Bakers use steam boilers to make their rolls crusty. They have to hit the rolls with the right amount of steam at just the right time, and they have to make sure that the steam isn't too wet or it will make the rolls mushy rather than crusty. Nobody wants to buy mushy rolls. Mario the Baker had, on this day, cornered the market on mushy because the steam leaving his boiler was way too wet. This, he firmly believed, was Billy's fault. And, in this, he was partially correct.

On the day he installed the boiler, Billy had told Mario the Baker that these jobs were tricky, and that they had to be piped just so. At the time, however, Mario the Baker was only interested in price. He wanted the job done quickly and cheaply, so that's what Billy gave him - quick and cheap - because Billy didn't want to lose the oil account. Billy ran a 1" copper line directly from the steam boiler into the oven. He installed a 8" solenoid valve in that 1" line and showed Mario the Baker how to hit the switch for the solenoid valve whenever he desired steam. Billy set the boiler to maintain seven pounds per square inch of pressure so that Mario would not have to wait - and so that he would also burn lots of oil.

When Mario the Baker hit the solenoid's switch on that first day, it was like pulling the pin on a grenade. The dirty boiler water, driven by the high-velocity steam, rocketed out of the boiler and flew down the 1" copper line. That which would be crusty turned to mush. This is what you get what when you insist on quick and cheap.

Can you can see what's going on here? You will if you use your imagination. Just think about steam for a minute. At zero psi, it takes up about 1,700 times the space of the water from that produced it. That means that if you turn a pint of water into steam, you'll need 1,700 pint-size glasses to catch it all. As you raise the pressure, you'll compress the steam so it will take up less space, but it still takes up a lot more space than the water did. Can you see that in your mind's eye? Good. Now, confine all that steam under about seven pounds per square inch pressure inside a boiler. Can you imagine how that must feel? The steam wants to get out, right?

What do you suppose happens when you pop that solenoid valve and let that pent-up steam fly down that relatively small copper pipe? Is it any wonder that the dirty boiler water goes with it?

This is why boiler manufacturers want you to use headers and the rest of that semi-elaborate near-boiler piping they specify in their installation-and-operating manuals. They've laid out very specific ways for you to pipe their boilers, the idea being that the water should stay in the boiler while the steam is leaving.