Sharing my learning curve on new steamer

Glen_7

Replaced my 50 plus year old oil fired boiler with a Peerless gas boiler (64-12) 1600 sq/ft steam. Thanks to all of you on this site, I had the old system pretty well balanced, but the oversizing and oil bills were killing me. With the new Peerless, I noticed it took a long time to make steam and the far radiators weren't getting warm. I actually cut back on one of my shorter mains venting to push steam down the longer mains and it worked well. Then I took the fast venting Gortons on the closer rads and slowed the venting down a little. That not only quieted things down, but got the steam all the way down the line. I had a lot of surging so I skimmed the boiler several times, then drained it completely. I did this several times over the course of a week. What a difference clean water made. Makes steam now from a cold start in 10 minutes and no movement in the sight glass. I did try adding Hercules Scout prior to draining but the surging got so bad I was concerned about leaving it in any longer. Don't know if all steamers are this sensitive to water quality, but mine is.

Just wanted to share my experiences and to thank all of you who have (and hopefully) will continue to respond to my posts.

About a year ago I posted about possibly tossing the steam for hydro air. Many of you killed me on that and I'm glad I reconsidered and stuck with the steam. Thanks again.