more. That way, you'll have HeatingHelp right there with you when you're on that next challenging job.

Problems that plague
ALL STEAM SYSTEMS



• The piping is the wrong size
• There's water hammer in the system
• The fuel bills are abnormally high
• The radiators won't heat all the way across
• The return lines are clogged
• There's a bad odor coming from the system
• The system is losing water
• The system takes a long time to heat
• You can't raise steam pressure on the gauge
• The water line is bouncing up and down in the gauge glass
• There's no heat in certain areas of the building
• The boiler is flooded
• The burner shuts off on low water
• The boiler water is very dirty
• The pitch of the pipes is wrong
• The burner short-cycles
• The system is producing unwanted vacuum
• The condensate- or boiler-feed pump doesn't act as it should
• There's too much heat in the building

Problems that plague
ONE-PIPE STEAM SYSTEMS


• The heat in the building is very uneven
• The air vents spit or make a hissing noise
• A radiator makes a gurgling sound
• A riser is slow to heat
• The end-of-the-main F&T trap is causing a problem
• There's water hammer at the start of the heating cycle
• There's water hammer in the middle of the heating cycle
• There's water hammer near the end of the heating cycle

Problems that plague
TWO-PIPE STEAM SYSTEMS


• There's no heat in part of the system
• The boiler goes off on low water
• The main vents squirt water
• The burner short-cycles
• There's steam coming out of the condensate- or boiler- feed pump's receiver
• There's water hammer at the start of the heating cycle
• There's water hammer in the middle of the heating cycle
• There's water hammer near the end of the heating cycle