Brother Mark, apparently you weren't around when I had my 'battle of the drum drip' at the old shop. We had a large 6" dry system that protected all of the shop, warehouse, and office. There was a drum drip at a low point for about 6,000 sq.ft. of shop, that ALWAYS had water in it - well above the top valve. So for the helluvit we fabbed a 2"x 9 foot drum drip - and that still filled in a few weeks. The system hadn't been fully tripped in years and the base mounted compressor only ran briefly a few times during a working day, but this system produced water! Our sometimes humid summers along with wide temperature variations throughout the day contribute to the problem. Also, the difference between a base mounted compressor and tank mounted is dramatic - as any fitter who's drained the compressor tank will tell you.
Your system will only get worse as the inside of the pipe fills with that red, muddy, scaly crud -- which further slows the draining of excess water -- like many mini-dams...wait a minute... Anyway, before I got out of sprinks, we had been shifting some customers to spring dry valve trips with multiple follow up visits to drain low points. And for those freeze/thaw induced freeze-up cycles described by Chris, a little prop. glycol in the drum drip does wonders to stop the cycle. Mark - 4-6 drum drips WILL break again this winter. Let's see, -10 to -33F lows for the last week with a warm up into the +20's Monday. Those ice plugs will be letting loose...Monday night? Tuesday? Dave Sornsin Nardini Fire Fargo, ND (Furnace igniter went out last night. The house nearly got as cold as..as..Florida is going to be tonight) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark Sornsin Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 5:10 PM To: '[email protected]' Subject: RE: Excessive Condensate I suspect your second example is what's happening - the system piping is only 5 yrs old and they claim the compressors don't run much (never ran for the 1/2 hour I was there - for whatever that's worth). Except, they 'reportedly' drained the drum 8 or 10 times over a few months and still get this much water. Seems remarkable. Mark -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Cahill Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 4:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Excessive Condensate Yep and many times it's due to a leaky system where the compressor runs a lot. Put a 40 psi test on the system to see how tight it is. That will confirm whether this is new water or from the past trip. I've also see a cycle where the DD wasn't drained in fall and they have a freeze up in a DD. Then a couple week later another. What's happening there is the first trip adds water and some of it freezes to the inside of the pipe. Then a few weeks later with weather changes it melts and collects in the DD only to freeze during the next cold snap and so the cycle starts again. Chris Cahill, P.E. Fire Protection Engineer Sentry Fire Protection, Inc. 763-658-4483 763-658-4921 fax Email: [email protected] Mail: P.O. Box 69 Waverly, MN 55390 Location: 4439 Hwy 12 SW Waverly, MN 55390 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark Sornsin Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 3:59 PM To: '[email protected]' Subject: Excessive Condensate I have a client with a parking garage. Large enough for two dry-pipe systems. Each are piped relatively flat (pitched per NFPA 13, but no more); each on a big loop of 4 in main with side feed branch lines out the side of the mains. This system was last flooded last summer (say August). Since that trip test and subsequent draining, the client has blown out all 6 low point drum drips twice a month, every month. But even still, over Christmas, and only two weeks after blowing out the drum drips, they froze 4 of the 6 drum drips to the point of breakage - 3 of the 6 were filled with ice throughout the 2 in. x 12 in. drum, and up the 5 or 6 ft. of 1 inch pipe. The contractor that replaced the drum drips noted that there was no appreciable water on top of the dry valves, so the water in the pipes appears to be entirely from condensate. Or maybe, somehow, residual from the trip testing 5 months ago (???). Has anyone of you seen this amount of condensate coming from a dry system? The air compressors are floor mounted with no tank. The riser room is somewhat damp (large sump pit located here, too) and maintained at about 55 degrees. But I still have a hard time imagining how that much water could come from condensate. Any thoughts? Mark A. Sornsin, PE Fire Protection Engineer Ulteig Engineers, Inc. Fargo, ND Direct: 701. 280.8591 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.725 / Virus Database: 270.14.130/2607 - Release Date: 01/08/10 01:35:00 _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
