water on floor

New Hampshire Walt

Auto feed was an issue last winter, it since has been repaired and the sight glass shows the water were it should be. It all seemed to happen after the first startup flush. I turned off the leakers last winter and haven't been able to get to them this season. It may need new nipples?
The upstairs leaker might be my falt. I didn't realy crank down on the connection after removing it to redo the floor in the room that it is in. Now I might have to replace part of the flooring, not to mention the ceiling below. But it seems that it leaked an excessive amount of water.

I tightened the joint this evening and applied liguid teflon to the threads. I've been searching some past threads and now see that you don't put teflon on the connecting threads?

New Hampshire Walt

water on floor

From the begining.
Installed a new steam boiler last fall in our large Victorian home. Prior to the installantion all radiators worked fine, with a tweek here and there.
Since the new boiler was installed we now have 3 leaking radiators. I mean lots of water (buckets) running out the bottoms of the radiators. This happened on the first floor which has a two pipe system. I turned on the heat last night and now have another upstairs radiator dripping water in buckets. The upstairs system is a one pipe set up.
Were is all the water coming from; it can't all be condinsation?

Any replys and suggested fixes appricated.

martin

Buckets o water

Is the boiler flooding because of debris in a auto feeder or something.

Unknown

Did the leaks start

right after the new boiler was installed ? Were fittings on the header hammered off at some time during the install ? Sounds like a few unions might've come loose at the rad valves and need repacking and tightening . Did you take a real close look at where all the rads are leaking while they're steaming ? To redo the connection we clean the union with steel wool and apply a soft set thread sealant to the mating ends of the valve/union . Teflon on the threads of the union are not necessary .

New Hampshire Walt

When the boiler was first hooked up and run they stoked up the steam to test the system. (I was not at home at the time.) I was told everything worked. Could they have flushed the crud that was settled in the bottoms of the radiators out and now the returns are plugged?

The leakers down stairs are in the middle of the radiator along the bottom. The leaker up stairs was at the union that is now tight with teflon added. I hope thats all it was. A hard lesson learned by me. I still can't believe that much water comes from the steam condinsation.

One more question can you buy replacement washers for steam valves? And what material are they made from? When I removed the upstair radiator peices of washer were in the union. I reinstalled the radiator without the washer thinking it was going to be open anyway. I repacked the leaking valve stem nut with graphite packing so now they are tight.