steam heating system to much water in boiler

Patrick Linhardt, \"Linhardt's Field Guide to Ste

Hi Gregory,

Five gallons a day is a big problem, it should be looked at by a professional. Make sure that they look at the obvious cuplrits.
1) Is the boiler water clean and making dry steam?
2) Is the near boiler piping correct?
3) Is the operating pressure too high?
4) Is the tankless heater leaking?
5) Is the manual by-pass leaking?
6) Is the wet return partially clogged?
7) Is the automatic feeder leaking water into the boiler?
8) How long has this been occuring? Has anything changed recently in the system?

The above questions are from the troubleshooting guide on page 132 of my field guide for the problem, "Boiler is Flooding".

Good luck with the problem. I suspect clogged wet returns. They slow the return of the condensate during operation.Meanwhile, the auto feeder adds water to the boiler. Then as the system cools during the off cycle, the water creeps through the clog to flood the boiler. It is a rather common problem with older systems that haven't had the wet return replaced since installation.

Best regards, Pat

gregory king

steam system

I have a very old steam system that is over filling after the condensate returns to the boiler. I have watch the boiler run to make set temp and shut off that is when I notices water filling the gauges glass pass the water level mark on the boiler. everyday I am draining about five gallons of water from the system, do you think maybe I have a dirty boiler sure could use your help. thanks

Unknown

gregory,

dirty boiler water could be 1 cause. There are a-lot of variables here that could be causing your prob. Did you do anything to the system at all before this started? How does the water "appear" in the glass? 2 pipe or 1 pipe steam? How much steam-pressure are you running? It could be as simple as a "sticky" water feeder, but we need more info to determine that.

Dave