Steam Kettle heating problems

[Simonok]

Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

I have no experience with a low pressure gas fired boiler.

I've just taken up a position at a brewery that has purchased a 15BBL custom fabricated steam jacketed kettle. We've been testing boiling times and volumes in the kettle and we just can't get it to boil. Water at the top of the kettle gets up to 98c but the water down the the outlet barely gets to 15c.

The burner fires up for about 2 minutes at a time then cuts out for 30 sec then fires back up. The PRVs on the return to the boiler also seem to be over active.

[GlacierBrewing]

Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

I have no experience with a low pressure gas fired boiler.

I've just taken up a position at a brewery that has purchased a 15BBL custom fabricated steam jacketed kettle. We've been testing boiling times and volumes in the kettle and we just can't get it to boil. Water at the top of the kettle gets up to 98c but the water down the the outlet barely gets to 15c.

The burner fires up for about 2 minutes at a time then cuts out for 30 sec then fires back up. The PRVs on the return to the boiler also seem to be over active.

Hi Simonok,
It has been my low pressure steam boiler experience that the boiler will and should fire for much longer than two minutes.The short cycling of the boiler does seem like it might not be on long enough to build steam pressure. 98c should be getting you close to a boil where you are but not quite there, as you well know. Does your boiler steam pressure gauge show any pressure building in the boiler? Are you completely certain all the steam valves and returns are full open when they should be? Since you're dealing with a steam boiler, I suggest you contact the manufacturer and/or a local HVAC/Combustion company. Make sure they check the Pressurtrol settings. These are the boxes on your boiler that tell the boiler when to fire and when not to fire, high and low limits of pressure.

Prost!
Dave

[lhall]

Could be a lot of condensate in the kettle jackets that isn't getting purged and returned to the boiler. Try cleaning out all traps, and draining the kettle jackets of any water, until you get steam coming through. Your steam traps may be installed incorrectly. If you have steam flowing through, check the pressure switches on the boiler to make sure they are set correctly. The boiler should kick off around 12 psi and kick back on around 8-9 psi.

[BrewinLou]

Talk to the kettle manufacturer, talk to the boiler manufacturer, talk to the boiler installer. Make sure all the numbers add up. Make sure the system was installed correctly to spec. Make sure all traps and condensate parts are all functioning. If all that looks good call the best Boiler Mechanical Contractor you can find. You do not want to play with your boiler, the results can be deadly. I have had guys here that worked for reputable Mechanical Contractors that I knew more about boilers than they did, talk to the ppl that come in and work on your equipment. Boiler accidents are the absolute worst thing that can happen, most are not accidents either they are the result of neglect. Talk to ppl in your area dn find out who most use for their boiler maintenance. Good Luck!

[Simonok]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the advice, it seems that our steam traps weren't set up optimally. However a plumbing consultant set it up in such a way that should hold us over.

How ever I think our problems may be two fold. The lowest jacket on the kettle doesn't start until approx 15' from the base (the kettle is flat bottomed) This in turn leads to liquid on the top to boil and the liquid at the bottom to hold at room temp 20'c. Is this related to the steam issues?

The tank is circa 1979 so not sure about contacting the manufacturer

[BrewinLou]

Wait you mean 15 inches not 15 feet right? If you have boiling on top and room temp on the bottom you have serious issues. How many jackets does the kettle have? No bottom jacket? Maybe you need an agitator, but I suspect there is more going on. Can you post a pic of the inside and outside of this kettle?

[Simonok]

It's 3 jacket, sorry correction, the lowest zone starts 10 inches from the bottom (about 3.5bbls)

[lhall]

Sounds like you are only getting steam through the top jacket. Have you verified that you are getting flow through the other jackets? i.e. are the pipes going in hot?

[Simonok]

We are getting heat to all 3 jackets

[Simonok]

Just had a plumbing consultant come in a got the new steam traps and steam PRVs inserted, getting steam to all jackets, but still have a very lackluster boil on top of the liquid and cold water at the base of the kettle.

Any advice on checking the jackets, and what, if anything could be wring with the kettle itself?