water spewing from main boiler(steam) vent,prssure up to 25!!??

mrichard

Hi All

Well Thursday night I had a no heat call at 10pm,contacted the customer's tenant and was informed they had heat,but it was intermitant.

I arrived Friday morning and was told by the tenant he had added water for what ever reason and now the boiler was flooded,long story short ,burnham residential boiler,steam traps everywhere,on recessed radiant radiators as well as returns,no vents at radiators just 1 main boiler vent which from the looks of it spewed quite abit of water(replaced)

Water was drained and flushed system,boiler fired when boiler was pretty much empty so good sign the low water cutoff was bad(replaced)noticed pressure up to 25psi!! ahhh!

Well i removed leaky pressure relief(replaced) and noticed pressure was stil up near 20 so figured it was faulty gauge as well(replaced it) removed pigtail and cleaned as well as most the piping near fresh water entry found 3/4 tee was nearly blocked closed(replaced)

Filed/Fired boiler and noticed short cycling,cut in set at .5 and differential set at 1,everything heating ok yet when boiler cycled on/off afew times water started to spit out of main boiler vent and was gurgling

One thing that i noticed was there was some funny looking piping at the bottom of the main boiler vent and was wondering if anyone can tell me why it was so oversized possibly a dam of some kind for condensation buildup?

Also wondering if the thermostat was wired half you know what and/or not level if that could be why its short cycling possibly?

Ive attached the pictures hopefully they come out,thanks for any and all responses!

will smith_4

You said the piping near the boiler main vent looked funny, but the pic you posted shows a trap. If that's what you're asking about, I think it might be a cooling leg. You can use a thermostatic trap as a drip trap if you have at least 5 ft of uninsulated pipe before it to cool the condensate before it gets to the trap.

Steamhead (in transit)

That's a Vapor system

which was designed to run on 8 ounces or so- maximum. And that's on the coldest day of the year.

I'm assuming the vent you mentioned is on the dry (overhead) return line. If the pressure is too high, water will back up into that vent.

The trap in the pic acts as a vent for the steam main. It routes air from the steam main into the dry return, then closes when steam reaches it.

Start by replacing the Pressuretrol with a Vaporstat (Honeywell L408J1009) set to stop the burner at 8 ounces. Also install a brass pigtail if you don't already have one. Consider also adding a 0-30 ounce gauge- the original 0-30 pound gauge must remain to satisfy Code.

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mrichard

thank guys..

so the thermostat doesnt have anything to do with the issues accuring? and the vaporstat is th way to go other than a pressuretrol ?

thanks again!

Steamhead (in transit)

Right

the thermostat only turns the system on. The safety controls make it run safely.

Get the Vaporstat. It's not cheap, but is the right part for the job.

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