hot water zone making too much steam

john kilborn

Three years ago, my contractor added a hot water zone for a two storey addition. The zone was running cold, until my plumber cleaned out the lines this year. Now water zone is runnign well, but the problem is that when the hot water zone goes on it makes lots of steam, overheating the older portion of the house heated by steam. I turned down the aquastat to 150 to make sure that it was not the aquastat. The problem continues. (I also put a kitchen thermometer on the water supply line, and the water did not seem to be too hot.) Also, when my hot water thermostat goes out it cuts off the current to my steam termostat, which is digital. I turned down the water zone thermostat, and then the steam seemed to be working fine. Any thoughts? Could it be a bad relay switch so that the boiler is not getting a signal to stop making steam after the water zone reaches the proper temperature? Is the excess steam problem related to the steam thermostat loosing current when the hot water thermostat goes on? Could there be an electrical problem? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

JACQ

John, the best solution to your problem is to have a pro look at it,anyhow let us see what can be done.Remember that to produce steam water is usually heated to 212 degrees,while most hot water zone are set to about 180 degrees.If the hot water zone area is not warm enough,then the boiler is going to run alonger time until it begins to steam.

bill_97

Where is

the aquastat in the boiler ? It could be that the aquastat is not sensing the boiler water temp . It sounds like you have a wiring problem also . Can you take some digital pics and post them here ?

Unknown

where is

The aquastat is located on the hot water supply line leading from my boiler. The aquastat is above the water line, about chest level. The aquastat is after the circulating pump. There is about three or four feet of pipe before the aquastat. Should the acquastat acutally be in the boiler so it is sensing the proper water temp? There is a bypass line from the water return to the supply. If needs be I could do digital pics.

Thanks, John

My email is john1893@comcast.net. I gave the wall my wrong email.

heatguy

yup

john you got it the aquastat is in wrong location should be right below water line in boiler block.that being said a lot of times you dont have tapping on boiler for this,you can try to set aquastat lower in exsisting location have it cut off before you make steam.must have aquastat before bypass where it will see hottest water

john kilborn

yup

Thanks for the tip. I turned the aquastat way down and that helped. Maybe next winter I'll see about moving the aquastat.

John