Sweating pipes

Barry J · Aug 11, 2008

My heating pipes a little away from my furnance seems to be sweating. Does both cold and hot pipes sweat??? It seems to be in only one section, and all my pipes have syroform around them. I put a piece of cardboard under the area to try to get a fix on where a leak if any could be.
Any suggestions
Thanks
Barry

Redwood · Aug 11, 2008

If they are heating pipes and they are sweating you have a leak!

Sponsor · 2022-01-29T12:20:58-0800

Barry J · Aug 11, 2008

even on the cold water side???

Redwood · Aug 11, 2008

Water feed for the domestic hot water?
That may be normal depending on water usage.
You said heating pipes!

Jadnashua · Aug 11, 2008

If your boiler has an autofill valve, there could be a leak, and the supply line would end up being cold(er) and could sweat. Otherwise, the heating pipes in the summer are normally room temp, and shouldn't sweat.

Barry J · Aug 12, 2008

I think it's sweating, becuase it's on the cold water feed for the furnance, and other parts of the pipe is only slightly wet....the place I'm looking at must be the low point.

NHmaster · Aug 12, 2008

Furnaces don't have cold water feeds, boilers do. Is it steam or hot water? Not that it matters that much because if the feeder is running long and often enough to be condensating, you have a big leak somewhere in the system.

edlentz · Aug 13, 2008

Could it be a line for his air conditioner exchanger?

Barry J · Aug 13, 2008

Furnance,..boiler..I don't know the correct terminology. I have hot water, powered by oil. It heats my washer, showers and heat. I have a coil system..(no tank). We just got back from vacation, so the washer has been going pretty strong for about two days. We are not using the heat at all. So, could this be sweating???

Patrick88 · Aug 13, 2008

I would recheck your pipes to make sure they are not the ones that heat your house.

If you have been doing laundry back to back and your hot water line is sweating then it is not hot any more.
If you find your heating pipes have water dripping then you may have a leak.
I would recheck everything and make sure your hot water pipes are really staying hot.

Bob NH · Aug 13, 2008

Barry J said:
Furnance,..boiler..I don't know the correct terminology. I have hot water, powered by oil. It heats my washer, showers and heat. I have a coil system..(no tank). We just got back from vacation, so the washer has been going pretty strong for about two days. We are not using the heat at all. So, could this be sweating???

If you are using a lot of hot water, and you are getting cold water supply from a well (your own or municipal) it is possible (even likely) that the pipe supplying cold water to the tankless coil in the boiler will have condensation on the outside.

You can get weather reports of dewpoint at http://www.wunderground.com/ There will be condensation if the cold water temperature is less than the dewpoint.

If your dryer is not vented that will cause the dew point to be higher and increase the condensation.

NHmaster · Aug 14, 2008

I don't suppose you could post a picture of this pipe so that we have some idea what we're talking about?

Sweating pipes

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