Best Of

Before I retired in 2007. I felt as safe in a boiler room as I did in my own bed at night, where the equipment was well maintained. For boilers that were not maintained properly I, on many occasions, was scared to death. In my 40+years as a service tech I saw cast iron boilers melt their sections, blow apart from a fuel explosion, fire tube boilers melt their fire tubes, stay bolts and even their tube sheets. A few friends told me that I should have written a book on my experiences in boiler rooms but that is not my forte. I have seen so much BS and short cutting that I am glad that I am now retired.

One such problem boiler room was in a building with 2 high pressure Keeler or Erie City Water Tube boilers firing Nat Gas where the chief engineer had his maintenance crew remove the guts from an old 3" General Controls Diaphragm gas valve that quit working and the stationary engineer had to manually open and close that valve for every on/off cycle.

Another problem was at a Pgh public school where the low water cutoff was jumped and the steel fire tube boiler dry fired and began to melt.

There were a lot of these but even with all the problems I saw I still felt very safe in a well maintained boiler room regardless of the boiler's size , the type of fuel burned or the working pressure.

I think that I "cheated death" on a few of the jobs but boy did I enjoy the work.

A very good story to share. And it should be shared often.

Unfortunately I have seen the results of a steam explosion. Thankfully no one was hurt. The damage however was extensive.

Boiler annual maintenance and a proper preventative maintenance scheduling is an easy thing to do. Most often all one needs to do is read the boiler manufacturers directions on boiler up keep. A simple preventive maintenance or (PM) schedule needs to be developed and followed. This would show documented proof that the (PM) is being practiced.

The article suggested doing the PM on a Monday or Friday. I liked to stay away from Mondays or Fridays favoring Tuesdays or Wednesdays. I did this simply because weekend issues usually come up that can be delayed for those days.

Don't associate comfort with a number. If you are cold with the thermostat set at 70°, turn the thermostat up until you aren't cold.

Chilling Ed...your Guardian Angel was with you. Lord knows how many people would have been killed and maimed....Mad Dog

@ethicalpaul Truth is I never noticed the pun when I typed that (if that is what it is). 3 unions in the equalizer alone.