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Recent content by Keith53

  1. Keith53

    Steam Boiler Damage

    As you can see, you must prevent scale, ESPECIALLY in firetube boilers. I've seen many where the furnace collapsed and/or rear tube sheets cracked/bulged and tubes cracked at tube-to-sheet joint.....You were very lucky in that the furnace only deformed and didn't fail under pressure. The scale...
  2. Keith53

    Steam Boiler Damage

    Now that I've seen the picture of the seal welded tubes/sheet, and understand that you yourself did not see the furnace BEFORE the hydro, and understand that the tube/sheet welds were performed just prior to hydro......I suspect boiler was subjected to overfiring and/or suffers from scale...
  3. Keith53

    Steam Boiler Damage

    I'm a boiler inspector......This had NOTHING to do with trapped air.....For hydro test, we make certain to remove all air for safety reasons, not to prevent damage to boiler. Air is compressable, therefore in the event of vessel failure while testing, it would escape explosively. The same...
  4. Keith53

    1500 ton centrifugal chiller, 123...running in low load

    My old York R-11(converted to 123) Seems happiest when operating with 65-70 condensor water temps. We have had no problems with oil migration, but occasionally the oil will foam a few minutes after startup when the equalizing valve first opens. At first, some operators were thinking we had oil...
  5. Keith53

    Relief valve rating / capacity

    Oooops, forgive me, in my first post I meant to state your boiler is probably stamped at 160 MAWP, because you valves are set there.....I said 150 by mistake.
  6. Keith53

    Relief valve rating / capacity

    JimD1, In my above post I described what actually happens when you lower drum/header pressure much lower than boiler design. Once we here discovered that, we compromised and it is working out well. On our campus, steam loads are reduced to half once the workday ends. So at the end of the...
  7. Keith53

    Relief valve rating / capacity

    Your engineer and you too are missing something. In reality, operating at a pressure lower than design causes LESS water in the boiler, NOT more.....Are you confused yet? :) I'll explain, but first, let's establish some facts; A. Your boiler will NOT be producing less steam, just steam at a...
  8. Keith53

    Safety Valve Sec I Steam Boiler

    Try these guys: http://www.andersongreenwood.com/direct_spring.asp
  9. Keith53

    Salem Harbor tube failure

    There is no requirement to replace any boiler simply due to age.
  10. Keith53

    Centrifigal chillers

    Nope..... What happened was there was no water being sent to upper hot water basins in cooling tower, so condensor water temps soared.....The VFD then sped up the fan in an attempt to bring down condensor water return temps and VFD then tripped on overheat....If VFD had not tripped, then next...
  11. Keith53

    Centrifugal chiller showing high cond. pressure in Stndby

    Yes, check to see if tower fan is operating, and also VFD drive if so equipped.....Also good time to check operation of tower cold water basin by-pass valve to hot basin.
  12. Keith53

    AC Condensate into sanitary sewer

    Here is what the EPA has to say about it: http://www.epa.sa.gov.au/pdfs/guide_aircon.pdf BUT, your local code may differ. IF you run condensate to sewer, then do it via 'wet' traps..."Wet" traps are traps that see routine use such as that found on sinks, laundry or baths. The reason you want...
  13. Keith53

    Centrifugal chiller showing high cond. pressure in Stndby

    Oh, ....Also describe if chiller chilled water sys has xconnect valves to hot water heating sys....Sometimes if so equipped, the valves can leak and cause high temps in idle chiller....If they get high enuff it will blow the disc and you will lose complete charge.
  14. Keith53

    Centrifugal chiller showing high cond. pressure in Stndby

    Quote "that is showing that it has exceeded the high condenser pressure..." I'm assuming you mean it has stored a fault condition, in this case an incedence of high condensor pressure. If so, this can be caused by several things, but not realy mean there is a fault in the chiller. -If...
  15. Keith53

    What causes water fluctuation on a small steam boiler?

    Also.....Are you operating the boiler well below designed pressure and at high loads? If so, install a pressure reducing valve at the outlet and set it to maintain desired line pressure, then increase boiler operating pressure to design specs. Operating at too low a pressure from design will...

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