PLEASE HELP - COLDEST DAY AND SHORTCYCLING

dcha

Hi everyone. It's been a while. about 2 and a half years ago Jstar installed my steam heating system. It's an old house but he put in a new boiler for me.

It is 0 degrees outside and my home is now at 55 degrees. It seems to be maintaining that temperature because the radiators are warm, not hot. I observed the boiler and the water sight is clear and the level doesn't move. It is short cycling at the ignition it seems. No pressure is building. Water level usually dips about an inch or so while steam is building but not happening. The ignition starts off for about 2 minutes then turns off and on every 10 seconds. Then the whole cycle starts again 5 min later. Jstar is MIA. Please help me!!!

Paul S_3

Is this gas or oil? It may need a cleaning....maybe pressuretrol pigtail clogged....are you sure it has water in boiler? Where are you located

dcha

it is gas. yes, I just filled it yesterday to make sure given the cold weather expectations. How do I unclog the pigtail?

Paul S_3

Remove wires from control...take the control off first....then take the pigtail off ....then verify that it is Clogged try to unclog with wire hanger

dcha

ok. Joe installed a high cut and low cut. so I have 2 pigtails. which one

Paul S_3

Check them both start with the low

dcha

pigtail was clear. not the pigtail

dcha

I checked the lower one connected to pressuretrol. not clogged. put everything back together and still doing the same thing. The other pigtail I was referring to sits on top of the boiler under the vaporstat. I don't think that one has anything to do with it.

dcha

took some clips:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2CthywL0KJ8dlRvOGRkbXlLalk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2CthywL0KJ8bWREazFIbWhGd28/view?usp=sharing

KC_Jones

If you used to use Joe, then you are in the area covered by either @Dave0176 or @EzzyT both good steam guys.

Paul S_3

Call DL Mechanical. ....i would come but busy in brooklyn unyil tonight

aircooled81

Ignition is not finishing?
Can you look and see:
Does the arc of the ignitor happen at the pilot (can you see it sparking at the pilot cup)?
Do you have gas... No really is there gas going to the valve?
Sounds like your pilot is not starting, but if you do get a pilot, next see if its making contact with the flame sensor.

What did you meen when you said the 'water is clear thats how i know it hasnt fired' and 'the indicator bounces around at 10 to 15'?

Abracadabra

This isn't short cycling. It's an ignition control problem.
Sounds like pilot is lighting and maybe burner lights but flame isn't being sensed. Can you take a video of the burner/pilot lighting up?

aircooled81

You appear to be fairly handy, if you removed and put back the pressuretrol.
Try a pilot turn down test,
Inside the front cover bottom left hand side is the main gas valve. Turn it off at the dial indicator. View inside and locate the pilot and the ignitor. Make sure the pilot valve is open, if one exsists. Turn the boiler on with your tstat or whatever creates the call for heat. The igniotr should try to spark at the pilot for 90 seconds, then retry if it does not see a flame. Likely off for 5 minutes if its a peerless 63/64.
You should see spark at the pilot, a small flame apper, this flame should be touching the flame sensor.
You Do this with the main gas valve off, so you dont get a surprise when the burners turn on.
If the flame does appear, but is being blown away from or not making contact with your flame sensor, then theres your problem.
If the flame is making contact with the sensor, but not staying lit for a period of 1 minute, then your flame sensor needs cleaning, isnt wired to the ignition control, ignotion control is not registering flame sense, or flame sensor is in need of cleaning.

dcha

wow. ton of great advice here. I just got back from church. My neighbor claims that he has issues with his heat whenever it gets this cold because of low pressure in the natural gas supply on our street.

There is some steam being generated. The warmest bedrooms upstairs have radiators that get hot. the ground floor radiators just slightly warm.

It's almost as if the flame has trouble staying on. I'm going to look underneath to watch a cycle. I will try to record it to see what happens when it does that off and on thing.

I'm not very handy no unfortunately. Where is Joe??!??!

Paul S_3

I think Jstar is with another company....where are you jersey?

dcha

Bergen county. Ridgewood. Neighbor had utility company stop by just an hour ago. Confirmed that our street has two i ches of pressure vs 5-7 which is typical. Guy is comng out to adjust the regulator for our street.

Eric_32

2 inches? wow, that is very low. Lower than the boiler requires to function correctly. That will do it.

dcha

Seems like things are better now. Boiler keeps running and only stopping when the low water cutoff runs its intermittent test. Water level still good. All radiators hot now.

dcha

I appreciate everyone that chimed in. If anyone has JStar's new contact information, please post.

BobC

Joe is no longer installing systems, call one of the two guys above for service, mention you got their name from the wall.

Let us know how things work when they fix the pressure.

Bob

dcha

They raised the pressure. No more problems at the moment. 69 degrees in the house now. Thanks everyone!

BobC

Glad to hear it, hopefully all goes well from here out.

Bob