Losing water, but no leaks

Ted Robinson

One simple test is to watch the top of the chimney on a day with a blue sky, during a firing cycle. Look for white vapor coming out the top.

Adam Brod

Losing water, but no leaks

Hi-

We have a one-pipe steam system. We are losing all the water in the boiler (down to the cutoff line) in about 5 hours.

I've looked for leaks. We don't have any buried pipes. None of our vents or valves are leaking. I overfilled the boiler up to the overflow valve and no water leaked. I also looked outside an didn't see any steam coming out the chimney (although I couldn't see too well).

What else could be the culprit? How could I be losing all of our water?

The problem started recently--we've been living here for three years and only recently has the water started disappearing.

Thanks for any help!
Adam

Adam Brod

Here's another clue for the leaking water problem

Well,

Since I couldn't find the source of the leak, I called a plumber. He found that the overflow valve had gone bad. Even though steam could escape through there, I never saw any steam in the basement or on the floor underneath the pipe connecting the overflow valve.

Could this be the source of the leak? If most of the water in the boiler(what, about 2-3 gallons?) was leaking into the basement as steam, wouldn't it be really, really obvious??

I'm going to run the heater again tomorrow night to see if we lose the water. (It is 80 degrees today, so it gets pretty hot.)

Anybody have any other ideas or tips?

Thanks,
Adam

bob young

could be a quick vent buried in a wall or ceiling.

clammy

fill the boiler

Fill your boiler up with water till it comes out the safety valve and then pull the jacket off and check for leaks on the boiler you may have a leak on the steam side of the boiler and it's dispating through your chimmey .Have a professinal come and look .They shoud inspect your chimmey and the fire side of your boiler .This is not something that's a 5 minute thing and if you are losing the much water on a constant level then plan on replacing your boiler soon because all that fresh water with all that oxygen will shorten the life of your unit .Tell your plumber to check the boiler for leaks above the marked water line .Is this unit gas or oil peace clammy

Adam Brod

It's a gas unit

Thanks for the tips clammy. Our unit is gas.

Yesterday we fired up the boiler and filled it with water up to the release valve (actually above it, once the new valve was in). With it filled up that high, wouldn't the leak have shown itself? We didn't see any water and couldn't hear any dripping. (We didn't take the jacket off.)

Since I didn't see any evidence of a leak, my current theory is that the steam was leaking out very slowly from the bad safety valve. If it came out slowly, perhaps I wouldn't have noticed all that steam in the basement since it would have dissipated.

Does that seem possible?

Thanks for the help!
Adam