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An example of inadequate maintenance which I frequently see is the lack of a blowdown valve on a "Y" strainer upstream of a steam drip trap. A drip trap is simply a steam trap piped into the bottom or low point of a steam main that removes the condensate that is continuously being generated by the condensing steam. Because there is no blowdown valve, sooner or later the “Y” strainer will plug with debris meaning the steam drip trap can no longer remove this condensate. Instead, condensate will back up into the steam main being served by the drip trap. This results in destructive water hammer. Have you ever seen a steam main move back and forth? Water hammer is the cause of it and I guarantee it is very scary!

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Failure Example # 4
An example of inadequate maintenance which I frequently see is the lack of a blowdown valve on a "Y" strainer upstream of a steam drip trap. A drip trap is simply a steam trap piped into the bottom or low point of a steam main that removes the condensate that is continuously being generated by the condensing steam. Because there is no blowdown valve, sooner or later the “Y” strainer will plug with debris meaning the steam drip trap can no longer remove this condensate. Instead, condensate will back up into the steam main being served by the drip trap. This results in destructive water hammer. Have you ever seen a steam main move back and forth? Water hammer is the cause of it and I guarantee it is very scary!
Another example of inadequate maintenance is not *exercising* existing blowdown and isolation valves. An inoperative manual blowdown valve was one of the primary causes of the 1989 fatal New York City tragedy mentioned earlier that killed three persons