Sizing a steam trap properly is critical to ensure high reliability. When sizing a steam trap there are a number of items that need to be documented and the following example will review. One of the things we need to do is come up with a sizing factor. All steam trap manufacturers will have a sizing factor for their condensate capacity charts. Example, inverted buckets sizing factor is three to one. What does that mean? If the steam or condensate capacity is 200 pounds per hour, and then take that number x three times 200 or 600 pounds per hour. So you want to select a steam trap for 600 pounds per hour in the capacity chart. For float and thermostatics steam traps are two to one sizing factor. Thermostatic is three to one sizing factor and thermodynamic is 3 to one sizing factor
